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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 21, 2026
If you were injured in Calabasas because someone else was careless, California law lets you recover your medical bills, your lost income, and the toll the injury has taken on your life, and it puts a deadline on every one of those claims. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a South Bay trial firm that represents injured people and families in Calabasas and across Los Angeles County. The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict; every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Calabasas is a small city with one freeway through it and canyon roads on every other side, and that geography decides who investigates a crash and where a claim goes. The Ventura Freeway, US-101, is the only state highway in the city: Topanga Canyon Boulevard, State Route 27, stops short of the city line. A crash on the 101 or on its ramps is a Highway Patrol report, and Caltrans is the public entity if the road itself was part of the problem. A crash on Las Virgenes Road, Parkway Calabasas, Calabasas Road, Mulholland Highway inside the city or any other City street is a Sheriff’s report, because Calabasas contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for its policing, and the City of Calabasas is the public entity for that street, its signals and its sidewalks. West of the city, Mulholland Highway runs through unincorporated county land, and Los Angeles County is the entity there. The state crash database shows how evenly the city splits: crashes on the 101 were 109 of the 235 reported in Calabasas in 2024, 46 percent, and 99 of 247 in 2025, 40 percent. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash.
The city’s streets have a pattern of their own. According to the City’s 2022 Local Road Safety Plan, which studied the 797 crashes reported on Calabasas streets from 2015 through 2020, three streets, Parkway Calabasas, Las Virgenes Road and Calabasas Road, accounted for more than half of them. The same plan found that Calabasas crashes are far more likely than the county’s to be a car hitting a fixed object, 14.2 percent against 6.67 percent countywide, or a sideswipe, 20.1 percent against 11.89 percent, which is what curving canyon roads produce. Unsafe speed was the leading cause, the primary factor in 20.45 percent of all crashes and in a third of the ones that killed or seriously injured someone, and about two-thirds of the at-fault drivers were between 15 and 24 years old. The plan recorded no deaths at all in those six years. The years since have been different. By the state database, six people died in five Calabasas crashes in 2023, five of them on Las Virgenes Road, and three of those were separate fatal crashes at Las Virgenes Road and Lost Hills Road. In 2025 the single busiest crash location in the city was the 101 interchange at Parkway Calabasas, with 32 crashes, after 31 in 2023. Hit-and-run is part of the picture too: 48 of the crashes reported in Calabasas in 2025, 19 percent, were hit-and-runs, up from 39 the year before, and under Vehicle Code § 20001 a driver who leaves an injury crash commits a crime, which changes both the police investigation and the insurance picture. Pedestrians have the right of way in a marked or unmarked crosswalk under Vehicle Code § 21950, and the driver must slow and use due care either way. The City has taken notice: in 2024 it won $1,341,960 in federal Safe Streets and Roads for All funding for a Calabasas Vision Zero plan.
Injuries that do not start with a vehicle follow their own paths. A fall on a broken City sidewalk or in a City park is a claim against the City of Calabasas, with the six-month claim rule below; a fall, a fire or an assault in a hotel, a restaurant, a store, an apartment building or a parking structure is a claim against the owner or operator; a death at the hands of a sheriff’s deputy is a state wrongful death claim and a federal civil rights claim together. Each of those is covered on its own page below.
Most California injury claims must be filed within two years. Our plain-English guide to CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, covers the rule and its narrow exceptions. Courts rarely excuse a missed deadline.
Government cases move much faster. If a public entity may share responsibility, a written claim must be presented to that entity within six months, before any lawsuit can be filed, under Government Code § 911.2. In Calabasas that means Caltrans for the 101 and its ramps, the City of Calabasas for a City street, a signal, a sidewalk or a City vehicle, and Los Angeles County for a county road outside the city line or for a sheriff’s deputy. Once an entity rejects the claim, Government Code § 945.6 gives six months from the rejection notice to file suit. Our guide to the California government claim deadline walks through the sequence, and we identify the correct entity and file on time.
Where the case is heard. The Los Angeles Superior Court’s own filing locator assigns a Calabasas injury lawsuit by where the injury happened: north of Mulholland Highway it goes to the Van Nuys Courthouse East; south of Mulholland Highway it goes to the Santa Monica Courthouse or the Beverly Hills Courthouse. We confirm the courthouse at the first meeting.
California requires drivers to carry only minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage (Vehicle Code § 16451, for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025). A serious injury passes that limit before the first week in the hospital ends, so an injury case is in part a search for coverage: the at-fault driver’s policy, an employer’s commercial policy if the driver was working, a rideshare company’s policy if the driver was on the app, a rental company’s coverage if the car was a rental, the vehicle owner’s policy if the car was borrowed, and your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which follows you as a person and pays when the other driver has too little insurance or none at all. Calabasas adds two wrinkles. Nearly half its crashes are on a freeway carrying traffic from all over Southern California, so the other driver is often from far away and insured at the state minimum, and when nearly one crash in five is a hit-and-run, the driver is often never identified at all. In a hit-and-run, your own uninsured motorist coverage is usually the policy that pays, on strict reporting conditions that your lawyer should handle from the first week.
Car accidents. The 101 at Parkway Calabasas and Las Virgenes Road, the canyon stretches of Las Virgenes and Mulholland, and the Calabasas Road corridor are where the city’s crashes concentrate, and the evidence that proves fault, the dash camera, the Sheriff’s or CHP report, the black-box data and the witnesses, disappears in the first weeks. Our car accident page covers how those cases are built and how the coverage layers stack.
