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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: September 24, 2026
If you were hurt by someone else’s negligence in El Segundo, California law lets you recover your medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering, and it puts a deadline on doing it. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a South Bay trial firm that represents injured people and families in El Segundo and across the South Bay. 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.
El Segundo is a small city boxed in on every side: Los Angeles International Airport to the north, the ocean at Dockweiler State Beach and El Segundo Beach to the west, and the refinery and the aerospace campuses to the south and east. Sepulveda Boulevard is State Route 1 through the city and its north-south spine. El Segundo Boulevard, Rosecrans Avenue, and Imperial Highway run east-west, the 105 ends near Sepulveda to the north, and the 405 lies to the east. El Segundo Boulevard runs east far beyond the city line through unincorporated county territory and other cities, and the safety studies published for that corridor describe those areas, not the City of El Segundo. Caltrans’ 2024 traffic census counted about 67,000 vehicles a day on Sepulveda Boulevard at Rosecrans Avenue and about 62,000 at El Segundo Boulevard; the Rosecrans count was up about 6,000 a day from 2023. The reason a city of about 17,000 residents carries that much through traffic is what surrounds it: the airport immediately to the north, the refinery and the aerospace campuses on the industrial land that covers more than half of the city, with residential streets on less than a fifth, and the beach, which draws weekend traffic down Grand Avenue and along Vista del Mar. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash.
The state’s numbers show a trough and then a sharp rise. According to the Office of Traffic Safety’s crash rankings for El Segundo, 61 people were killed or injured in the city’s crashes in 2019, 63 in 2021, 111 in 2022, and 120 in 2023; the state did not publish a 2020 ranking for the city, and the 2018 count, 142, was higher still. The 2023 total placed El Segundo 12th of 103 cities its size, and the 2022 total placed it 46th of 104. The signature is pedestrians. Across 2018 through 2022 the South Bay Bicycle Coalition Plus counted 38 pedestrian-involved collisions in El Segundo, a rate of 4.5 per 10,000 residents, the second-highest pedestrian collision rate among the eleven South Bay cities it studied; the raw counts are small for a city this size, and the per-capita rate is what stands out. In the state’s 2022 rankings El Segundo’s 23 pedestrian victims placed it second of 104 cities its size; in 2023 the count was 9, twelfth of 103. California law gives a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk the right of way under Vehicle Code § 21950, the rule that decides most crosswalk cases. The rest of the 2023 picture: 21 speed-related injury crashes (10th of 103), 9 hit-and-run injury crashes (12th of 103), and 3 bicyclists under 15 hurt or killed (5th of 103), a 2023 picture, not the present, and not about any one place. A driver who leaves the scene of an injury crash commits a crime under Vehicle Code § 20001. The same South Bay Bicycle Coalition Plus study counted 19 bicycle collisions in El Segundo over 2018 through 2022, a rate of 2.2 per 10,000 residents, fifth of the eleven cities.
El Segundo runs its own police force, and the crash report on city streets is written by the El Segundo Police Department, 348 Main Street. The South Bay’s only Level I trauma center is Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, 1000 West Carson Street in West Carson, operated by Los Angeles County. El Segundo has no hospital emergency room inside the city; the nearest emergency rooms are in Torrance and Inglewood, and the urgent care clinics in town are not emergency rooms.
Most California injury claims must be filed within two years. Under CCP § 335.1, the clock starts the day of the injury, and courts rarely excuse a missed deadline. Our plain-English guide to CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, covers the rule and its narrow exceptions.
Government cases move much faster. If a city vehicle, a malfunctioning signal, or a dangerous stretch of road played a role, Government Code § 911.2 requires a written claim to the right public entity within six months, before any lawsuit. In El Segundo that entity is usually the City of El Segundo for city streets and signals or for a City or police vehicle; a crash on Sepulveda Boulevard can point at Caltrans instead, because Sepulveda through El Segundo is State Route 1 and part of the state highway system; the County of Los Angeles comes into it only where a county-run facility or county road is involved. 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. Most El Segundo injury lawsuits are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Southwest District, at either the Torrance Courthouse or the Inglewood Courthouse; since 2022 the court has kept new personal injury cases in their local district courts from filing through trial. El Segundo has no courthouse of its own.
