Glendale Personal Injury Attorney

Glendale’s police department recorded exactly 574 injury collisions in 2024 and exactly 574 again in 2025 (Glendale PD). Steady figures like these encourage comfortable assumptions, and insurance adjusters rely on several of them when they call someone injured on Brand Boulevard or Colorado Street. This page examines the beliefs we hear most often from injured Glendale residents, tests each against California law and the city’s own crash records, and explains how a Glendale personal injury attorney can help when a belief proves wrong.

At a glance — Glendale

• The mid-2025 population estimate of 187,160 is roughly 9,400 below the 2020 count (Census Bureau)
• 22 pedestrians aged 65 or older were injured or killed in 2023, the second-highest count among the 62 Group B cities that OTS compares (OTS)
• Bicycle-involved collisions rose from 22 to 47 between 2024 and 2025 (Glendale PD)
• Sixteen priority walking corridors account for 40% of the city’s pedestrian injury collisions (Urbanize LA)

Safer streets do not make a crash a fluke

The belief is partly true. The department’s eight-year chart shows collisions falling from 2,347 in 2017 to about 1,600 in 2024, with a pandemic low of 1,346 in 2020 (Glendale PD chart). The detail beneath those totals is less reassuring.

Source: Glendale Police Department year-end collision report dated January 8, 2026 (PDF).

What the table shows

Total collisions rose last year, injury collisions held steady and bicycle collisions more than doubled. None of this tells an insurer that your collision was unusual, and none of it reduces what your injuries are worth. A claim is measured by what happened to you: the medical bills, the lost work and the pain. Citywide trends are background.

Older pedestrians and shared fault

Adjusters rarely say it outright, but the idea surfaces in recorded statements: a 70-year-old stepped off the curb on Glendale Avenue, so she must share the blame. Glendale’s figures make this a real concern. The state Office of Traffic Safety counted 22 pedestrian victims aged 65 or older here in both 2022 and 2023, which ranked the city fourth-worst and then second-worst in its group (OTS 2022; OTS 2023).

Even if a jury assigned her a large share of the blame, California would only reduce her award by that share. A senior found 30% responsible for a crossing on Brand Boulevard still recovers 70 cents of every dollar of harm (CACI 405). Age is not a factor in assigning fault. What matters is signal timing, sightlines, the driver’s speed and whether the driver yielded, which is why we ask the city early for crosswalk configuration details on streets such as Pacific Avenue and Broadway.

Watch out: An adjuster who asks an elderly parent “Did you look both ways?” on a recorded line is building a fault percentage. Your mother or father has no obligation to give a taped interview to the other driver’s insurer.

When a hit-and-run driver is never found

According to the state’s 2023 figures, 47 Glendale crashes involved a driver who fled after someone was injured or killed (OTS). On September 9, 2026, a pedestrian in his 60s was killed on the 1400 block of East Colorado Street by a driver who left the scene; police later made an arrest (CBS Los Angeles).

If the driver is never identified, there are two places to look for coverage:

1. Your own auto policy. Uninsured motorist coverage treats an unidentified hit-and-run vehicle as uninsured when it made physical contact with you or your car, and it applies even if you were walking (Insurance Code §11580.2). The same statute requires a police report within 24 hours and a sworn statement to your insurer within 30 days, so report the crash to Glendale PD or the CHP the same day.
2. A relative’s policy. A policy held by someone in your household sometimes covers you even if you do not own a car.

Storefront cameras on Brand

Businesses on Brand between Doran and Colorado, both priority segments in the Pedestrian Plan, operate storefront cameras. Because many of those systems record over themselves within days, we send our footage requests to Brand merchants in the first week.

The police report and the courthouse

Does the officer’s report decide who was at fault?

No. The officer’s conclusion carries no weight with a jury, because Vehicle Code §20013 bars a mandated accident report from being used as evidence at trial (leginfo). Insurers still read it closely, and it lists witnesses and includes a diagram, so it is worth obtaining. Crashes on city streets are documented by police headquarters at 131 North Isabel Street. If you were hurt on the Ventura Freeway (134), the Glendale Freeway (2) or the nearby stretch of I-5, the report will come from the CHP’s Altadena Area office on Windsor Avenue (CHP). For context about your street, the department posts quarterly collision summaries on its traffic transparency page (Glendale PD).

Will my case be heard at the East Broadway courthouse?

Possibly. Local Rule 2.3 directs unlimited personal injury cases to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse on North Hill Street, but a reorganization in fall 2022 began assigning each new case to a judge in the district where the crash occurred (LASC rules; LASC notice). Glendale is in the North Central District, whose courthouse is at 600 E. Broadway (LA County). Most Glendale collision cases should therefore land in North Central courtrooms; we still check each crash address against the court’s locator before a complaint is filed.

