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$100,000,000+
Recovered for Clients
$21,100,000
Wrongful Death VERDICT
$16,000,000
School Sexual Abuse VERDICT
$12,000,000
Whistleblower Retaliation VERDICT
Gammill Law’s results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict.
Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 20, 2026
If you were injured in Santa Monica 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 Santa Monica 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.
Santa Monica is a small city that a very large number of people drive into. Its traffic runs on a few wide streets: Lincoln Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard, Pico Boulevard, Olympic Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, with the Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 10, ending at the coast and Pacific Coast Highway continuing north from there. Who owns the road decides who investigates a crash and where a claim goes. The freeway and Pacific Coast Highway north of it are state highways, so Caltrans maintains them and the California Highway Patrol writes the crash report; the city streets, including the stretch of Lincoln Boulevard south of the freeway that the state handed back to the City and that is no longer a state highway, belong to the City of Santa Monica, and the Santa Monica Police Department writes the report there. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash.
The City publishes its own numbers, and they are not reassuring. In a September 2026 staff report to the City Council, Santa Monica counted its fatal and serious-injury crashes at 29 in 2021, 33 in 2022, 38 in 2023, 62 in 2024 and 52 in 2025, which the City itself describes as missing the goal it set under its Vision Zero program. Across those five years, 20 of the city’s 21 fatal crashes involved a pedestrian or a bicyclist. The state’s crash rankings tell the same story: according to the Office of Traffic Safety’s crash rankings for Santa Monica, the city ranked first worst of 104 cities its size for pedestrians killed or injured in 2022, and third worst of 103 in 2023. The state crash database, which counts every crash reported by any agency including the Highway Patrol on the freeway, recorded 1,099 crashes inside Santa Monica in 2025, in which 5 people died and 572 were injured; that is a count of people, kept separate from the City’s count of crashes. Hit-and-run is a Santa Monica problem in particular: by that database, about 43 percent of the crashes reported in the city in 2024 were hit-and-runs, 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.
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 Santa Monica, with the six-month claim rule below; a fall, a fire or an assault in an apartment building, a hotel, a store 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 Santa Monica that means the City of Santa Monica for a city street, a signal, a sidewalk, a City vehicle or a City police officer; Caltrans for the Santa Monica Freeway or for Pacific Coast Highway north of it, which are state highways; and LA Metro for its own trains and buses. Lincoln Boulevard south of the freeway is a City street for this purpose, because the state relinquished that former stretch of Route 1 to the City. 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. Most Santa Monica injury lawsuits are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court at either the Santa Monica Courthouse or the Beverly Hills Courthouse, the two courthouses the court’s own filing locator assigns to Santa Monica; the court assigns the courthouse by where the injury happened, and we confirm it 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, 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. That last policy matters more in Santa Monica than in most cities. By the City’s September 2026 staff report, about 88 percent of the people who work in Santa Monica commute in from somewhere else, so the driver who hits you is likely not a neighbor, and when about four in ten reported crashes are hit-and-runs, 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. Our Santa Monica car accident page covers the streets and intersections where the city’s crashes concentrate, the evidence that disappears in the first weeks, and how the coverage layers stack.
Pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Santa Monica’s deaths are overwhelmingly people on foot and on bikes. 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.
Motorcycle accidents. 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.
Truck accidents. A crash with a commercial truck 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. 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: the City of Santa Monica for a city street, sidewalk or vehicle, Caltrans for the freeway or Pacific Coast Highway, and LA Metro for its trains and buses. Courts rarely excuse a missed deadline.
South of the Santa Monica Freeway, no. That stretch of Lincoln was once part of State Route 1, but the state relinquished it to the City of Santa Monica, so a claim about the road itself goes to the City within six months, not to Caltrans, and the Santa Monica Police Department, not the Highway Patrol, will have written the report. The driver still had to yield to you in a marked or unmarked crosswalk and use due care under Vehicle Code § 21950, and you keep a duty of care too, so the police report and any camera footage decide fault. Lincoln reported more crashes than any other Santa Monica street in 2024 and 2025 in the state crash database; that is part of the record we gather, and it does not decide who is responsible for your crash. 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, at either the Santa Monica Courthouse or the Beverly Hills Courthouse, the two courthouses the court’s filing locator assigns to Santa Monica addresses. The court assigns the courthouse by where the injury happened, and we confirm it 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 Santa Monica and across the Westside, from Venice and Mar Vista to West Los Angeles and Brentwood, 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.
