West Hollywood Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

The first is that you stepped out outside a crosswalk. Unmarked crosswalks exist at nearly every intersection in California even when no paint is on the ground, so this argument is wrong far more often than it is right, and the change made by AB 2147 undercuts the citation that insurers used to lean on.

The second is comparative fault — that you were on a phone, wearing dark clothing, or crossing against a signal. California uses pure comparative fault, so a share of responsibility reduces recovery rather than ending the claim. We answer both arguments with signal-timing data, the intersection's geometry, and the driver's actual speed where it can be established.

A significant share of serious pedestrian collisions in West Hollywood happen after dark along Sunset and Santa Monica. Those cases frequently involve a rideshare pick-up or drop-off, a valet lane, or a driver leaving a venue, which means there may be trip data, dashcam footage, or dram-shop-adjacent evidence that disappears quickly.

If a rideshare driver was on the app at the time, a commercial policy may apply in addition to the driver's personal coverage. Establishing which period of the trip was active is part of the investigation.

Where a crossing is poorly lit, a signal phase is too short, or sightlines are blocked, a public entity may share responsibility for a dangerous condition of public property. Those claims run on a six-month clock under Government Code § 911.2, far shorter than the ordinary two-year deadline, and West Hollywood, Los Angeles County, and Caltrans can each be the correct defendant depending on who controls the segment.