Pasadena Personal Injury Lawyer
Personal Injury Attorney Pasadena
One moment on the 210, in a crosswalk on Colorado Boulevard, or on a cracked sidewalk near your home, and your life is suddenly about doctors, missed work, and an insurance adjuster who wants a statement. If you need a personal injury lawyer in Pasadena after a serious injury, Ravan Law represents people hurt on Pasadena freeways, city streets, buses, trains, and public property.
Pasadena is its own city with its own claim process. A claim against the City of Pasadena is presented in Pasadena, not to the City of Los Angeles or to the county, and the window is short.
We represent clients in Pasadena from our office on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles, and consultations are available by phone or video. Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. Information is available in Spanish.
How Your Pasadena Personal Injury Attorney Works With You
The first thing we do is find out who is responsible and which clock is running. A crash with a private driver gives you two years to file a lawsuit. A Pasadena Transit bus, a city sidewalk, or the Metro A Line gives you six months to present a written claim to the right public entity. We ask about the date and the place in our first conversation with you.
Claims against public agencies are personal to us. Ted H. Ravan went into injury law after his grandfather was in a near-fatal incident involving a city-operated bus. That is why our firm takes claims against cities and transit agencies seriously, and why we keep taking them.
You work with us directly, and we keep you updated from the first call to the final result. We work on contingency: no fee unless we win. In his first year of practice, attorney Ted H. Ravan obtained more than $1 million for his clients. Read more about attorney Ted H. Ravan.
Where Serious Crashes Happen: What a Pasadena Accident Lawyer Looks At First
Three freeways, a rail line, a stadium, and a historic downtown sit inside one city. Each has its own owner, and the owner decides where your claim goes.
- I-210 (the Foothill Freeway). Shared by commuters and trucks at freeway speed.
- SR-134 (the Ventura Freeway). The route west toward Glendale and Burbank.
- SR-110 (the Arroyo Seco Parkway). Completed in 1940, it runs from the Four-Level Interchange near downtown Los Angeles to East Glenarm Street in Pasadena. It is a National Scenic Byway and a California Historic Parkway, and where it ends, freeway traffic is suddenly on a city street.
- Colorado Boulevard and Old Pasadena. Colorado carries the Rose Parade each New Year. Old Pasadena is the historic business district.
- The Rose Bowl. Large events send heavy traffic and crowds on foot through the streets around the stadium.
- The Metro A Line. The line runs between Pomona and Long Beach, with Pasadena stations at Fillmore, Del Mar, Memorial Park, Lake, Allen, and Sierra Madre Villa.
The freeways are state highways under Caltrans District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties. City streets belong to the City of Pasadena. One stretch changed hands recently: the State relinquished the unfinished SR-710 northern stub, between Union Street and Columbia Street, and it was transferred to the City of Pasadena on August 15, 2022. An injury there now points to the City, not to Caltrans.
The Pasadena Police Department’s Traffic Section investigates collisions on city streets. On the freeways, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) takes the report. We order the report from the right agency.
Pasadena Personal Injury Cases We Handle
As your Pasadena personal injury lawyer, we put your case on the right track from the first day, so nothing is filed late or sent to the wrong party. See every claim type the firm handles.
Car Accidents: What a Pasadena Car Accident Lawyer Needs in the First Week
Freeway crashes on the 210 and the 134 tend to be high-speed rear-end and lane-change collisions. On Colorado Boulevard, the pattern is left turns, drivers hunting for parking, and people stepping off the curb.
We start with evidence that disappears: garage and storefront video, dash camera footage, and witness names. California follows pure comparative fault: if you were 25 percent at fault on a $100,000 claim, you still recover $75,000. Insurers use this rule to shift blame onto you.
California’s minimum liability limits rose to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident on January 1, 2025, under SB 1107. That is rarely enough after a serious injury, so we check your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage too.
Read more about car accident claims and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
Rose Bowl and Event-Day Injuries
A sold-out event changes the streets around the stadium for hours, with heavy traffic, rideshare pickups, and crowds on foot after dark. The Rose Parade does the same each New Year, when its five-and-a-half-mile route runs north on Orange Grove Boulevard and then east along Colorado Boulevard.
