Long Beach is the most dangerous of California’s fifteen largest cities to be a road user in, and it got worse last year rather than better.
3,774 people were killed or injured in traffic collisions here in 2023. Measured against the city’s population and traffic volume, that is the worst record of the fifteen California cities with populations over 250,000. Not among the worst. The worst. The year before it ranked third.
Those are the California Office of Traffic Safety’s own counts, and the detail underneath them is worse: Long Beach ranks first or second worst in nine of twelve categories OTS measures.
Culver Legal, LLP represents injured people and their families across Long Beach and the surrounding area. We work on contingency and advance the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour.
- $4,000,000Auto Accident
- $3,550,000Personal Injury
- $3,550,000Auto Accident
- $3,000,000Truck Accident
- $2,500,000Commercial Accident
- $2,250,000Motorcycle Accident
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts.
What Do the Long Beach Numbers Actually Say?
Three of them are worth knowing, because each one changes how a claim should be handled.
Children on foot are hit here more than anywhere else in the state. Thirty pedestrians under 15 were killed or injured in 2023 and thirty-three in 2022, ranking Long Beach worst of the fifteen largest California cities in both years. That is not a bad year. It is a pattern.
Hit and run is rising sharply. People killed or injured in hit-and-run collisions went from 335 in 2022 to 496 in 2023, moving the city from fifth worst to second. That is close to a fifty percent rise in a single year, and it changes what a claim looks like, because an uninsured motorist claim on your own policy is often the route rather than a claim against a driver nobody has identified.
Night is when it happens. 485 people were killed or injured in collisions between 9 p.m. and 2:59 a.m., again the worst in the group.
Two things to be precise about. Every figure above counts people killed or injured, not deaths. And OTS city tables exclude freeway crashes under Highway Patrol jurisdiction, so no freeway collision is in these numbers. The real totals for the area are higher.
How Long Do You Have to Bring a Claim?
Two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months if a public entity is involved, under Government Code 911.2. Separately, under Government Code 945.4, no lawsuit for money damages may be brought until that written claim has been presented and the entity has either acted on it or is treated as having rejected it. Silence is not a bar: a claim the entity does not act on within 45 days is deemed rejected, and the lawsuit can then proceed.
And presenting the claim is not the last deadline. Once the entity mails or delivers a written rejection, Government Code 945.6 gives you six months from the date of that notice to file suit. If the entity never sends a written rejection, the period is two years from when the cause of action accrued instead. A claim that is ignored therefore leaves more time than one that is formally rejected, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
In Long Beach that claim goes to the City Clerk, which surprises people who expect a risk or legal department.
City Clerk, 411 West Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802, at City Hall on the lobby level.
The city puts it plainly on its own claim form: claims must be filed with the City Clerk. It cites the Government Claims Act at Government Code sections 810 to 996.6.
There are two different deadlines and most pages only mention one. The city states that claims for death, injury to a person and damage to personal property must be filed within six months, and that any other claim, including damage to real property, must be filed within one year. If a crash damaged both you and a wall, those are two clocks.
The claim form is published in Spanish, Khmer and Tagalog as well as English.
For a child, Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while they are under 18. It does not pause the six-month government claim. Given that Long Beach is the worst city in the state for child pedestrian casualties, that is the single most consequential sentence on this page.
A missed six months is still worth asking about. Government Code 911.4 and 911.6 allow a written application for permission to present a late claim within a year of it arising, and the board shall grant it on any of several grounds, including that the injured person was a minor, was incapacitated, or died before the six months expired.
Two further grounds matter here and are easy to miss, because they are the ones most people actually fall under. Government Code 911.6(b) also requires the application to be granted where the injured person was a minor for any part of the six months, or was physically or mentally incapacitated for any part of it, provided the application is made within six months of them turning eighteen or of the incapacity ending, or a year after the claim accrued, whichever comes first.
Was a public road, signal or vehicle involved?
Then it is six months, and it goes to the City Clerk rather than a claims department. One conversation establishes it.
Where Would Your Case Be Heard?
At the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, 275 Magnolia, and that is not simply the nearest building.
Since October 2022 the Los Angeles Superior Court has assigned newly filed personal injury cases to the judicial district where the incident arose, rather than where anyone lives or where a defendant is based. So a Long Beach collision is heard in Long Beach, before a jury drawn from here. For a county this size that is worth knowing, and no competitor page on this term says it.
A claim seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case.
Getting the Collision Report, and What It Costs
For a collision on a Long Beach street the report comes from the Long Beach Police Department, and there are three things worth knowing before you start.
- It costs $29, a non-refundable processing fee per application. People routinely budget for less, so it is worth knowing before you start.
- Victims of crimes are exempt from the fee.
- Records Division: 562-570-7381. Collisions are handled by the department’s Collision Investigation Detail.
Do not send a Public Records Act request. The city states that collision reports are not released through that process, so a PRA request is weeks lost for nothing.
A crash on a freeway is normally the California Highway Patrol’s rather than the city’s, and that is a different request.
What Kinds of Cases Do We Handle in Long Beach?
Car accidents
The question that decides most serious claims is what insurance exists rather than who was at fault. California’s minimum liability coverage is $30,000 for injury to one person on policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, and $15,000 on older ones, which one hospital admission can exhaust. Long Beach car accident claims.
