Los Angeles Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 19, 2026

If you were hurt riding a motorcycle in Los Angeles because a driver failed to look, California law lets you recover your medical bills, lost income, the bike, and your pain and suffering, and it puts the burden of proof on evidence, not on the assumption that the rider was reckless. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a South Bay trial firm that represents injured riders and their families across the City of Los Angeles. 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.

• The deadline: most California motorcycle injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the crash. If a city or state vehicle or roadway is involved, a written claim is due within six months.
• The local reality: 340 people died in crashes inside the City of Los Angeles in 2025, by the state crash database, and about one in three recorded crashes in the city in 2024 and 2025 was a hit-and-run.
• The bias: insurers assume the rider was speeding or weaving. Lane splitting is defined in the California Vehicle Code and is not itself a violation, and a missing helmet does not bar your claim.
• The insurance floor: California drivers are required to carry only $30,000 per person in liability coverage, so your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage often matters as much as the other driver’s policy.
• The first step: a free, confidential case evaluation with an attorney. Call 310-750-4149 any time, day or night.

Hurt on a motorcycle in Los Angeles? The evaluation is free and takes one phone call, and there is no fee unless we recover for you.

Why Motorcycle Crashes in Los Angeles Are Different

Los Angeles is two road systems with two police departments. City streets, from the Harbor to the Valley, belong to the Los Angeles Police Department, which writes crash reports through its 21 geographic areas. The freeways that cross the city, the 10, the 101, the 110, the 405 and the rest, are patrolled by the California Highway Patrol, and a crash there gets a CHP report, not an LAPD one. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash. For a rider it decides which agency holds your report, and, at the end of the case, whether a dangerous road condition points at Caltrans or at the City. The split is not small: in 2024, about 54 percent of the crashes recorded inside city limits were on freeways, by the state database.

The state’s numbers describe the scale. The state crash database logged 340 deaths in crashes inside city limits in 2025, and LAPD’s own count for the same year is 290 fatal crashes against 230 homicides, the third straight year the department recorded more deaths on the road than by homicide. Crashes after dark were about 40 percent of the city’s 2024 crashes and about 73 percent of its deaths. Where in the city matters too: LADOT’s 2024 safety study found that its High Injury Network, 7.5 percent of the city’s streets, carried 61.8 percent of the crashes that killed or severely injured someone, and that signalized intersections, about 11 percent of all intersections in the city, accounted for more than half of those crashes. Those are the state’s and the City’s numbers for specific years, not a description of the present and not about any one place. A crash on one of those streets often has a history behind it in the City’s own files, and that history is evidence.

A car protects its occupants with a steel frame, airbags, and seat belts. A motorcycle offers none of that. The same collision that leaves a driver with a dented fender leaves a rider with fractures, road rash, a head injury, or a spinal injury. That physics is why motorcycle cases are rarely small, and it is why the insurer on the other side starts building a story about the rider within hours of the crash.

How Los Angeles Motorcycle Crashes Happen, and Who Is at Fault

Left-Turn Crashes

The most common serious motorcycle crash is a driver turning left across the rider’s path at a signalized intersection, because the driver looked and did not register a motorcycle. A driver turning left must yield to oncoming traffic that is close enough to be a hazard.

Lane-Change and Blind-Spot Crashes

On the freeways and on the city’s multi-lane arterials, drivers change lanes without checking the mirror or the blind spot and push the rider into the next lane, the shoulder, or the ground. Fault usually turns on a few seconds of evidence: dashcam or traffic-camera footage, the driver’s phone records, witness accounts, and the vehicle’s recorded data.

Rear-End Crashes

A rear-end impact that is a fender bender between two cars can throw a rider off the bike. A driver who follows too closely or arrives at a signal too fast is at fault, and a legal speed can still be an unsafe speed under the basic speed law, Vehicle Code § 22350; LADOT’s safety study found unsafe speed was the primary factor in 40 percent of the fatal crashes that involved only vehicles.

