Car Accident Lawyer In Beverly Hills, CA
In the 2023 state traffic-safety rankings, Beverly Hills placed 1st out of 93 similarly sized California cities for people killed and injured on its roads. A crash here is rarely a routine claim. Alpha Law PC handles car accident cases from an office on Wilshire Boulevard, led by attorney Alexander Khoubian (California State Bar #330918). The first consultation is free.
Beverly Hills is the most dangerous small city in California for crash victims
Beverly Hills ranked 1st of 93 California cities its size for people killed and injured in traffic in 2023. The Office of Traffic Safety groups cities by population and miles driven, then ranks them. Beverly Hills sits in Group D, first for 611 victims. First is the worst spot on that list.
It also ranked 1st for pedestrians aged 65 and older and 2nd for alcohol-involved crashes (44 victims). Wilshire, Santa Monica, and Sunset push fast traffic through a two-square-mile grid, and the crash mix reflects it. If you were hit here, speed, a pedestrian, or a motorcycle was more likely involved than almost anywhere else in the state, and that changes how a claim gets valued.
The city is responding. In July 2026 the Beverly Hills Police Department ran extra speed and reckless-driving patrols under a “Slow the Fast Down” push, citing the 11,288 U.S. speeding deaths in 2024 (29% of all traffic deaths, 1,139 of them in California). You can pull the raw local numbers yourself from the state’s California Crash Reporting System; the 2023 rankings are on the OTS site.
What to do in the first 48 hours after a crash
The most useful thing you can do at the scene is stop saying you are fine. Adrenaline hides soft-tissue and head injuries for a day or two, and “I’m fine” ends up in the other driver’s file and gets quoted back to you. Here is the order that protects a claim.
At the scene
Call 911 if anyone is hurt; a police report is required for injury crashes in California. Photograph everything, all vehicles, signals, skid marks, your injuries, and get witness names. Do not apologize or guess at fault out loud.
The first 24 hours
See a doctor even if you feel okay; the gap before your first visit is what an adjuster uses to argue you were not hurt. Report it to your own insurer, and do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement.
The first 48 hours
Stay off social media about the crash; investigators pull public posts. If a traffic, business, or doorbell camera caught it, ask to preserve the footage now, since many systems record over in about 30 days.
Our fuller checklist for California drivers is in the guide on what to do after a car accident in California.
The California rules that decide what your claim is worth
Most of what people “know” about California accident law is outdated or came from an adjuster who benefits from them believing it. Four rules do most of the work.
The 6-month deadline that quietly kills Beverly Hills cases
The deadline most people missYou usually have two years to sue. If a government body is involved, a city street, a Metro or city bus, a Caltrans road, a public vehicle, you may have just six months to file a claim first.
The two-year window (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1) collapses to a 180-day government-claim deadline when a public entity is involved (Government Code section 911.2). Beverly Hills is actively redesigning intersections and testing near-miss video analytics at spots its staff flagged as high-injury, so if a public road or vehicle was part of your crash, treat the timeline as urgent, not comfortable.
Being partly at fault does not end your claim
California is a pure comparative negligence state (Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 1975). You recover even if mostly to blame, reduced by your share of fault. Damages of $200,000 with 25% fault still pays $150,000, not zero. An adjuster who says any fault kills your claim is negotiating, not stating the law.
What you actually recover for medical bills
If your health insurer paid the bills, you recover the amount paid, not the amount billed (Howell v. Hamilton Meats, 2011). A hospital can bill $174,000 and accept $41,000; your recoverable medical damage is the $41,000. Treatment on a lien works differently, so ask early.
When the at-fault driver has little or no insurance
California’s minimum liability rose to $30,000 per person on January 1, 2025 (SB 1107), up from the old 15/30, and a serious injury blows through it fast. Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is the backstop, and most policies also carry $5,000 to $10,000 in medical payments coverage that pays regardless of fault. Finding every layer of coverage often matters more than the size of the injury.
How insurers decide what to offer
Insurers are not evil. They are predictable. A new claim gets a reserve, an internal number the carrier expects to pay, and larger carriers run the details through valuation software such as Colossus. Adjusters are graded on closing below reserve, which is why first offers come in low. Two things move the number: a complete demand with no gaps in treatment or liability, and a credible signal the case will be tried if the offer stays low, because carriers track which attorneys actually file suit.
The Beverly Hills car-accident cases we handle
- Pedestrian collisions. Beverly Hills was 1st of 93 for pedestrian victims in 2023, and a 2025 Los Angeles Times report found social-media tourists stepping into palm-street traffic for photos. See our Beverly Hills pedestrian accident page.
- Motorcycle crashes. Also 1st of 93 (38 victims); injuries skew serious and insurers reliably try to blame the rider.
- Rideshare (Uber and Lyft). Coverage depends on the driver’s phase: $50,000/$100,000 while app-on and waiting, $1,000,000 plus UM/UIM once en route or carrying a passenger (AB 2293). Proving the phase from app data is the threshold fight. See Uber and Lyft accident claims.
- Hit-and-run. Beverly Hills ranked 7th of 93; these run through your own UM coverage. We also handle truck accident cases and the rest of our personal injury practice across Los Angeles.
Related practice areas
Car accident questions Beverly Hills drivers ask
Nothing up front. The first consultation is free and California injury cases run on contingency, so the fee is a percentage of the recovery and there is none if the case does not recover. Ask whether you owe costs if the case loses, because the answer varies.
Usually two years from the crash. But if a city, Metro, Caltrans, or any public entity is involved, you may have only six months to file a government claim first. If a public road or vehicle was part of your crash, do not wait.
Yes. California uses pure comparative negligence, so your recovery is reduced by your share of fault but not eliminated. An adjuster telling you otherwise is negotiating, not stating the law.
The state minimum is now $30,000 per person, which a serious injury blows through fast. Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is usually the answer, and many drivers have it without realizing.
Not before you get advice. Their adjuster is trained to lock in a version of events and injuries that helps them, not you. You are not required to give a recorded statement.
Sometimes you do not, and a good firm will say so. No injury, clear fault, minor damage: you can often handle it through insurance and keep more of your money. Injuries, disputed fault, a government vehicle, or an insurer playing games is where a lawyer earns the fee.
Talk to a Beverly Hills car accident lawyer
If you were hurt in a crash in Beverly Hills or anywhere in Los Angeles, the first consultation is free. The sooner evidence is preserved and coverage is mapped, the more room there is to work.