Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer in Sherman Oaks, CA

If a drunk driver hit you on Ventura Boulevard, on Van Nuys Boulevard, or on the US-101 or I-405 near Sherman Oaks, you have two fights at once. The state may charge the driver with a crime. Separately, you have a civil claim for your medical bills, lost income and pain, and that claim is yours, not the prosecutor's. Many people searching for a Sherman Oaks drunk driving lawyer think they must wait for the criminal case to end. You do not have to. Moe Abdallah Law, P.C. handles motor-vehicle injury cases only, and Moe works each one himself. Your first call is free, any hour, and you pay nothing unless we win. Below, you will see what to do in the first hours, how the DUI case and your claim fit together, when punitive damages apply, and who else may be responsible.

The first hours after a suspected DUI crash

Call 911 and stay at the scene. Tell the officer you think the other driver was drinking or on drugs. Say what you saw: slurred speech, the smell of alcohol, an open container, swerving before impact. In Sherman Oaks, LAPD's Van Nuys Community Police Station at 6240 Sylmar Ave. serves the area, and Valley Traffic Division handles traffic investigations, so a DUI crash report comes from that side of the department. The station page links to a request for a traffic collision report. Ask for the officer's name and report number before you leave. Get medical care that night, even if you walk away, because some injuries show up hours or days later. Photograph the cars, the road and the other driver if you can do so safely. Get witness names. Then call us. Bar receipts, tow records and nearby camera video are easy to lose, so we start asking for them right away.

Your civil claim and the criminal DUI case are separate

Driving under the influence is a crime under Vehicle Code section 23152. Causing bodily injury while driving under the influence is a separate crime under section 23153. Those cases belong to the prosecutor. Your civil claim is a different case with a different goal: paying for what the crash did to you. You do not need a conviction to win it. A felony conviction can be offered as proof in the civil case under Evidence Code section 1300, and that helps. A misdemeanor conviction gets no such treatment, and a no contest plea to a misdemeanor cannot be used as an admission in a civil suit under Penal Code section 1016. Either way, you can still prove negligence with the police report, witnesses, blood or breath test results and the driver's own words. The time limit for your civil case is generally two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If the driver is convicted of a felony, section 340.3 may give you a later deadline. Do not count on it.

Punitive damages against a drunk driver

Most injury claims pay for your losses. A DUI case can also support punitive damages, which punish the driver and deter others. California allows them when you prove malice, oppression or fraud by clear and convincing evidence under Civil Code section 3294, and malice includes despicable conduct carried on with willful and conscious disregard of the safety of others. In Taylor v. Superior Court (1979) 24 Cal.3d 890, the California Supreme Court held that a drunk driver's conscious disregard of safety can support a punitive damages claim. They are not automatic. Each case turns on its facts, such as how drunk the driver was, whether they had prior DUIs, and what they did before getting behind the wheel. There is a practical catch too. A driver with little insurance and few assets may not be able to pay a punitive award, and some policies do not cover one. We check that early, so we never promise you more than the facts support. If LAPD Valley Traffic Division took a blood or breath test after a Sherman Oaks crash, that result goes into the report we order from the Van Nuys station, and it is often the first proof of how impaired the driver was.

Insurance limits and when a bar or host can be responsible

A drunk driver who caused your injuries may carry only the state minimum, which is $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage on policies issued or renewed since January 1, 2025. A serious injury can pass that fast. So we check your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and we look for anyone else who shares the blame. In one past injury case, the at-fault insurer first offered $900. Moe recovered $75,000 in total after that insurer tendered its limits and he pursued the underinsured motorist claim. Past results do not predict a similar outcome. California's dram-shop rule is narrow. Under Civil Code section 1714 and Business and Professions Code section 25602, bars, stores and social hosts are generally not liable for harm caused by an adult they served. The main exceptions involve serving an obviously intoxicated minor, or knowingly furnishing alcohol at home to someone under 21. If the driver was working, the employer can come into the picture, and punitive damages against an employer need proof that it knew of the unfitness and acted with conscious disregard (Civil Code section 3294(b)).

Late-night streets in Sherman Oaks and the hit-and-run problem

We found no public data that ranks any Sherman Oaks street for DUI crashes, so we will not invent a hotspot. We can tell you how the neighborhood works after dark. Ventura Boulevard, Van Nuys Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, Magnolia Boulevard and Burbank Boulevard carry traffic to and from the US-101 and the I-405. LAPD Valley Traffic Division investigated a fatal pedestrian hit-and-run on Van Nuys Boulevard just south of Huston Street around 12:05 a.m. on October 19, 2025, according to KTLA. That report does not say the driver was impaired, and we mention it only as a late-night crash where the driver left. If that happened to you, your uninsured motorist coverage may still pay, and we start looking for the driver through camera footage, witnesses and vehicle parts left on the road. Do not wait for the police to solve it.

Treatment, wrongful death and how Moe handles the case

Drunk-driving impacts hit fast and hard: head and spine injuries, broken bones, internal bleeding and burns. Sherman Oaks Hospital, at 4929 Van Nuys Blvd., has an emergency department, though we did not find a trauma designation for it. Encino Hospital Medical Center on Ventura Boulevard provides 24-hour emergency care. Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills is a Level II trauma center for the most serious cases. If your loved one died in a crash with an impaired driver, a wrongful death claim has its own rules about who may file, and Moe will walk your family through them in plain words. If a lawsuit is needed, Van Nuys Courthouse East, 6230 Sylmar Ave., has a civil unlimited clerk's office, and we confirm the right venue with the court's Filing Court Locator first. Moe takes the call himself, keeps you updated by call and text, and handles the insurers for you. We work on contingency, so you pay no fee unless we win. Se habla Español.

Talk to a Sherman Oaks drunk driving 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 drunk-driving crashes representation →

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