The Rose Bowl Stadium and the Brookside Golf Courses are owned by the City of Pasadena and managed by the Rose Bowl Operating Company, a nonprofit corporation established under the Pasadena Municipal Code, so a claim is presented to the City and the operator is also investigated. An injury at an event may involve that company, the City, an event promoter, a security or parking contractor, or a driver. We work out who controlled the place where you were hurt, because the six-month deadline applies to the public ones. Read more about slip and fall injuries at events.
Bus and Rail Injuries: Pasadena Transit and the Metro A Line
Two public agencies run transit here. Pasadena Transit is the City’s own bus system, run through the Pasadena Department of Transportation along with Dial-A-Ride. It grew from six routes to eight on December 15, 2024, when Metro Lines 177 and 256 became Pasadena Transit Routes 53 and 33. If you were hurt on one of those routes, your claim now goes to the City of Pasadena, not to Metro.
The A Line and Metro buses, such as Line 180 along Colorado Boulevard, belong to LA Metro, and a claim goes to Metro. We identify the operator from the route and the date, then present the claim to the correct agency. Read more about claims against LA Metro.
Uber and Lyft Accidents
Rideshare drivers work Old Pasadena, the A Line stations, and every Rose Bowl event. Under Public Utilities Code 5433, coverage depends on the driver’s app status. Once a ride is accepted, $1,000,000 in third-party liability coverage applies when the rideshare driver is at fault. SB 371, effective January 1, 2026, cut passenger UM/UIM coverage to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, which is what applies if you were a passenger and an uninsured driver hit the car. We get the trip data early, because it settles which coverage applies to you. Read more about Uber and Lyft claims.
Truck Accidents on the I-210
A loaded truck on the 210 does far more damage than a car. Federal rules require carriers to keep hours-of-service records, electronic logging device data, and inspection and maintenance files. That data can be overwritten, so we send a preservation letter in the first days. Most for-hire interstate carriers hauling general freight must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage. Read more about truck accident claims.
Dog Bites
Civil Code 3342 holds a dog owner strictly liable when the dog bites someone in a public place or someone lawfully on private property. Civil Code 3342(b) and (c) carve out police and military dogs doing their work, and courts have limited claims by people who handle dogs for a living, such as veterinary staff.
Pasadena Humane, on South Raymond Avenue, provides animal control services for the City of Pasadena. Compensation usually comes from the owner’s homeowners or renters insurance. Read more about dog bite claims.
Slip and Fall and Premises Liability
A fall in a store, a restaurant, or a parking garage turns on notice: whether the owner knew about the hazard, or would have found it with reasonable inspections, and did nothing. Video is often recorded over within days, so we ask for it in writing right away.
A fall on a public sidewalk, in a city park, or in a city-owned building is different. It is a dangerous-condition claim under Government Code 835, and responsibility can rest with the City, the adjacent property owner, or both. Read more about slip and fall claims.
Claims Against the City of Pasadena, Pasadena Transit, and Other Agencies: The Six-Month Rule
These claims have strict rules and a six-month deadline, and we take them on.
The deadline. Government Code 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to the public entity within six months of the injury. Only after that can a lawsuit be filed. The two-year statute of limitations in Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 does not stretch this deadline. Miss it and you can lose the right to recover from that agency.
Where a Pasadena claim goes. The City of Pasadena accepts claims two ways: online through the City’s claim portal, or on its Claim for Damages form, delivered in person or by U.S. mail to the City Clerk’s Office at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue. Claims are handled by the Liability Division of the City Attorney/City Prosecutor’s Department. We present the claim for you and keep proof of the date it was received.
After the claim. The agency generally has 45 days to respond (Government Code 912.4). If it rejects the claim in writing, you generally have six months from that notice to file suit (Government Code 945.6). If the first six months has already passed, Government Code 911.4 allows an application to present a late claim within one year of the injury. That relief is not automatic.
Which agency. We match the facts to the entity first:
- City of Pasadena: city streets, sidewalks, parks, traffic signals, city vehicles, Pasadena police, Pasadena Transit buses and Dial-A-Ride, and the former SR-710 stub.