Motorcycle accidents. The canyon roads around Calabasas are a riding destination, and they are hard on riders. On the nearby Mulholland Highway corridor, a county road west of the city, motorcyclists were 74 percent of the people killed or seriously injured over a decade of Los Angeles County records, and the City’s own road safety plan noted that Calabasas ranked seventh worst of 103 cities its size for motorcyclists killed or injured in 2019. Lane splitting is not a violation in California and a missing helmet does not end a claim. Our motorcycle accident page covers the assumptions riders have to beat.
Pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Drivers owe a duty of care to every pedestrian, in a crosswalk or out of one, and a cyclist has the same rights on the road as a driver, on Las Virgenes Road as much as on the Commons. Our pedestrian accident page explains the right-of-way rules insurers argue about and where the money comes from when the driver’s policy is small.
Truck accidents. The 101 carries commercial trucks through Calabasas every hour of the day, and a crash with a truck or a delivery van is decided by the carrier’s records and by who else stands behind the driver. Our truck accident page explains the rulebook.
Brain injuries. A brain injury hides from scans and from adjusters while its costs compound for years. Our brain injury page covers how those cases are proven and why they must be built for the future.
Premises liability. A fall, a fire or an assault on someone else’s property turns on what the owner knew and what it did about it. Our premises liability page covers notice, negligent security, and the six-month rule for public sidewalks and parks.
Wrongful death. When an injury is fatal, California law gives specified family members a wrongful death claim and gives the estate a separate survival claim, each with its own deadline. Our wrongful death page explains who can file and what the claim covers.
Police misconduct. An injury or a death at the hands of an officer is a civil rights case with its own rules, deadlines and defendants. Calabasas is policed by the Sheriff’s Department, so the claim runs against Los Angeles County. Our civil rights page covers claims against a city for its police department and against the County for the Sheriff’s Department.
Economic damages are the losses with a receipt: medical bills, future care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity. Non-economic damages are the losses without one: pain, disability, disfigurement, and the loss of the life you had. Where the conduct that caused the injury was malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent, such as a drunk driver, Civil Code § 3294 allows punitive damages on clear and convincing proof; they are never guaranteed, and we evaluate them case by case. Partial fault does not bar your claim. California follows a pure comparative negligence rule: your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, never eliminated by it. Insurers exaggerate your share for exactly that reason, and we push back with evidence.
Our office is on Del Amo Boulevard in Torrance, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. We prepare every case for trial from the first meeting, because insurers price a claim differently when the lawyer across the table will finish the fight in front of a jury.
The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Separately, its trial results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict in a roadway-danger case against a public entity and a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, each a real jury verdict in a specific case; outcomes always depend on the facts. See our case results.
We work on a contingency fee: nothing upfront, no hourly bills, and a fee only out of the recovery, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.
Injured and unable to travel? We meet clients at the hospital, at home, or wherever recovery requires, and an initial consultation can be held by Zoom video. Call 310-750-4149 any time, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
Start with trial experience, because insurers settle fairly only with lawyers they expect to see in a courtroom. David Gammill has tried over 100 cases to verdict, first as a prosecutor during seven years as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and then as a trial lawyer for injured people. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Then ask two practical questions. Has this lawyer taken a case like mine to a jury, or only settled one? And who will actually handle my file day to day? The answers tell you more than any advertisement.
Two years from the injury for most claims, under CCP § 335.1. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is due to that entity within six months under Gov. Code § 911.2: Caltrans for the 101, the City of Calabasas for a City street, sidewalk, signal or vehicle, and Los Angeles County for a county road or a sheriff’s deputy. Courts rarely excuse a missed deadline.
Inside the city limits, no. Las Virgenes Road is a City street, so a claim about the road itself, a signal, a sight line or a missing barrier goes to the City of Calabasas within six months, not to Caltrans, and the Sheriff’s Lost Hills station, not the Highway Patrol, will have written the report. The one exception is the 101 interchange: the ramps and the freeway are Caltrans, and the CHP handles those crashes. Las Virgenes Road is where five of the city’s six traffic deaths in 2023 happened, and that is part of the record we gather; it does not decide who is responsible for your crash. The other driver still had to drive at a safe speed for the road and yield where the law required it, and you keep a duty of care too, so the report and any camera footage decide fault. If the driver fled, your own auto policy’s uninsured motorist coverage may pay, and a prompt police report is usually a condition of that claim.
It depends on which side of Mulholland Highway the injury happened. The Los Angeles Superior Court’s own filing locator sends a Calabasas injury lawsuit north of Mulholland Highway to the Van Nuys Courthouse East, and one south of Mulholland Highway to the Santa Monica Courthouse or the Beverly Hills Courthouse. We confirm the courthouse at the first meeting.
Nothing upfront and nothing out of pocket. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery, collected only if we win, and the consultation is free. The written contingency fee agreement linked above sets out the arrangement in detail.
Our office is in Torrance, and we represent injured people in Calabasas, from the Calabasas Highlands and Mulholland Heights to Calabasas Park, Old Topanga and the Las Virgenes corridor, across the Conejo Valley and the west San Fernando Valley, from Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills and Westlake Village to Woodland Hills and Topanga, throughout the City of Los Angeles, and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. See every South Bay city we serve, or the other California communities we serve.
Your free case review includes a real evaluation with an experienced attorney, a clear explanation of your options, and an honest assessment of what your claim is worth. No obligation, and everything you share is confidential.
Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149 now. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win.
This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice for any specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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Left with few options
Stuck with bills you can’t pay
Anxious to put your injury behind you
Serving the South Bay and all of California.
My name is David Gammill. I am a California trial lawyer and the founder of Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. Our firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients. Our results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict. I learned to try cases in front of juries early in my career as a Deputy District Attorney, and trying cases remains the backbone of my practice.
