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Glendale sits at the intersection of three mountain corridors — SR-2, the Angeles Crest Highway via La Canada Flintridge, and the Verdugo Mountains loop — making it one of the most motorcycle-dense corridors in the San Gabriel Valley. That same geography also puts riders at serious risk. When a driver runs a red at Brand and Colorado, drifts across Verdugo Road without checking mirrors, or swings open a car door on San Fernando Road near the railyards, the person on the motorcycle absorbs all of it.
The Law Offices of Asher Hoffman, APC represents injured motorcyclists throughout Glendale and the surrounding areas. Our office handles the full range of motorcycle collision cases — rear-ends, left-turn T-bones, lane-change crashes, dooring incidents, and accidents caused by road defects on city-maintained streets. If you were hurt on a Glendale road, call (877) 792-4529 for a free consultation. We charge no fees unless we recover for you.
Glendale’s road network channels enormous traffic volume through relatively few corridors, creating predictable danger zones for riders.
The SR-2 freeway cuts straight through central Glendale, and its on- and off-ramps at Colorado Street, Brand Boulevard, and Glendale Avenue concentrate merging conflicts. Drivers accelerating from a stopped position onto the freeway often fail to check their blind spots for motorcycles that are already at speed. Rear-end crashes and merge collisions here tend to be severe because the speed differential between a stopped or slow-moving car and a motorcycle entering the freeway is significant.
Brand Boulevard is Glendale’s commercial spine. From the Americana at Brand south to Broadway, you have dense pedestrian activity, frequent delivery trucks double-parked in the right lane, and drivers preoccupied with parking. Motorcyclists lane-filtering through stopped traffic on Brand are particularly exposed to dooring from rideshare pick-ups and to left-turning vehicles cutting across oncoming lanes without yielding. The intersection at Brand and Colorado is one of the highest-volume and highest-crash intersections in the city.
Colorado Boulevard feeds directly into the SR-134 (Ventura Freeway) interchange. Traffic backs up significantly during morning and evening commutes, and impatient drivers make aggressive lane changes near the on-ramp. Motorcycles are often invisible in the mirrors of SUVs and large trucks at low speeds. T-bone and sideswipe crashes here are common.
Verdugo Road and Mountain Street are popular with sport riders heading toward the Verdugo Mountains and connecting to Angeles Crest. Both roads have sweeping curves, elevation changes, and patches of road surface that deteriorate faster than flat streets because water drains unpredictably on hillside cuts. Gravel in blind corners, degraded lane markings, and potholes near the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood have contributed to single-vehicle crashes that may involve negligence by the City of Glendale or Caltrans for inadequate maintenance.
San Fernando Road through the industrial and rail-adjacent sections of Glendale sees heavy commercial truck traffic, wide-load deliveries, and vehicles making unpredictable turns into industrial driveways without signaling. Motorcyclists commuting through this corridor on their way to Burbank, Atwater Village, or the 5 freeway encounter trucks that obscure sight lines and can push a rider off the lane with their draft wake at close range.
California is the only state that expressly permits lane splitting. Under California Vehicle Code section 21658.1, motorcyclists may ride between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, provided it is done in a safe and prudent manner. Critically, this means an insurance adjuster cannot deny your claim solely because you were lane splitting at the time of the crash. If the other driver’s lane change or door-opening caused the collision, you have a valid claim regardless of your lane position — as long as your speed and manner were reasonable under the circumstances.
California follows pure comparative fault. If a jury finds you 20% at fault and the other driver 80% at fault, you recover 80% of your proven damages. Insurance companies frequently argue that the motorcyclist was speeding, lane splitting recklessly, or riding without protective gear in order to inflate your share of fault and reduce the payout. Our job is to counter that narrative with evidence — dashcam footage, accident reconstruction, cell phone records, and witness accounts — that puts the fault precisely where it belongs.
Under California Vehicle Code section 27803, all motorcycle riders and passengers must wear a DOT-compliant helmet. If you were not wearing a helmet when you were injured, the insurer will argue your head and neck injuries were caused or worsened by your own negligence. That argument goes to comparative fault, not to liability for the crash itself — but it can significantly reduce your recovery if not addressed. We work with biomechanical experts to establish what injuries you would have suffered regardless of helmet use.
Under California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, you generally have two years from the date of your motorcycle accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. If a government entity — the City of Glendale, Caltrans, the County of Los Angeles — is responsible for a road defect that caused your crash, you have only six months to file a government tort claim before that window closes permanently. Do not wait on either deadline.