Hit-and-Run Crashes

If the driver fled, you still have a case. Your own uninsured motorist coverage usually pays when the driver is never found, but strict conditions apply, including a prompt police report. In the first four months of 2026, through May 2, LAPD took 1,160 felony hit-and-run reports, its category for a driver who left an injury crash, so this is a real risk here, and a driver who leaves the scene of an injury crash commits a crime under Vehicle Code § 20001, California’s hit-and-run law.

Road Hazards

Gravel, potholes, uneven pavement at a construction seam, and debris in the lane can bring down a motorcycle without any other vehicle involved. When the hazard sat on public property and the agency knew or should have known about it, a claim may lie under Government Code § 835; in Los Angeles that is the City for a city street and Caltrans for a freeway.

Lane Splitting, Helmets, and the Arguments Insurers Make Against Riders

Lane splitting is not a violation. California is unusual in that its Vehicle Code defines the practice: under Vehicle Code § 21658.1, lane splitting means riding a two-wheeled motorcycle between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, and the statute directs the California Highway Patrol to develop safety guidelines for it. Adjusters raise lane splitting as if it were automatic fault. It is not. The question is whether the rider was riding reasonably under the conditions and whether the driver who hit them was paying attention.

A missing helmet does not bar your claim. Vehicle Code § 27803 requires the rider and any passenger to wear a safety helmet that meets the state’s standards. If you were not wearing one, the insurer will argue that your injuries would have been less severe. That argument reaches only the injuries a helmet would have prevented, typically head injuries, and it does not touch a broken leg, a shoulder injury, or the fault for the crash itself.

Partial fault does not bar you either. California follows pure comparative negligence (Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804): your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, never eliminated by it. Insurers put the rider’s percentage as high as they can for exactly this reason. We counter with evidence.

Where the Money Comes From After a Los Angeles Motorcycle Crash

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).

That gap is where motorcycle cases are really won or lost. The at-fault driver’s policy comes first. If the driver was working, an employer’s commercial policy may apply; if the car was a rental or a rideshare trip, that company’s coverage may apply. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, on the motorcycle policy or on another policy in your household, can be the largest source of recovery when the driver’s limits are too small. When the driver is unknown, Insurance Code § 11580.2 sets strict conditions: the crash generally must be reported to police within 24 hours, and a sworn statement must be filed with your insurer within 30 days. Our Los Angeles car accident lawyer page walks through how those layers stack on the same streets.

The Deadlines That Control a Los Angeles Motorcycle Case

Two years for most claims. Under CCP § 335.1, most California injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the crash, and courts rarely excuse a missed deadline. Our guide to CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, covers the rule and its exceptions.

Six months when the government is involved. If a city vehicle, a malfunctioning signal, or a dangerous stretch of public road caused your crash, 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 Los Angeles that entity is usually the City of Los Angeles for city streets, signals and City or LAPD vehicles, and the City accepts a claim only through the Office of the City Clerk, not the City Attorney; a crash on a freeway can point at Caltrans instead; and the County of Los Angeles comes into it where a County vehicle, a County road or a Sheriff’s deputy 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 motorcycle accident lawsuits arising inside the City of Los Angeles are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Central District and assigned to an independent calendar judge at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, downtown; the court assigns the courthouse by where the crash happened, so a crash in the Harbor, the San Fernando Valley or the Westside can land in another district.

Short reporting windows apply too. A crash with injury or death must be reported in writing to the police or CHP within 24 hours (Vehicle Code § 20008), and an SR-1 report goes to the DMV within 10 days when anyone is hurt or property damage exceeds $1,000 (Vehicle Code § 16000). We handle these filings for our clients as part of the case.

How We Prove the Driver Was at Fault

Motorcycle cases turn on seconds and feet, and the evidence disappears fast. On a city street the LAPD writes the report; on a freeway the CHP does. Either way, that report becomes the first document every insurer reads. Storefront and doorbell cameras, City traffic-signal cameras and transit cameras overwrite footage within days. The car that hit you records speed, braking, and steering in its event data recorder, and that data is gone the moment the vehicle is repaired or sold. We send preservation demands the same day we are retained, and in serious cases we bring in accident reconstruction to turn skid marks, gouge marks, and the point of impact into a physics-based account of the crash.

