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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: September 25, 2026
If you were hurt in a car crash in Lawndale that another driver caused, California law lets you recover your medical bills, lost income, vehicle damage, 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 people hurt in crashes in Lawndale 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.
Lawndale is a compact residential city of about two square miles, and most of its traffic moves on a handful of streets. Hawthorne Boulevard, which carries Route 107 through the middle of the city, is the commercial spine, lined with driveways, bus stops and signalized crossings. Redondo Beach Boulevard, Marine Avenue, Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Rosecrans Avenue and Artesia Boulevard cross it, and Inglewood Avenue and Prairie Avenue run the length of the city alongside it. The 405 cuts across the west side, and its Inglewood Avenue interchange is where freeway traffic meets the local grid. The City’s own traffic study counted 46,980 vehicles a day on Inglewood Avenue at the 405 interchange and 44,037 on Hawthorne Boulevard between 162nd and 166th Streets on a single day in March 2023, with 36,715 on Hawthorne Boulevard between Marine Avenue and Manhattan Beach Boulevard, 32,747 on Rosecrans Avenue, 25,223 on Prairie Avenue and 18,912 on Redondo Beach Boulevard counted the same day. The study grades several of those segments at its lowest levels of service. Posted speeds are 35 miles per hour on Hawthorne Boulevard and 40 on most of the cross streets. Just past the city’s southeastern edge, El Camino College and Alondra Park pull traffic through Lawndale’s streets every day, though both sit in El Camino Village, county territory outside the city line. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash.
The state’s numbers describe the same streets from a different angle. The Office of Traffic Safety counts the people killed or injured in Lawndale crashes each year: 99 in 2018, 103 in 2019, 118 in 2021, 96 in 2022 and 141 in 2023, a one-year jump of nearly half that the series does not repeat. On the 2023 total the state ranked Lawndale 22nd of 93 cities its size for victims and 55th of 93 on its composite score, which weighs several categories together, so the two ranks belong side by side. Speed reads well against those peers: in 2023 the state counted 8 speed-related injury crashes in Lawndale and ranked the city 76th of 93, better than most cities its size, and the basic speed law still binds every driver on Hawthorne Boulevard to a speed that is safe for the conditions, whatever the sign says. Hit-and-run is where the city runs closer to the front: 11 hit-and-run injury crashes in 2023, 26th of 93, down from 19 in 2021, 13th of 93. Nighttime crashes hurt 12 people in 2023, 23rd of 93. Pedestrians and bicyclists are the other place Lawndale stands out: 11 pedestrians were killed or injured in 2023, 32nd of 93, and 14 bicyclists, 16th of 93, and every driver owes a pedestrian in a crosswalk the right of way under Vehicle Code § 21950. The City’s own collision study of 2016 through 2020, which left the 405 out, found that roughly two out of three pedestrians hit in the city were crossing at an intersection inside a crosswalk. In that same study, broadside crashes were about a third of all collisions and right-of-way violations the most common primary factor, which is the pattern of a city built around signalized arterials and the left turns across them.
On a city street, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s South Los Angeles Station writes the crash report, because Lawndale contracts its police services to the Sheriff; on the 405 mainline the California Highway Patrol usually does, and which agency responded is something we confirm from the report in every case rather than assume. That report becomes the first document every insurer reads. In 2023 the state counted 3 alcohol-involved crash victims in Lawndale, 83rd of 93 cities its size, while DUI arrests in the city ranked 13th of 93 at 11; both figures are indicators, neither explains the other, and neither says anything about how the Sheriff’s deputies do their job.
