Orange County Personal Injury Attorney

Every type of personal injury case: vehicle crashes of all kinds, falls and unsafe property, dog bites, school and government claims, brain, spinal cord, and other catastrophic injuries, wrongful death, medical malpractice, elder abuse, sexual abuse, and insurance bad faith. If your injury doesn’t fit a category, call anyway. The consultation is free.

Yes. The office is in Tustin, and the firm also represents people injured elsewhere in Southern California. Its published results include cases in the San Bernardino, Riverside County, and Los Angeles superior courts, among them a Fontana crash settlement and a jury verdict against a school district. A lawsuit can generally be filed in the county where the injury happened or where a defendant lives (Code of Civil Procedure § 395(a)).

The firm works on a contingency fee, and the consultation is free. No fees or costs unless there is a recovery. The fee and costs are explained in a written agreement before you sign, as Business and Professions Code § 6147 requires. In medical malpractice cases, § 6146 also caps the fee at 25% of the amount recovered if the claim settles before a lawsuit or arbitration demand is filed, or 33% after.

Most injury lawsuits must be filed within two years under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is generally due within six months under Government Code § 911.2. Medical malpractice has its own limits under § 340.5, and children’s claims follow separate rules. Confirm your dates early.

Often, yes. Code of Civil Procedure § 352 generally pauses the two-year deadline while the injured person is under 18. That pause does not apply to the six-month claim against a public entity, such as a school district, although the entity must generally grant a timely late-claim application for a child who was a minor for the whole six months (Government Code § 911.6). A child’s settlement generally needs court approval under Probate Code § 3500.

Yes. California follows pure comparative fault: your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault, not eliminated (CACI No. 405). A separate rule, Civil Code § 3333.4 (Proposition 213), generally bars pain-and-suffering damages for an injured person who drove uninsured or was convicted of DUI for the crash.

Most Orange County injury lawsuits are filed in the Orange County Superior Court. Under the court’s current designation list, unlimited civil cases (claims over $35,000, Code of Civil Procedure § 85) are heard at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Many claims resolve with the insurer before any lawsuit is filed.

Depending on the facts, economic damages such as medical expenses and lost earnings, and non-economic damages such as pain and emotional distress (Civil Code § 1431.2). Punitive damages require clear and convincing evidence of oppression, fraud, or malice (§ 3294). Medical malpractice has a limit on non-economic damages (§ 3333.2). No lawyer can promise a result.