Encino Wrongful Death Lawyer

When someone you love dies in a crash on Ventura Boulevard, Balboa Boulevard, the 101, or the 405, the paperwork starts before the grief has a chance to. An Encino wrongful death lawyer can lift the legal side off your plate while your family sorts out the funeral, the bills, and the question of who is responsible. Moe Abdallah Law, P.C. represents families after fatal car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle, rideshare, bus, and hit-and-run crashes. Attorney Moe Abdallah takes your calls himself and updates you by phone and text. You are never passed to a case manager. Encino sits inside the City of Los Angeles, and that changes who investigates the crash and how a claim against the city works. Some deadlines in a death case run as short as six months, and the evidence from the road and the vehicles fades fast. We can start preserving it right away, and the first conversation costs nothing. We work on contingency, so you owe no fee unless we recover money for your family. Call (323) 716-1992 any time, day or night. Se habla Español.

Who can file after a death in Encino, and what the claim covers

California decides who may bring a wrongful death claim, and the list is shorter than most families expect. Under Code of Civil Procedure 377.60, the surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the children, and the children of any child who has died come first. If there are no children or grandchildren, the people who would inherit under California's intestate rules, such as parents or siblings, can file. Some dependents can sue whether or not anyone ahead of them does. That group includes a putative spouse, stepchildren, and parents who relied on the person for support. It also includes a minor who lived in the household for the past 180 days and got at least half of their support from the person who died. A wrongful death claim covers what the family lost: the person's income and support, the care and guidance they gave, and their companionship. A second claim, called a survival action, belongs to the estate. It recovers what the person lost before they died, such as medical bills, lost wages, and in some cases punitive damages. For survival actions filed on or after January 1, 2026, pain and suffering is not recoverable, so we do not promise it. Say a parent in Encino died and their grown children live in different states. We still have to sort out who has standing and who signs. We settle that early, because filing with the wrong plaintiff can cost you months. The court divides any award among the eligible heirs.

Ventura, Balboa, and the ramps: how fatal crashes happen here

Encino traffic runs on a short list of roads. Ventura Boulevard is the main commercial street, lined with driveways, parking exits, and crosswalks. Balboa Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, White Oak Avenue, Louise Avenue, Hayvenhurst Avenue, and Densmore Avenue feed it from the north and south. The US-101 Ventura Freeway runs through the neighborhood, and the I-405 San Diego Freeway cuts along its eastern edge. Burbank Boulevard and Victory Boulevard are the other big east-west streets. We have no crash ranking for Encino, so we will not call any one road the worst. We do have a recent case that shows how fast an ordinary morning goes wrong. On Saturday, September 12, 2026, just after 11:15 a.m., a two-vehicle crash at Ventura Boulevard and Densmore Avenue killed a woman and injured six other people, according to FOX 11. LAPD was investigating. We mention it because it shows how a Saturday-morning trip on Ventura can turn fatal. It tells us nothing about fault. In a fatal case, the first question is always what actually happened. Was it a left turn across traffic, a red-light run, a driver on a phone, a drunk driver leaving a restaurant on Ventura, or a freeway crash at speed? Each one points to different evidence, from nearby business cameras to the other driver's phone records to the vehicle's event data recorder. We work out which one fits and who has to hold on to the proof.

The LAPD report, the coroner, and what to do in the first weeks

The LAPD handles crashes in Encino. The West Valley Community Police Station at 19020 Vanowen Street in Reseda covers Encino, and the Valley Traffic Division at 7870 Nollan Place in Panorama City works traffic collisions across the Valley. Most LAPD traffic collision reports can be requested online, and LAPD says to allow at least 45 days after the crash. Reports that involve a fatality are different: they must be requested by mail. Send LAPD's Traffic Collision Report Request form with a $19.00 check or money order payable to LAPD to the Document Processing Unit, P.O. Box 30158. LAPD also runs a recorded status line at (213) 486-8130. We can make the request for you. Do not wait for the report to start protecting evidence. In the first weeks, we send preservation letters so the other driver, a trucking company, or a Ventura Boulevard business with cameras does not overwrite video. We document the scene before skid marks and debris disappear. We find witnesses while they still remember. If a rideshare app or a work vehicle was involved, we ask for the trip record and the driver logs. You should keep copies of the death certificate, the medical bills, the funeral invoices, and any letters from insurers. If an adjuster calls, you do not have to give a recorded statement. Send them to us.