- City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company: the stadium and Brookside are City-owned and managed by the RBOC, a nonprofit, so a claim is presented to the City and the operator is also investigated.
- LA Metro: the A Line, its stations, and Metro buses.
- Los Angeles County: county vehicles and county property.
- Pasadena Unified School District and Pasadena City College: campuses and school vehicles. Each is separate from the City.
- State of California: the I-210, SR-134, and SR-110. Caltrans takes claims of $12,500 or less at its district claims office. Claims over $12,500 go to the State’s Government Claims Program at the Department of General Services.
Punitive damages cannot be recovered from a public entity (Government Code 818). For an injured child, the two-year deadline is generally tolled until age 18 under Code of Civil Procedure 352, but the six-month government claim is not paused. Late-claim relief may be available for a minor under Government Code 911.4 and 911.6.
Read more about government claims, what to do if you were injured by a government entity, and claims against Caltrans after a highway crash.
Pasadena Catastrophic Injury Lawyer: When the Injury Is Permanent
A freeway-speed crash or a car striking a pedestrian can cause a traumatic brain injury (TBI), a spinal cord injury, an amputation, or internal injuries. A concussion is a mild TBI, and symptoms can appear days after a normal scan.
We value these cases on what the injury will cost over a lifetime: a life-care plan that projects future surgery, therapy, equipment, and help at home, a lost earning capacity analysis that measures a career, and treating specialists who can explain the prognosis to a jury.
An early offer almost never includes these. Once you sign a release, you cannot go back for more.
Pasadena Injury Attorney: Damages and What Your Case May Be Worth
California law compensates two kinds of loss. Economic damages are the ones with receipts: medical bills past and future, rehabilitation, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage. Non-economic damages cover what has no receipt: pain, emotional distress, scarring, and the parts of your life the injury took away. Read more about economic and non-economic damages.
Punitive damages are different. They punish, and Civil Code 3294 requires clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression, or fraud.
Value depends on how serious and lasting the injury is, future care, lost earning capacity, how clear fault is, and the insurance available. We will not give you a number on the first call. Many cases settle once the insurer has the full records. Others go to trial.
Firm Results
These are settlements and verdicts we obtained for Ravan Law clients. They are firm results from across the practice, not from this city.
| Recovery | Case type |
|---|---|
| $6,000,000 | Premises liability |
| $3,500,000 | Motor vehicle accident with a county vehicle |
| $1,700,000 | Premises liability |
| $275,000 | Bus accident |
| $101,000 | Dog bite |
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
California Deadlines for a Pasadena Injury Claim
| Claim | Deadline | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Personal injury lawsuit | Generally 2 years from the injury | Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 |
| Claim against the City of Pasadena or another public entity | 6 months from the injury | Government Code 911.2 |
| Lawsuit after a written rejection | 6 months from the notice | Government Code 945.6 |
| Application to present a late claim | Within 1 year of the injury | Government Code 911.4 |
| Injured minor | Generally tolled until 18; the 6-month claim is not paused | Code of Civil Procedure 352 |
See the full guide to California personal injury time limits.
The Pasadena Courthouse and Where Your Lawsuit Is Filed
Pasadena has its own courthouse, at 300 East Walnut Street, and it is part of the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s Northeast District. Many people assume their injury lawsuit will be heard there. Under the court’s Local Rule 2.3, an unlimited civil case may not be filed in the Northeast District. A case that would otherwise belong there is filed in the North Central District or the Central District instead.
The court’s filing rules decide the courthouse, not your home address. We handle that decision and tell you where your case is and why.
Choosing a Personal Injury Law Firm for a Pasadena Case
Before hiring a Pasadena personal injury lawyer, ask three things: who is the claim against, when is my first deadline, and how will you value my future care? We answer all three when we first speak with you. We also represent clients next door in Glendale. See our Glendale personal injury page.
Talk to a Personal Injury Lawyer in Pasadena Today
If you or someone you love was seriously hurt in Pasadena, at least one deadline is already running. If a city bus, a city street, the A Line, or a state freeway was involved, the six-month claim period began the day you were injured.
Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. We will tell you which deadlines apply. No fee unless we win.
6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
