Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

A pedestrian has nothing between their body and two tons of moving metal, and that simple fact is why these collisions so often produce catastrophic or fatal injuries — traumatic brain injury, spinal damage, broken bones, internal harm — even at low speeds. If you or someone you love was hit while walking in a crosswalk, crossing an intersection, or standing at a bus stop, the medical stakes are high and so are the legal ones. Boyadzhyan Legal Shield represents injured pedestrians and grieving families throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, and we handle these cases on contingency — you pay no attorney's fee unless we recover for you.

Founding attorney Knarik Boyadzhyan brings a trial lawyer's discipline to every serious-injury claim: building the liability case with real evidence, documenting the full extent of an injury and its future cost, and refusing to let an insurance company set the value of a person's recovery. Pedestrian cases have a particular shape — the driver almost always claims the pedestrian 'came out of nowhere' or 'wasn't in the crosswalk,' and the insurer works from the first phone call to shift blame onto the person who was hurt. Answering that narrative with facts is the heart of the work.

California law strongly protects people on foot. Drivers must yield the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks — marked or unmarked — and must exercise care for everyone on the road. When a driver breaches that duty, the injured pedestrian can recover for medical care past and future, lost wages and lost earning capacity, and the non-economic harm of pain, disfigurement, and a life disrupted. No lawyer can promise a result, but we can promise a claim built on evidence rather than on whatever the adjuster is willing to concede.

This page explains what to do after a pedestrian is hit, how California's right-of-way and comparative-fault rules actually work, what a serious or fatal claim may involve, the deadlines that can end a case before it begins, and how we handle these matters locally in the Valley. It is general information about California law, not legal advice about your specific situation — for that, the consultation is free and confidential.

In the moments after a pedestrian is struck, the first priority is medical — call 911 so police and paramedics respond, and accept treatment even if the shock and adrenaline make the injuries feel less severe than they are. Pedestrian injuries like concussions, internal bleeding, and soft-tissue damage frequently do not announce themselves for hours, and the officer's traffic collision report becomes an important record later. Getting examined promptly protects both your health and the medical record that ties your injuries to the collision.

If you are able, or if someone with you can, preserve the scene before it changes. Photograph the crosswalk or roadway, the vehicle and its position, the traffic signals and signs, the point of impact, and your visible injuries. Get the driver's name, license, and insurance, and — critically — the names and phone numbers of any witnesses before they leave, because independent witnesses are often what defeats a driver's self-serving account. Note any nearby businesses, homes, or traffic cameras that may have captured the collision on video.

Two things to avoid. Do not tell the driver or anyone at the scene that you are 'fine' or that it was your fault — fault is a legal question that depends on facts you may not have, and adrenaline hides injuries. And do not give a recorded statement to the driver's insurance company, or accept a quick settlement, before you have spoken with a lawyer: those statements are taken to lock you into an account and to build the 'you weren't in the crosswalk' defense before the full extent of your injuries is even known. The sooner a lawyer can preserve the video and the scene, the stronger the claim will be.

California gives pedestrians strong protection through its right-of-way law. Vehicle Code § 21950 requires a driver to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk — and that includes unmarked crosswalks, which generally exist at intersections even where no lines are painted on the pavement. The same statute also imposes duties on pedestrians: a person on foot may not suddenly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle that is so close it is an immediate hazard, and everyone must exercise due care. Right of way, in other words, is a two-way obligation — but the driver's duty to yield in a crosswalk is the heart of most claims.

The insurer's favorite defense is 'jaywalking,' and it is important to understand how the law has changed. Effective January 1, 2023, California's Freedom to Walk Act decriminalized crossing the street outside of a crosswalk when it is done safely — an officer may no longer cite a pedestrian for crossing mid-block or against a signal unless there is an immediate danger of collision. That reform matters in a civil case because it undercuts the reflexive argument that a pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk was automatically in the wrong. Whether a crossing was reasonable is a fact question, not an automatic bar to recovery.