The six-month deadline people miss

Many people assume they have two years. In fact, three different deadlines can apply after a Glendale crash, and the shortest is the easiest to miss:

Beeline buses

Bus collisions deserve particular care. The city itself operates the Beeline’s 12 fixed routes through Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge, so a claim arising from a bus collision is a claim against a public entity (Beeline).

The city has also studied its own roads. Glendale’s first Local Roadway Safety Plan ran from November 2020 to January 2024 and used collision data from 2014 to 2018 (City of Glendale), and the 2021 Citywide Pedestrian Plan identified the priority corridors (Glendale Plan). Neither plan wins a case on its own, but both become exhibits when the dispute is whether the city knew about a hazard at a particular corner.

A claim is worth more than the first bill

Neither of the city’s acute-care hospitals is on the state’s trauma-center list. A serious crash may therefore mean a transfer, a second set of records and a longer recovery than the first discharge note suggests.

Damages in a full claim

California law allows recovery for past and future medical care, lost earnings, reduced earning capacity, and pain and suffering. Early settlement offers tend to account only for the first bill. Before you sign a release, gather the following:

• Transfer records, if Glendale Memorial or Adventist Health sent you on to Huntington or LA General
• A note from your supervisor listing each shift you have missed since the crash
• Dated photographs of bruising and swelling, retaken weekly because they fade
• Payment letters from Medi-Cal or your health plan, which will be reimbursed from any settlement
• The declarations page of your auto policy, showing your UM/UIM and medical payments limits

More Glendale questions

Does it hurt my case that Glendale ranks low for crashes overall?

No. Glendale placed 53rd of 62 for total victims in 2023, meaning it had fewer than most comparable cities (OTS). The ranking describes the city. Your claim is about what happened to you.

I was riding a bike on San Fernando Road. Is that handled like a car accident claim?

The same negligence rules apply, but bicycle cases often turn on lane position, the door zone and questions about helmets. Glendale PD reported 35 bicycle injury collisions in 2025, so these cases are becoming more common (Glendale PD).

The driver was arrested for DUI. Can I still sue?

Yes. OTS credits Glendale officers with 331 DUI arrests in 2023, 37th of 62 (OTS). A conviction strengthens your position, but the civil claim proceeds on its own schedule.

How much will an auto accident attorney in Glendale charge me?

At Call Jacob, nothing up front. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery under a contingency agreement, and if there is no recovery, you owe no fee.

Sources

1. Vintage 2025 estimates — Census
2. Glendale, 2023 results — OTS
3. Glendale, 2022 results — OTS
4. Year-end collisions, 2024–25 — GPD
5. Eight-year collision chart — GPD
6. Transparency: traffic — GPD
7. Pedestrian infrastructure plan — Urbanize LA
8. Colorado Street arrest — CBS LA
9. Area 575 — CHP
10. Local Rules ch. 2 — LASC
11. 2022 PI hub notice — LASC
12. Glendale building listing — County locator
13. Glendale Memorial — CommonSpirit
14. Locations — Adventist Health
15. Trauma center list, 2025 — EMSA
16. Beeline — Glendale Transit
17. LRSP project — Public Works
18. Pedestrian Plan — Glendale Plan
19. CACI 405 — Justia
20. Ins. Code §11580.2 — Legislature
21. Veh. Code §20013 — Legislature
22. CCP §338 — Legislature
23. CCP §335.1 — Legislature
24. Gov. Code §911.2 — Legislature

The Glendale statistics and California rules above are general background rather than legal advice, and your own collision deserves an individual review.

Call Jacob’s approach to a Glendale claim

Call Jacob represents Glendale residents, shoppers at the Galleria and the Americana, and commuters on the 134 in car, motorcycle, rideshare, truck and wrongful death claims, in addition to the pedestrian and bicycle cases discussed on this page. Each of those cases begins with the correct agency, whether that is Glendale PD on Isabel Street or the CHP office in Altadena.

When you retain a Glendale car accident lawyer, you gain time to recover and someone to deal with the insurer on your behalf. In a typical case, we:

• obtain the report from Glendale PD or the Altadena CHP office, whichever handled the crash
• send preservation letters to businesses on Brand, Colorado or Glendale Avenue before their cameras record over the footage
• connect each hospital and therapy record to the date of the crash
• take the adjuster’s calls ourselves, so that you can rest

Crosswalk injuries on Pacific Avenue and bike-lane collisions on San Fernando Road each raise their own questions of proof, which we address on our pedestrian accident and bicycle accident pages. If a driver hit you on the 134 or Glenoaks, see our car accident overview.

Talking with us costs nothing, and our fee depends entirely on winning your case. If driving is difficult right now, a representative can come to your home in Montrose, La Crescenta or downtown Glendale. Our number is (888) 952-2952. If you would rather put the details in writing, our case evaluator form reaches the same intake staff. Spanish speakers can visit our Spanish site.