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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 21, 2026
If you were injured in Alhambra 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 Alhambra 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.
Alhambra is a city of its own in the western San Gabriel Valley, with its own police department and two freeways inside its borders, and that geography decides who investigates a crash and where a claim goes. The San Bernardino Freeway, I-10, runs the width of the city, and the short northern stretch of the Long Beach Freeway, I-710, sits inside it too: a crash on either freeway, or on their ramps, is a Highway Patrol report, and Caltrans is the public entity if the road itself was part of the problem. Valley Boulevard, Main Street, Fremont Avenue, Garfield Avenue, Atlantic Boulevard, Mission Road and every other street in the city are City streets: the Alhambra Police Department writes the report, and the City of Alhambra is the public entity for the street, its signals and its sidewalks. The state crash database, which counts every crash any agency reports inside the city, shows how much of the picture is freeway: of the 1,853 crashes reported in Alhambra in 2024 and 2025, the 10 alone accounted for 704, 38 percent, and the Highway Patrol handled 41 percent of all crashes and 43 percent of all injuries. That does not make the freeway responsible for any crash. It does decide which agency holds your report.
The City’s own numbers describe the streets. According to the City of Alhambra’s Local Roadway Safety Plan, adopted in March 2023 and covering 2017 through 2021, there were 3,820 collisions on City streets in those five years, including 10 that killed someone and 55 that caused a serious injury. About 93 percent happened at an intersection or within 250 feet of one. The signalized intersections with the most collisions were Fremont Avenue at Valley Boulevard, 68, Fremont at Mission Road, 65, Garfield Avenue at Mission, 54, and Chapel Avenue at Mission, 46; among intersections without a signal, Garfield at Glendon Way had the most, 55. The leading causes were right-of-way violations, 26 percent, improper turning, 23 percent, and unsafe speed, 16 percent, and broadside crashes were 37 percent of the total. The City’s plan compared Alhambra with the state and found a larger share of its fatal and severe crashes involved aggressive driving, 43 percent against 33 percent statewide, an intersection, 33 percent against 24 percent, and a motorcyclist, 32 percent against 21 percent. The state database shows those same places are still the hot spots: in 2024 and 2025, Valley Boulevard had the most crashes of any Alhambra street, 141, followed by Fremont Avenue, 97, Main Street, 92, Atlantic Boulevard, 84, and Garfield Avenue, 80, and Fremont at Mission was again the busiest intersection. Unsafe speed was the top cause in those two years, 28 percent, and rear-end crashes the most common type. Crashes after dark were 30 percent of the total but three of the six deaths. Hit-and-run is part of the picture too: 416 of the crashes reported in Alhambra in 2024 and 2025, 22 percent, were hit-and-runs, and 41 of them were felony hit-and-runs in which someone was hurt or killed; under Vehicle Code § 20001 a driver who leaves an injury crash commits a crime, which changes both the police investigation and the insurance picture.
The people most at risk are not in cars. The City’s plan found that pedestrians were involved in 44 percent of Alhambra’s fatal and severe-injury crashes, more than double the statewide share of 19 percent, and in five of the ten fatal collisions on City streets. The state’s Office of Traffic Safety ranked Alhambra second worst of 105 cities its size for pedestrians 65 and older killed or injured in 2021, in a year the city ranked 69th overall. By the state database, every one of the six people killed in Alhambra crashes in 2024 and 2025 was a pedestrian. 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: Caltrans funded $876,000 in federal safety money for pedestrian countdown signals at Alhambra’s signalized intersections, and the City completed a new citywide speed survey in 2024, its first since 2013.
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 Alhambra, with the six-month claim rule below; a fall, a fire or an assault in a restaurant, a store, an apartment building, a shopping center or a parking structure is a claim against the owner or operator; a death at the hands of a police officer 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 Alhambra that means Caltrans for the 10 and the 710 and their ramps, and the City of Alhambra for a City street, a signal, a sidewalk, a City vehicle or an Alhambra police officer. 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 an Alhambra injury lawsuit to one of four courthouses, the Alhambra Courthouse in Alhambra itself, the Pasadena Courthouse, the Glendale Courthouse or the Burbank Courthouse; the court assigns the courthouse by where the injury happened, and we confirm it at the first meeting. We know those courtrooms: the firm’s $21.1 million wrongful death verdict was tried to a jury at the Burbank Courthouse in July 2021.
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. Alhambra adds two wrinkles. The 10 carries traffic from all over Southern California through the city, so the other driver is often from far away and insured at the state minimum; and when more than 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. Fremont and Valley, Fremont and Mission, Garfield and Mission, and the 10 through the middle of the city are where Alhambra’s crashes concentrate, and the evidence that proves fault disappears in the first weeks. Our car accident page covers how those cases are built and how the coverage layers stack.
Motorcycle accidents. A rider has every right a driver has on the 10 or on Valley Boulevard, and the law does not turn a missing helmet or a lane split into fault. The City’s own plan found motorcyclists in a third of Alhambra’s fatal and severe crashes. Our motorcycle accident page covers the assumptions riders have to beat.
Pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Alhambra’s own numbers make pedestrians, and especially older pedestrians, the people most likely to be killed or seriously hurt on its streets. 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. 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 10 and the 710 carry commercial trucks through Alhambra every hour of the day. 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. Alhambra runs its own police department, so the claim runs against the City of Alhambra. Our civil rights page covers claims against a city for its police 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 against the State of California over a highway crash cushion, tried to a jury at the Burbank Courthouse after a $10,000 pre-trial offer, 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, and who will handle my file day to day?
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 10 or the 710, and the City of Alhambra for a City street, sidewalk, signal, vehicle or police officer. Courts rarely excuse a missed deadline.
Fremont Avenue and Valley Boulevard are both City streets, so the Alhambra Police Department writes the report, and a claim about the road itself, a signal, a sight line or a crosswalk goes to the City of Alhambra within six months. That intersection had more collisions than any other signalized intersection in the city in the City’s own five-year study, and that history is part of the record we gather; it does not decide who is responsible for your crash. 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. A crash on the 10 or its ramps is different: the Highway Patrol handles it, and Caltrans is the entity for the road.
In the Los Angeles Superior Court, at one of the four courthouses its filing locator assigns to Alhambra: Alhambra, Pasadena, Glendale or Burbank. The court assigns the courthouse by where the injury happened, and we confirm it at the first meeting. The firm has tried a wrongful death case to verdict at the Burbank Courthouse.
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 Alhambra, from downtown Main Street and the Valley Boulevard corridor to the neighborhoods north of the 10 and south of it, across the western San Gabriel Valley cities around it, from Monterey Park, San Gabriel, San Marino and South Pasadena to Rosemead, El Monte and Pasadena, 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.
