Los Angeles Bicycle Accident Lawyer

Los Angeles is one of the most dangerous cities in America to ride a bicycle. Every year, cyclists are killed and catastrophically injured on corridors that the city has known about for over a decade. Figueroa Street through Highland Park and South LA, Venice Boulevard from Mid City to the beach, Sepulveda Boulevard cutting through the Westside, Pacific Coast Highway, 7th Street downtown, Spring Street, and 4th Street, these are the streets where LA cyclists die. The city’s Vision Zero plan promised to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. That deadline came and went. Cyclist fatalities went up, not down. The LA County Bike Master Plan committed to hundreds of miles of protected bike lanes. A fraction of that was ever built, and what did get painted is often just a stripe of paint next to fifty mile per hour traffic.

If you or someone you love was hit while riding a bicycle in Los Angeles, you need a lawyer who understands how these cases actually work, not a billboard firm that will pass your file to a paralegal. Call Asher Hoffman Law at (877) 792-4529 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.

Common Causes of Los Angeles Bicycle Accidents

Most LA bicycle crashes fall into a handful of repeating patterns, and almost all of them are the driver’s fault. Dooring is one of the worst. A driver parks on Spring Street or Sunset, swings the door open without looking, and a cyclist riding legally in the bike lane slams into it. California Vehicle Code section 22517, the Car Dooring Prevention Act, makes this illegal, and it is almost always a slam dunk liability case. Distracted drivers on their phones drift into bike lanes constantly, especially on Venice Boulevard and Olympic. Right hook turns, where a driver overtakes a cyclist and immediately turns right across the bike lane, are the leading cause of intersection collisions in LA. Failure to yield at unmarked crosswalks and driveways injures cyclists daily.

Then there is the city itself. Potholes, broken pavement, and uneven utility covers create dangerous conditions that throw riders off their bikes, and these often become claims against the City of Los Angeles or LA County under a Government Claims Act analysis. Drunk drivers and red light runners account for the worst injury crashes. And LA has a unique problem: bike lanes that disappear into traffic, sharrows painted on 45 mph arterials, and “protected” lanes that end at the most dangerous intersection. That design failure does not let a driver off the hook, but it shapes how we work up the case.

Who Is Liable for a Los Angeles Bicycle Accident?

Liability in a bicycle case is rarely one party. We work it up from every angle. The at-fault driver is the starting point. California Vehicle Code section 21950 requires drivers to yield to pedestrians and, by extension in many situations, to cyclists in crosswalks. Vehicle Code section 21209 prohibits motor vehicles from driving in a designated bike lane except to park or turn, and we cite it constantly in demand letters. The driver’s auto liability policy is usually the first source of recovery.

But there is often more. If the at-fault driver was working at the time of the crash, the employer is vicariously liable, and that opens up commercial policies that dwarf personal auto limits. If it was an Uber or Lyft driver with the app on, the rideshare company’s $1 million liability policy is in play. If the crash involved a dangerous road condition, a missing stop sign, a pothole the city knew about, or a defective traffic signal, the City of Los Angeles, LA County, or Caltrans may be liable under a dangerous condition of public property theory. That requires a government tort claim filed within six months under Government Code section 911.2, and missing that deadline kills the case. If a bicycle or e-bike component failed, a defective brake, a Samsung or LG lithium ion battery that caught fire, a frame that snapped, that is a product liability claim against the manufacturer. Premises owners can be liable for hazards in parking lots and on private driveways.

California is a pure comparative fault state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. Even if a cyclist is partially at fault, they still recover, just reduced by their percentage. Insurance adjusters love to blame the cyclist. We do not let them.

Types of Bicycle Accident Injuries We See

Bicycle crashes produce some of the most severe injuries in personal injury law because the rider has zero protection. We routinely handle cases involving traumatic brain injury and skull fractures, even when the cyclist was helmeted. Spinal cord injuries from being launched over the handlebars cause permanent paraplegia or quadriplegia. Broken clavicles, wrists, hips, and femurs are common from the way cyclists hit the pavement. Road rash sounds minor until you see how deep it goes, requiring skin grafts and producing permanent scarring. Internal bleeding and organ damage from handlebar impact often goes undiagnosed at the ER. Facial fractures, dental injuries, and eye trauma are devastating and expensive to repair. And the psychological injury is real, PTSD, anxiety, and a permanent fear of riding show up in nearly every serious case.

The top trauma centers for injured LA cyclists are Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, both Level I trauma facilities. Cyclists hit on the Eastside often go to LAC+USC Medical Center. Where you got treated matters for the case, and we know how to work with the billing departments and lien holders at each.

E-Bike and Electric Scooter Accidents in Los Angeles

E-bikes and shared scooters changed LA streets. They also changed the injury landscape. California’s e-bike law, Assembly Bill 1096, codified at Vehicle Code section 312.5, breaks e-bikes into three classes. Class 1 is pedal assist up to 20 mph. Class 2 has a throttle up to 20 mph. Class 3 is pedal assist up to 28 mph and requires riders to be 16 or older and wear a helmet. Helmet requirements, where you can ride, and whether you can use a bike lane all depend on the class. When a Class 3 rider gets hit, the defense will try to weaponize speed against them. We push back hard with the engineering.