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 single emergency room visit can exceed the per-person minimum. The real work in an El Segundo injury case is finding every source of coverage that legally applies: the at-fault driver’s policy, an employer’s policy if that driver was working, a rideshare company’s policy if the trip was on the app, and your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. That last policy matters here. A city of 17,000 residents with 67,000 vehicles a day on its state highway is crashed into mostly by people who do not live there. When the other driver flees or carries only the minimum, the victim’s own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is often the policy that pays, and it has strict notice conditions, so get advice early.
Car Accidents. Rear-end, intersection, and left-turn collisions on Sepulveda Boulevard, Rosecrans Avenue, Imperial Highway, and the city’s other arterials, where we identify every applicable policy and prove fault with the police report, the physical evidence, and any video before it is overwritten.
Wrongful Death. When a crash or other negligence takes a life, California law lets the closest family members bring a claim for their loss, and it has its own rules and deadlines.
Truck Accidents. The City confines heavier commercial trucks to designated routes, Sepulveda is a state truck route, and a crash with a commercial truck brings federal safety rules, driver logs, and maintenance records into the case while the carrier’s insurer moves quickly to protect itself.
Dog Bites. A dog owner is strictly liable for a bite in a public place under California’s dog bite law, Civil Code § 3342, regardless of the dog’s history.
For other case types we handle across the South Bay, see our Torrance pages on pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, slip and fall, rideshare, catastrophic injury, and brain injury cases.
California law allows injured people to recover economic damages, meaning documented losses like emergency care, surgery, therapy, medications, future treatment, lost income, and vehicle repair or replacement, and non-economic damages, meaning the human losses: pain, anxiety, lost sleep, and the activities an injury takes away. Where a drunk or grossly reckless driver caused the harm, punitive damages may be available on clear and convincing proof under Civil Code § 3294; they are never guaranteed, but they change how an insurer values the case. When a crash or other negligence takes a life, the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim with its own rules, and our El Segundo wrongful death page explains them.
Our office is in Torrance, on Del Amo Boulevard at Hawthorne Boulevard, a few miles south down Sepulveda, 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.
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 we can meet by phone or Zoom. Call 310-750-4149 any time, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
Start with trial experience, because the value an insurer puts on your claim depends on whether your lawyer is ready to try the case. David Gammill has tried over 100 cases to verdict. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Before that, he spent seven years as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, so he knows how the other side prepares. Two practical questions cut through the rest: will the lawyer who signs you up be the one who handles your case, and can the firm point to real results in cases like yours? The firm’s record is set out above.
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 Government Code § 911.2, and the two-year rule does not save a missed claim. Both guides are linked above.
A driver must yield to a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk and use due care for any pedestrian in one under Vehicle Code § 21950, and a pedestrian keeps a duty of care too, so the El Segundo Police Department report and any camera footage decide fault. Main Street at Pine Avenue was one of the small-count hotspots in the South Bay Bicycle Coalition Plus study, two pedestrian collisions over 2018 through 2022 within 150 feet of the intersection, which says something about the study’s method and nothing about any business there. 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.
In the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Southwest District, at either the Torrance Courthouse or the Inglewood Courthouse, the two courthouses that hear cases arising in El Segundo. The case stays in that district from start to finish, and we confirm the courthouse at the first meeting.
Nothing upfront and nothing unless we win. We work on a contingency fee, paid only out of the recovery. Our page on what a personal injury lawyer costs explains the arrangement in detail.
Gammill Law represents people injured in El Segundo and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. See every South Bay city 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.