Even where a pedestrian bears some responsibility, California's negligence law still allows recovery. Civil Code § 1714 sets the basic rule that everyone is responsible for injury caused to another by their want of ordinary care, and California follows a 'pure comparative fault' system: if you are found partly at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you are not barred from recovering even if you were mostly at fault. Being found 20 percent responsible reduces a recovery by 20 percent; it does not eliminate it. Insurers routinely try to pin an inflated share of blame on the injured pedestrian to shrink what they pay, which is exactly why proving the driver's fault clearly, and rebutting an unfair blame argument, is central to the work we do.

Because a pedestrian absorbs the full force of a collision, these cases tend to involve the most serious injuries on the road — traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, multiple fractures, internal organ damage, and permanent disfigurement. California divides compensable harm into economic damages — past and future medical bills, lost wages and lost earning capacity, and out-of-pocket costs — and non-economic damages, which compensate the human cost that no receipt captures: physical pain, emotional distress, and the loss of the ability to do the things you used to enjoy. In a catastrophic-injury case the future is frequently the largest part of the claim, because a settlement that only covers today's bills leaves years of care unpaid.

Valuing these claims well means valuing the future, not just the present — the ongoing treatment, the permanent limitation, the reduced earning capacity — and documenting it with medical records, treating physicians, and, where needed, life-care planners and economists. Once you settle, the case is over; there is no coming back if the injury turns out to be worse than the insurer wanted to admit. That is why we work to document the full arc of an injury before resolving a claim.

When a pedestrian collision is fatal, California law allows the surviving family to bring a wrongful-death claim for their own losses — the loss of financial support, the loss of the companionship, care, and guidance the person provided, and related costs — separate from any claim the estate may have. These are among the hardest cases a family can face, and we handle them with the care they deserve. Fatal pedestrian claims and the most severe injuries often overlap with the broader serious-injury and wrongful-death work described elsewhere on this site, and the same principles of proof apply.

California sets firm deadlines for bringing an injury claim, and missing one generally ends the case no matter how strong it is. For most pedestrian-injury claims the statute of limitations is two years from the date of the collision under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Filing late is one of the few mistakes that cannot be fixed, so the two-year deadline is not something to test.

A different and much shorter deadline applies when a government entity may be responsible — and pedestrian cases involve government defendants more often than most people expect, because the safety of a crossing is frequently a public responsibility. A malfunctioning walk signal, a crosswalk with dangerous sightlines, a missing or worn crossing, a poorly designed intersection, or a collision with a public bus can all point to a city, county, or the state. Under Government Code § 911.2, you generally must present a written claim to the public entity within just six months of the incident before you can even file a lawsuit, and the procedural rules are strict. Because it is rarely obvious at the scene that a government entity is involved, these deadlines are a strong reason to get advice early rather than assume you have two full years.

Limited circumstances can change these timelines — a claim involving a minor, or an injury that was not immediately discoverable, for example — but they are exceptions, not the rule, and they are fact-specific. The safe course is never to rely on having 'plenty of time.' The sooner a claim is evaluated, the more of the evidence can be preserved and the less risk there is of a deadline quietly running out. This is general information, not legal advice about your particular deadline, which should be confirmed with an attorney.

Boyadzhyan Legal Shield is based in Encino on Ventura Boulevard and represents injured pedestrians and their families throughout the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles — Encino, Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, Studio City, Northridge, and the surrounding communities. Ventura Boulevard itself, with its dense mix of foot traffic, storefronts, bus stops, and constant turning movements, is exactly the kind of corridor where pedestrian collisions happen, and the Valley's wide arterial streets and busy intersections produce them daily.

That local knowledge is practical, not decorative. Knowing how traffic moves through a particular Valley intersection, where the crosswalks and cameras are, and how a stretch of Ventura Boulevard tends to back up helps us reconstruct what happened and anticipate the arguments an insurer will make. When a pedestrian case cannot be settled fairly and has to be filed, San Fernando Valley civil matters are generally heard at the Van Nuys Courthouse, and we appear in Van Nuys and the surrounding Los Angeles County courts.

Working from a single Encino office keeps the firm close to the clients and communities it serves. You work directly with the attorney handling your case — not a rotating cast at a high-volume settlement mill — and because we take these cases on contingency, strong representation is available regardless of your financial situation. The consultation is free, and you owe no attorney's fee unless we recover for you.