Motorcyclists have no crumple zone. When a crash happens, the rider’s body absorbs the physics directly. We regularly represent clients with:
Following a serious motorcycle crash, our clients are often treated at Adventist Health Glendale (1509 Wilson Terrace) or Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center (1420 S. Central Ave.). Both facilities have trauma protocols for motorcycle trauma. We coordinate with your treating physicians to document the full scope of your injuries and their expected long-term impact, including future surgical needs, rehabilitation, and lost earning capacity.
A successful motorcycle accident claim compensates you for both economic and non-economic losses:
In cases of egregious conduct — a drunk driver, a commercial carrier that disabled safety systems on a truck, or a fleet owner that knowingly put a vehicle with failed brakes on the road — punitive damages may also be available under California Civil Code section 3294.
Motorcycle accident claims face a built-in credibility challenge. Adjusters and defense attorneys know that jurors sometimes harbor a perception that motorcyclists take unnecessary risks. They use that bias. They request your riding history, look for any prior traffic violations, demand your medical records going back years to imply pre-existing conditions, and send surveillance teams to film you before you have fully recovered.
At Asher Hoffman Law, we anticipate this playbook. We gather and preserve evidence quickly — the other driver’s cell phone records, the surveillance footage from businesses near the crash site, the traffic camera data from the City of Glendale before it is overwritten, and the black-box data from commercial vehicles. The faster we build the liability case, the less ammunition the insurer has to undervalue your claim.
From the moment you call, we move on the evidence. Here is what our process looks like:
Yes. Lane splitting is legal in California. The key question is whether your speed and manner were reasonable under the conditions. If the other driver cut over without checking their mirror, opened a door, or made an abrupt maneuver that caused the crash, they are liable regardless of your lane position. We evaluate the specific facts — relative speeds, road conditions, traffic density — and present the strongest version of your case.
No. Police reports are not binding determinations of fault. Under California’s pure comparative fault rule, you can still recover damages even if you share some responsibility for the crash. A finding that you were 30% at fault simply reduces your recovery by 30% — it does not bar your claim. We regularly obtain results for clients whose initial police report was unfavorable.
We look at every available source of recovery: the at-fault driver’s bodily injury liability coverage, any umbrella policy, the commercial carrier’s policy if a work vehicle was involved, and your own Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UMBI/UIMBI) coverage. If you carry UMBI, your own insurer steps in to cover the gap when the at-fault driver’s limits are too low. We handle UMBI claims the same way we handle third-party claims — as an adversarial negotiation on your behalf.
Cases that settle typically resolve within six to eighteen months of the crash, depending on the severity of the injuries and how quickly you reach maximum medical improvement. Cases that proceed to litigation in Los Angeles Superior Court can take two to three years to trial. We give you realistic timelines and keep you informed at every stage.
We handle motorcycle accident cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront and nothing out of pocket during the case. We are compensated only when we recover money for you. If we do not win, you owe us nothing. Call (877) 792-4529 or use the contact form to reach us any time.
In addition to Glendale, our office represents motorcycle accident victims throughout the greater Los Angeles area, including Los Angeles, Burbank, Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley, and the South Bay. We also handle Glendale pedestrian accident cases, Glendale bicycle accident cases, and Glendale wrongful death cases involving crosswalk strikes, unsafe turns, close passes, dooring, and severe roadway injuries. Wherever your accident happened, if it was in the greater LA area, we can help.
If you or a family member was injured in a motorcycle accident in Glendale, do not navigate the insurance process alone. Call the Law Offices of Asher Hoffman, APC at (877) 792-4529 for a free consultation. We take motorcycle cases throughout Los Angeles County and are ready to fight for the full compensation you deserve. No fee unless we win.
I can’t say enough about how grateful I am for the team that helped me after my motorcycle accident. From day one, they treated me with respect and compassion, while also fighting aggressively on my behalf. The process of dealing with insurance companies and medical bills was overwhelming, but they walked me through every step, […]
My boyfriend and I were getting the runaround from an at-fault driver and their insurance after my very first car accident in Los Angeles back in February, so I decided to find a lawyer to help us out with the process. Working with Asher Hoffman made all the difference. He was communicative, patient, and always […]
Asher is absolutely amazing! After my car accident, I was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do, but he made the whole process so much easier. He’s very attentive, caring, and really goes above and beyond for his clients. I always felt supported and confident knowing he was handling my case. He not only got […]
I hope you never need a lawyer due to a car accident, but if you do, Asher Hoffman is the best! I had never been in a car accident this serious before and was rattled, stressed, and scared to say the least, suffering injuries and the total loss of my car. From our first meeting […]
I am so grateful to have had Asher Hoffman as my accident attorney. From the very beginning, he was professional, compassionate, and dedicated to my case. Asher always took the time to explain every step of the process in a way that was easy to understand, and he made sure I felt supported throughout. His […]