Bird, Lime, and Lyft scooter crashes are their own category. The scooter companies pushed an enormous volume of devices onto LA sidewalks and streets with limited safety oversight. Liability can run against the rider, the scooter company, the city for failing to regulate, and the property owner where the scooter was abandoned. The Santa Monica Pier, the Marvin Braude Bike Trail along the Strand, and Venice Beach are saturated with rental e-bikes and scooters, and we see a constant stream of injuries from those zones. Lithium ion battery fires from cheap aftermarket e-bike batteries are a growing product liability area, and several major manufacturers have faced recalls.

California Bicycle Accident Laws Every LA Cyclist Should Know

California law is generally cyclist friendly, but you have to know the rules. Vehicle Code section 21200 gives cyclists the same rights and responsibilities as drivers of motor vehicles. Vehicle Code section 21202 requires cyclists to ride as far right as practicable, but it has critical exceptions: when passing, preparing to turn left, avoiding hazards, or when the lane is too narrow to share. Drivers and defense lawyers love to misquote 21202 to blame the cyclist. They are usually wrong. Vehicle Code sections 21750 and 21760, the Three Feet for Safety Act, require drivers to give cyclists at least three feet when passing.

The statute of limitations for a bicycle injury claim against a private party is two years from the date of the crash under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If the City, County, or State of California is a defendant, you have only six months to file a government tort claim under Government Code section 911.2. Miss it and the case is over. Proposition 30 and other transit funding measures have allocated money for bike infrastructure that the city has been slow to deploy, a fact that matters in dangerous condition cases.

What to Do After a Los Angeles Bicycle Accident

What you do in the first 24 hours can make or break your case. Call 911 immediately and get LAPD or CHP to the scene for an official traffic collision report. Do not remove your helmet if it cracked, the helmet is evidence of the impact and we want it preserved exactly as it is. Photograph everything: the driver’s license, insurance, license plate, the vehicle damage, your bike, your injuries, the roadway, skid marks, sight lines, and any cameras you can see on nearby buildings. Get contact information for every witness, they vanish fast. Refuse to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company, no matter how friendly they sound. Get to a hospital or urgent care the same day even if you feel okay, adrenaline hides serious injuries and gaps in treatment hurt your case. Preserve your damaged bike, helmet, and clothing, do not throw anything out. Then call Asher Hoffman Law before you say a single word to any adjuster.

How Asher Hoffman Law Handles Los Angeles Bicycle Cases

We take bicycle cases seriously because we ride too. Every consultation is free. We work on a pure contingency, you pay nothing unless we win. We advance every cost: investigators, accident reconstructionists, medical record retrieval, expert witnesses, filing fees, all of it. We negotiate aggressively with Allstate, GEICO, State Farm, Mercury, Farmers, Progressive, and every other carrier. When they refuse to pay fair value, we file suit and try the case. Our named partner Asher Hoffman is personally involved in every file, not a paralegal pretending to be an attorney. Our office is at 11845 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 780, Los Angeles, CA 90064, and we represent injured cyclists across LA County and the surrounding region.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I was not wearing a helmet when I got hit?

California does not require adult cyclists to wear helmets, only riders under 18 are required to wear one. Not wearing a helmet is not a bar to recovery. The defense will try to argue comparative fault for head injuries, but in pure comparative fault California, that only reduces your recovery, it does not eliminate it. We push back with the data: even helmeted riders sustain serious head injuries when struck by a vehicle.

How much is my Los Angeles bicycle accident case worth?

Case value depends on your economic damages, medical bills, lost wages, future medical care, and lost earning capacity, plus non-economic damages for pain, suffering, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. Civil Code section 3333 sets the broad measure of tort damages in California. We have settled cyclist cases from five figures for soft tissue injuries up to seven and eight figures for catastrophic brain and spine cases. Anyone who quotes you a number without seeing the medical records is guessing.

Can I sue the City of Los Angeles for a pothole that crashed me?

Yes, if the city knew or should have known about the dangerous condition and failed to fix it. You must file a government tort claim under the California Tort Claims Act within six months of the incident under Government Code section 911.2. Miss the deadline and you lose the claim entirely. These cases require fast investigation, photos, prior complaint records, and 311 service request history.

How long does a Los Angeles bicycle accident case take?

A clean liability case with completed treatment usually resolves in 6 to 18 months pre-litigation. If we have to file suit, expect 18 months to 3 years given LA Superior Court trial backlogs. Government claims add complexity. We push hard to move every file, but we never settle short just to close it.

Nearby Cities We Serve

In addition to Los Angeles, our firm represents injured cyclists throughout Southern California. We handle cases in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Pasadena. Wherever you ride in LA County, we can help.

Call Asher Hoffman Law Today

If you were hit while riding your bike in Los Angeles, time is not on your side. Witnesses forget. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Government claim deadlines run. The insurance company is already building a file against you. Call (877) 792-4529 right now for a free, no obligation consultation with a real LA personal injury attorney. We answer the phone. We return calls the same day. No fee unless we win. Let us fight for you while you focus on healing.