The police report matters, but it is a starting point, not a verdict. Officers arrive after the crash, they often speak only to the driver because the rider is in an ambulance, and their fault conclusions can be wrong or incomplete. When a report blames the rider, we build the proof independently.

If You Lost a Loved One Who Was Riding

When a motorcycle crash takes a life, the case changes in kind, not just in degree. California gives specific family members the right to bring a wrongful death claim for their own losses, including lost financial support and the loss of companionship, and the deadlines have traps of their own. Our Los Angeles wrongful death page explains how we handle these cases, and our complete guide to the California wrongful death filing deadline covers the timing rules.

Why Los Angeles Riders Choose Gammill Law

Verdicts the Defense Knows About

Trial reputation is leverage in every negotiation. The firm’s results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict and a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, each a real jury verdict in a specific case; outcomes always depend on the facts.

No Fees Unless We Win

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.

We Come to You

Our office is in Torrance, on Del Amo Boulevard, in the South Bay, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. 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.

How Do I Find the Best Los Angeles Motorcycle Accident Lawyer?

Start with trial experience, because the value an insurer puts on your motorcycle accident 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.

What Is Your Los Angeles Motorcycle Accident Case Worth?

Economic damages cover documented losses: emergency care, hospital stays, surgery, therapy, medications, future treatment, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and the motorcycle and gear that were destroyed.

Non-economic damages cover the human losses: physical pain, emotional distress, the loss of an activity that was part of who you are, loss of enjoyment of life, permanent disability or disfigurement, and, for spouses, loss of consortium.

Punitive damages may be available where the driver’s conduct was malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent under Civil Code § 3294, most commonly when the driver was drunk; LAPD logged 499 DUI-related crash reports on city streets in the first four months of 2026, through May 2. Punitive damages are never guaranteed, but they change how an insurer values the claim.

Early offers routinely reflect only a fraction of a claim’s documented value, and in motorcycle cases the first offer often arrives while you are still in the hospital. Before you sign anything, use the free case evaluation to learn what your claim is actually worth.

Frequently Asked Questions About Los Angeles Motorcycle Accident Claims

I was lane splitting on the 405 when I was hit. Do I still have a case?

Usually, yes. Vehicle Code § 21658.1 defines lane splitting and directs the CHP to publish safety guidelines for it; the practice is not itself a violation. The insurer will argue you were riding unsafely for the conditions, and the answer is evidence: speed, spacing, and what the driver who hit you was doing. Under California’s comparative negligence rule, any share of fault assigned to you reduces your recovery; it does not eliminate it. A crash on the 405 is a CHP report, not an LAPD one, so ask the officer which agency holds it.

I was not wearing a helmet. Is my case over?

No. Vehicle Code § 27803 requires a helmet, and the insurer will use the violation against you, but the argument reaches only the injuries a helmet would have prevented. It has nothing to do with who caused the crash or with injuries below the neck.

How long do I have to file a motorcycle accident lawsuit in Los Angeles?

Two years from the date of the crash for most claims, under CCP § 335.1. If a public entity is involved, such as the City of Los Angeles or Caltrans, a written claim is due within six months under Gov. Code § 911.2, and that shorter deadline controls; for the City that claim goes to the City Clerk.

How much does it cost to hire Gammill Law?

Nothing upfront and nothing out of pocket. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery, collected only if we win, under a written agreement that complies with California law.

Serving Los Angeles and the South Bay

Gammill Law represents riders hurt across the City of Los Angeles, from San Pedro and the Harbor through South Los Angeles and downtown to the Westside and the San Fernando Valley, 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. For other Los Angeles injury cases, start at our Los Angeles personal injury lawyer page.

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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.