Two deadlines, and the shorter one catches families off guard

Most wrongful death claims against a driver or company have a two-year deadline under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1, and courts ordinarily count it from the date of death. Two years sounds like a lot of time. It is not when you are grieving and the insurer is in no hurry. A shorter clock starts if a public entity might share the blame. Because Encino is part of the City of Los Angeles, a claim over a dangerous road, a broken signal, or a city vehicle goes to the Los Angeles City Clerk. Under Government Code 911.2, you must present a written claim within six months after the claim accrues, which in a death case is usually the date of death. The City of Los Angeles accepts claims through its online portal, in person, or by mail to the City Clerk at 200 North Spring Street, Room 395. It does not accept faxes or emails. If the city rejects the claim in writing, Government Code 945.6 gives you six months from that notice to file suit. If you miss the first six months, you can apply to file a late claim. The application must come within a reasonable time and no later than one year after the death (Gov. Code 911.4), and courts do not have to grant it. Metro Line 150 runs along Ventura Boulevard, and a crash involving a Metro bus goes through Metro's own claims process, so its deadlines have to be checked separately. We name every possible government defendant on day one so no clock runs out unnoticed.

Fault arguments, insurance limits, and what a family can recover

Insurers do not wait for a funeral to finish before they start arguing. The most common move is to blame the person who died. California follows pure comparative negligence (Li v. Yellow Cab Co.), and the Supreme Court held in Horwich v. Superior Court that it applies to wrongful death heirs. If a jury finds your loved one 20 percent at fault, the award drops by 20 percent. It does not drop to zero. The policy limit is a second hurdle. California's minimum liability limits are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per crash for policies issued or renewed since 2025, and some drivers carry only that. If the driver who caused the death had little coverage, we look at your family's own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, any employer or company that owned the vehicle, and other responsible parties. Under Proposition 51, each defendant pays noneconomic damages only in proportion to its own share of fault, while economic losses such as lost earnings and burial costs remain joint. So the number of defendants matters. Past results do not predict a similar outcome, and every case is different. Moe has recovered policy-limit amounts for clients in serious crashes, including $30,000 policy limits on several cases and a $100,000 UM policy-limit recovery for a woman hit by a driver who fled. We tell you honestly what the coverage looks like before we say a word about value.

Encino Hospital, the courthouse, and how Moe runs a death case

Many Encino crash victims go first to a nearby emergency room. Encino Hospital Medical Center at 16237 Ventura Boulevard is a general acute care hospital, and the state's HCAI profile lists an emergency department there. Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center and Northridge Hospital Medical Center are also nearby, though we have not confirmed their trauma designations. In a fatal case, the hospital records show how long your loved one survived, what treatment they got, and what the bills were. Those records feed the survival claim. Where the case is filed matters too. The nearest courthouse is Van Nuys Courthouse East, but Local Rule 2.3 of the Los Angeles Superior Court, in the version posted on the court's site, sends unlimited civil injury and wrongful death cases to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111 North Hill Street downtown, or to the Antelope Valley courthouse in Lancaster. We confirm the venue with the court before we file. Our office is at 527 W 7th Street, Suite 924, in downtown Los Angeles, a short distance from Stanley Mosk. Here is how Moe runs your case. He reviews it for free, any hour. He sends evidence letters fast. He talks to the insurers so you do not have to. You pay nothing unless he wins, and he keeps you updated by phone and text, so you do not have to come downtown while you are grieving. Se habla Español.

Talk to a Encino wrongful death 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 wrongful death representation →

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