Call 911 and get medical care, even if you feel fine at the scene; adrenaline hides injuries, and a gap in treatment becomes the insurer’s argument later. A deputy from the Sheriff’s South Los Angeles Station writes the report on a city street, and the Highway Patrol does on the freeway; either way, that report becomes the first document every insurer reads, so make sure it is written and get the report number. Photograph the vehicles, the road, the signals and your injuries. Get the other driver’s license, insurance card and plate, and the names and numbers of witnesses; much of the traffic on Hawthorne Boulevard and the 405 is passing through, and a driver who lives across the county is hard to find next month. Say nothing about fault, to the other driver or to anyone’s insurer, and do not give a recorded statement to the other side. Our step-by-step guide on what to do after a crash walks through each of these.
If the other driver left the scene, report it to the Sheriff’s deputies immediately and tell them everything you remember about the car. A driver involved in an injury crash must stop and stay under Vehicle Code § 20001, leaving is a crime, and a prompt police report is usually a condition of the victim’s own uninsured motorist claim, which is often the policy that pays when the driver is never found. And download our free guide, Crash Course: A California Car Accident Guide (2026), to keep every deadline and first step in one place.
Most California car accident lawsuits must be filed within two years of the crash. Under CCP § 335.1, the clock starts the day of the crash, 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, and the two-year rule does not save a missed claim. In Lawndale that entity is usually the City of Lawndale for city streets and signals. The 405 is a state freeway maintained by Caltrans, so a crash there can point at the state instead. The County of Los Angeles comes into it where a Sheriff’s vehicle, a county road or the unincorporated El Camino Village area next door is involved. Our guide to the California government claim deadline walks through the sequence. We identify the correct entity and file on time.
Where the case is heard. Most Lawndale car accident 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. Lawndale 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 a Lawndale car accident 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 rental company’s coverage if the car was a rental, 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. The hit-and-run crashes counted above are the cases where the other driver is never found, and when that happens, or when the driver who is found carries only the minimum, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is often the policy that pays; it has strict notice conditions, so get advice early. A pedestrian or cyclist struck by a car may claim on their own auto policy’s uninsured motorist coverage even though no car of theirs was involved. If the driver who hit you was working for Uber or Lyft, the coverage that applies depends on what the app showed at the moment of the crash, and we obtain that record.
California is a fault state: the driver who caused the crash, and that driver’s insurer, pay for the harm. Fault is proved with evidence: the Sheriff’s report, the physical evidence, the vehicles’ damage patterns, camera footage from the signals and the businesses along Hawthorne Boulevard before it is overwritten, and witness statements taken while memories are fresh. Our Torrance car accident attorney page explains how we build and prove crash cases across the South Bay. 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. Where a drunk or grossly reckless driver caused the crash, 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 claim.
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. When a crash takes a life, California law lets the closest family members bring a claim for their loss, and it has its own rules and deadlines; our wrongful death page explains who can file and what the claim covers.
Our office is in Torrance, on Del Amo Boulevard at Hawthorne Boulevard, straight down Hawthorne Boulevard from Lawndale, 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. 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 crash 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.
It depends on exactly where the crash happened, and yes, it can matter. On the freeway mainline and its ramps the California Highway Patrol usually writes the report; on Inglewood Avenue itself, a deputy from the Sheriff’s South Los Angeles Station does. The line between the two is a fact we confirm from the report and the scene, not something to guess at. The freeway question matters because the 405 belongs to the state, as explained above, so if the road itself played a part, a claim against Caltrans runs through the six-month government claim, while a problem with the city street or a signal below runs against the City of Lawndale on the same clock. That interchange is the busiest point in the City’s own traffic count, which explains why crashes happen there; it does not decide who caused yours. The report, the footage and the witnesses do.
Not before you know what your claim is worth. An early offer arrives before your medical picture is complete, and signing a release ends the claim for good, including for injuries that show up later. Have an attorney review the offer against your treatment, your lost income, and the coverage that actually applies; the review is free, and the adjuster’s number rarely survives it.
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 hurt in car crashes in Lawndale and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Hawthorne, Gardena, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo, Inglewood, Carson, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For other Lawndale injury cases, start at our Lawndale personal injury attorney page.
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.
