Injury claims across California, by city and county
Reviewed by Slick Nick, California licensed attorney · State Bar #324789 · Last updated September 1, 2026
Most law firm city pages are the same page with the city name swapped. These
are not, and the way to check is to open two of them. Each one carries that
place's own crash record, the corridors and junctions its own reports name,
the courthouses those reports are routed to, and the trauma centres in its
county — and where a place does not have enough record to support a claim,
the page says so instead of padding.
Across all 58 counties the record holds 826,951 reported crashes
for 2023 and 2024 together, in which 8,329 people were killed.
This is general information, not legal advice.
What every one of these pages has in common
One rule, and it is the one people are most often wrong about. The court a
case belongs in is set by Code of Civil Procedure section 395:
the superior court in the county where the injury happened is a proper court,
and so is the county where a defendant lived when the action was filed. It has
nothing to do with where a lawyer's office is.
The second rule that travels everywhere is the six-month one. If a city, a
county or the state may be responsible — the road, the signal, the lighting,
the vehicle — a written claim generally has to be presented to that entity
within six months, long before the ordinary two-year deadline to sue.
Claims against a government entity.
Cities
Sixty cities, alphabetical, with each one's reported crash count for 2023 and
2024. Each has pages for car, truck and pedestrian claims beneath it.
All fifty-eight, in alphabetical order. A county page covers venue, the
courthouses, the cities inside it, the trauma centres and the six-month claim
clock when the county itself is the defendant.
Because it decides where the case is filed and, when a public entity is involved, who the claim goes to. Code of Civil Procedure section 395 makes the county where the injury happened a proper court, and so is the county where a defendant lived when the action was filed.
Do you only take cases in these cities?
No. These are the places with enough of their own record to be worth a page. I take cases from across California, and every county has a page here whether or not any city in it does.
Where do the numbers come from?
The California Crash Reporting System, the Highway Patrol dataset published on the state open data portal, for 2023 and 2024. Nothing here is estimated or modelled — every figure is a count of records or a sum of a column.
Start a case review call
On a case review call, I go through the facts with you: what happened,
when, whether you were hurt, whether anyone represents you, and how to
reach you. It is not legal advice, and I will not put a value on your
claim.