Motorcycle accidents
182 riders were killed or injured here in 2023, second worst of the fifteen largest California cities. Riders are also blamed by default, and the lane-splitting law is persistently misstated. Long Beach motorcycle accident claims.
Truck accidents
A commercial carrier is insured on a different scale from a private car, and the evidence that proves the case belongs to the trucking company. Long Beach truck accident claims.
Pedestrian accidents
339 people on foot were killed or injured in 2023, second worst in the group, and children on foot are hit here more than in any other large California city. Long Beach pedestrian accident claims.
Bicycle accidents
213 cyclists killed or injured, second worst in the group. A cyclist has the same rights on the road as a driver by statute. Long Beach bicycle accident claims.
Bus and transit accidents
Who operated the vehicle decides your deadline, and it is the first question in the case. Long Beach bus accident claims.
Rideshare accidents
Whether the driver had accepted a ride decides whether $50,000 per person or $1,000,000 of coverage applies. Long Beach rideshare accident claims.
Slip and fall and premises liability
These turn on notice, meaning whether the owner knew or should have known, and the records that prove it belong to the other side. Long Beach slip and fall claims.
Dog bites
California is a strict liability state. The owner is liable regardless of the dog’s history. Long Beach dog bite claims.
Brain injuries
A normal scan is not the same as no injury, and what proves these claims is mostly gathered outside a hospital. Long Beach brain injury claims.
Construction accidents
The company that injured you is very often not the company that employs you, and where that is true there are two claims rather than one. Long Beach construction accident claims.
Work injuries
Workers’ compensation pays nothing for pain and suffering. A separate civil claim covers what it does not. Long Beach work injury claims.
Wrongful death
The statute reaches beyond the immediate family, so establishing everyone entitled to bring the claim comes before anything is filed. Long Beach wrongful death claims.
Employment matters
Where something has gone wrong at work rather than on the road, the deadlines are shorter and more varied. Long Beach employment matters.
We also act in catastrophic injury, burn injury, spinal injury and other serious matters that do not have a page of their own here.
California Law and Your Right to Recover
Three rules do most of the work in a Long Beach injury claim.
Negligence. Under Civil Code 1714, everyone is responsible for injury caused to another by their want of ordinary care.
Comparative fault. California reduces your recovery by your share of the blame rather than barring it. Somebody found 25 percent at fault still recovers 75 percent, which is why an insurer’s opening argument about fault is a negotiation rather than an answer.
Strict liability where it applies. Dog bites are the clearest example: the owner is liable regardless of the animal’s history, and no carelessness has to be proved.
What Is a Long Beach Injury Claim Worth?
Nobody can tell you at the start, and anyone who does is guessing at your expense. What can be said is what drives the answer, because those things are establishable early.
The medical picture once it has settled, not what treatment has cost so far. Settling before that is known means settling on the least the claim will ever be worth.
The insurance available, which constrains everything. A catastrophic injury against a minimum policy can recover less than a moderate injury against commercial coverage.
The fault split, since California apportions rather than bars, and percentages are worth real money on a serious claim.
Whether a public entity is involved, which is a deadline question before it is a value question.
Serving Long Beach
Culver Legal acts for people across Long Beach and the surrounding communities, and where you cannot travel to us, we come to you. Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean.
The economics are simple. Contingency, costs advanced, nothing up front and no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and the phone is answered 24 hours a day.
Still deciding whether to make the call?
The review costs nothing and commits you to nothing. The deadlines run either way.
Long Beach Personal Injury FAQs
When should you call a personal injury lawyer?
Earlier than most people do, for practical reasons rather than promotional ones. Camera footage sits on retention loops measured in days, vehicles and scenes are repaired or cleared, and where a public entity is involved you have six months rather than two years to present a written claim. None of that waits for somebody to feel ready. A review costs nothing and commits you to nothing, so asking early costs you nothing and asking late can cost the claim.
How much do personal injury attorney fees typically cost in California?
These are handled on contingency, so there is no fee unless we win, with case costs advanced rather than billed as they arise. What no honest firm will do is put a value on your claim before knowing how the injury settles.
Is it worth suing for personal injury?
It depends on the injury and on what insurance exists, and those are different questions. A serious injury behind a minimum policy may recover less than a moderate injury with substantial coverage, which is why establishing what is available comes first. Where a claim is not worth pursuing, we will say so.
How do I file a claim against the City of Long Beach?
In writing, to the City Clerk at 411 West Ocean Blvd, on the city’s own claim form, and the deadline is short. Death, injury to a person and damage to personal property must be filed within six months of the incident under Government Code 911.2. Damage to real property has one year. No lawsuit for money damages can be brought against the city until a claim has been properly filed, so missing it ends a claim on procedure rather than on merit.
What if I was partly at fault?
You can still recover. California reduces your recovery in proportion to your share of the blame rather than barring it, so somebody found 25 percent at fault recovers 75 percent. Insurers open with fault arguments precisely because people assume the opposite and stop.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand. It is not a question we ask you, and it is not a question the other side gets to ask.
Contact a Culver Legal Long Beach Personal Injury Lawyer
Long Beach is the worst of California’s largest cities for traffic casualties, and if a public entity was involved your deadline is six months rather than two years. If you were hurt anywhere in Long Beach, reach us at (310) 600-7881 at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
