Westchester Car Accident Lawyer

You were driving near LAX, someone hit you, and now you are juggling pain, a car you may not be able to use, and calls from an adjuster. Westchester mixes airport traffic and neighborhood streets, with the I-405 and I-105 nearby and the SR-90 ending just to the north, so car crashes here raise their own questions about who is at fault and who pays. Moe Abdallah Law, P.C. helps people hurt in car crashes in Westchester and the blocks around it. Attorney Moe Abdallah, State Bar No. 348886, runs your case personally from his downtown Los Angeles office and keeps you updated by call and text. He has one clear limit. Moe takes cases only for people physically injured, or families of people killed, in motor vehicle crashes. If nobody was hurt and only the car was damaged, he cannot take the case. Below, you will see how Westchester car crashes happen, how the police report works, and what the law gives you.

Where a Westchester car crash usually starts

The streets that come up in Westchester car crash claims are the ones that feed LAX: Sepulveda Boulevard, Lincoln Boulevard, Manchester Avenue, Century Boulevard, La Tijera Boulevard, and Airport Boulevard. Westchester Parkway and La Cienega Boulevard carry traffic too. Drivers arrive from the I-405, the I-105, and the SR-90 Marina Freeway, which ends at Lincoln Boulevard just north of the neighborhood. We will not call any one street the most dangerous. No source we found ranks Westchester streets, and we will not invent a ranking. We can point to one documented incident. In March 2025, LAPD said an SUV it had been chasing for possible DUI ran the red light at Century and Sepulveda and hit a sedan. The sedan's driver had minor injuries. That is a single crash, but it shows the kind of fight your claim can become at a busy intersection. Because LAX is here, the car that hit you may be a rental, its driver may be visiting from out of state, or the driver may have been on a work shift. Each one changes who insures the car that hit you.

The first days after a Westchester collision

Start with your health. If you were hurt, get checked the same day. Paramedics may take you to a nearby emergency room, and you can follow up with your own doctor later. A gap between the crash and your first visit lets insurers say something else caused the injury. If you can, photograph every car, the traffic lights, skid marks, and your injuries. Get witnesses' names and phone numbers, because an independent witness can settle a fault argument later. Write down the other driver's plate, insurer, and policy number. Do not say you are fine, and do not apologize. Within 10 days, California Vehicle Code section 16000 requires a driver in a crash with any injury, a death, or more than $1,000 in property damage to file an SR-1 report with the DMV. You can file it yourself, through your insurer, or through an attorney. The duty applies even when the crash was not your fault. Then call your own insurer to report the claim, and keep it short and factual. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurance company. They use those statements to cut your claim, and you have no duty to give one.

Pacific Division reports, and what they can and cannot prove

LAPD's Pacific Community Police Station at 12312 Culver Blvd serves Westchester, and its phone is 310-482-6334. LAPD says you can get a copy of a traffic collision report by calling 213-486-8130 or mailing a request to its Records and Identification Division. Ask the officer for the report number before you leave the scene, because it speeds up the request. A report helps, but it is not the final word. The officer usually did not see the crash. The narrative often comes from the drivers' own words, and the fault box the officer checks is an opinion. Insurers lean on it, yet a judge or jury decides fault, and better proof can overturn a wrong report. Better proof can include traffic signal timing, nearby business cameras, dash cam footage, event data from the cars, 911 call times, and witness statements. Many cameras record over old footage, so early action matters. If the report blames you and you disagree, tell Moe right away. He can gather the evidence behind your version. If an injured passenger was in your car, that person can bring a claim against the at-fault driver too.

Fault, shared blame, and what the other insurer will say

California follows pure comparative negligence, set out in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. in 1975. You can recover even if you were partly at fault, and your award shrinks by your share of the blame. If a jury finds you 20 percent at fault on a $100,000 claim, you could still recover $80,000. That rule helps you, but adjusters turn it into a weapon. Expect the other insurer to say you braked late, changed lanes without looking, or were on your phone. On Westchester streets, a fault fight might be over a lane change near a freeway ramp, a left turn across Sepulveda or Lincoln, or a rear-end hit in airport traffic. The driver in back is usually blamed in a rear-end crash, but even those get contested when a car stops short without cause. Moe answers shared-fault arguments with facts. He matches the vehicle damage against each driver's story, reads your medical records for how you were hurt, and tracks down witnesses. In one case, another driver staged fake witnesses after a red-light T-bone, and Moe found the real ones. Results vary, and past results are no promise of a similar outcome. A lower fault share means a higher payment, so every percentage point you protect is worth real money.

Insurance limits, hit-and-runs, and low first offers

California's minimum liability limits are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for injuries, plus $15,000 for property damage, on policies issued or renewed since January 1, 2025. Serious injuries can blow past those limits fast. That is when your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage comes in. Insurers must offer UM and UIM coverage, and it stays on your policy unless you signed a written form to remove or lower it. Check your declarations page before you assume you have none. If the driver who hit you fled, UM coverage can still apply, but only if three conditions are met. Physical contact must have occurred, you must report the crash to police within 24 hours, and you must send your insurer a sworn statement within 30 days (Insurance Code section 11580.2). Even after a nighttime hit-and-run near LAX with no cameras and no witnesses, those steps are still yours to take. Insurers must also accept or deny a claim within 40 calendar days after receiving proof of it. Do not treat the first number as the real one. In one of Moe's cases, an insurer offered $900, and the client ended with $75,000 total through the at-fault limits and an underinsured claim. Past results are no promise of a similar outcome. Moe will not tell you to take any offer until your treatment picture is clear.

Deadlines, the court, and how Moe handles your case

For a crash caused by a private driver, you generally have two years to file a lawsuit (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1). Property damage has three years. If a city vehicle, an LAPD cruiser, or a Metro bus caused the crash, you usually must present a written claim within six months under Government Code section 911.2. For the City of Los Angeles, that claim goes to the Office of the City Clerk, 200 N. Spring St, Room 395, and email or fax is not accepted. If the claim is rejected in writing, you generally have six months to sue. LA Superior Court Local Rule 2.3 requires unlimited civil injury cases to be filed in the district where the crash happened. The West District has courthouses in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and near the airport, but no court page assigns Westchester to one. Moe checks the court's locator before filing. Here is how Moe works. You call, and he answers or calls you back himself. He sends preservation requests, collects the report and your medical records, and talks to the insurer so you do not have to. The review is free, you pay no fee unless he wins, and Se Habla Español. Call (323) 716-1992 any time.

Talk to a Westchester car accident lawyer

Call (323) 716-1992 for a free, no-obligation case review. You pay nothing unless we win, and we'll handle the insurance companies for you. Learn more about our car accidents representation →

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