Lomita Personal Injury Attorney

Lomita covers 1.9 square miles next to Torrance (Wikipedia), and its main streets are Narbonne Avenue, Pacific Coast Highway and Lomita Boulevard. People hurt on those streets tend to hear the same few assumptions from friends and adjusters, and several of them are wrong. This page takes those assumptions one at a time, so that a conversation with a Lomita personal injury attorney, if you decide to have one, starts from the facts.

Narbonne Avenue in the city’s records

Narbonne Avenue is where Lomita’s own traffic files are most detailed. In 2017, after a Los Angeles County traffic study, the city restriped the stretch between Pacific Coast Highway and Lomita Boulevard to one lane each way with a center turn lane (City of Lomita).

Some people assume that when a street’s design contributes to a crash, nobody can be held accountable. Lomita’s records point the other way. South of PCH, Narbonne kept its original four-lane striping. A July 2023 staff report told the City Council that the Technical Traffic Advisory Committee had received complaints about speed, visibility and parking on that stretch, and that the Public Safety and Traffic Commission had recommended on June 21, 2023 that it be reduced to one lane in each direction. The city’s 2018 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan had already called for bike lanes there.

When a public agency knew about a hazard and a crash follows, the agency can be liable for a dangerous condition of public property. A report like this does not prove a case by itself, but it is the kind of record we look for. After a Narbonne crash, these are worth gathering:

• The Lomita Station report
• Narbonne commission records
• Photos of the lane striping, parked cars and sight lines where you were hit
• Every hospital chart

The police report and the state data

“The Sheriff’s report counts for less”

Lomita has no city police department. Patrol comes from the Sheriff’s Lomita Station at 26123 Narbonne Avenue, the same station that covers Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and Rolling Hills (LASD). The collision report a deputy prepares there is the report every insurer will request. Ask for the report number at the scene and request the finished copy from that station.

“The state’s numbers show Lomita’s streets are safe”

The state’s Lomita figures read 0, 0 and 3 for 2021 through 2023. For a city of 19,724 residents (Census V2025), injury counts that low point to a gap in what reached the state database, not to streets without crashes. An adjuster who cites them to suggest your collision was a fluke is relying on incomplete data. Deputies did make 27 DUI arrests in Lomita that year, by the same source’s count, a reminder that impaired drivers use these streets even when the crash data look empty.

Questions from Lomita

Where do I get the deputy’s report?

Request it from the Sheriff’s Lomita Station on Narbonne Avenue, using the incident number from the scene.

Does it matter that the city discussed Narbonne Avenue before my crash?

It can. Earlier complaints about speed and visibility help show the hazard was known, which matters in a claim against the city.

Do Lomita cases go to the Maple Avenue courthouse?

That is the likely destination. The court’s district rule puts Lomita in the Southwest District, and the specific branch is checked before anything is filed.

Does the city’s low crash count make my claim worth less?

No. What a claim is worth comes from your injuries, your treatment and the income you lost, not from city statistics, and Lomita’s state figures for 2021 through 2023 look incomplete in any event.

The other driver was drunk. Does that change anything?

Proof of intoxication makes fault easier to establish, and California allows punitive damages against a driver who chose to drive drunk. The filing deadlines stay the same.

Deadlines, fault and the courthouse

“Two years is always enough time”

A driver who ran the signal at Narbonne Avenue and Lomita Boulevard can be sued for two years, the period CCP §335.1 sets for injury lawsuits against private parties. If the City of Lomita, Los Angeles County or the State, which owns Pacific Coast Highway as State Route 1, shares responsibility, the written claim must be presented within six months (Gov. Code §911.2).

Watch out: A Narbonne Avenue crash that turns out to involve the street’s design can need a government claim long before anyone thinks about a lawsuit.

“If I was partly at fault, I get nothing”

A jury that finds you 25% responsible cuts your award by 25%; it does not take it away (CACI 405). A driver pulling out from curbside parking south of PCH, where the city itself heard visibility complaints, may share some blame and still recover the larger part of the loss.

“A Lomita lawsuit means a trip downtown”

Not as a rule. The court’s Southwest District generally receives injury lawsuits from Lomita, and the Torrance Courthouse is the district courthouse the county lists for the city (LA County locator). The district assignment comes from General Order 2024-GEN-003-00 (LASC), and the exact filing courthouse is confirmed when a complaint is prepared.

Our approach to Lomita injury claims

We represent Lomita residents and the drivers, riders and walkers who pass through on Pacific Coast Highway and Narbonne Avenue. On a Lomita case we file the records request with Lomita Station first, pull the city’s Narbonne traffic records when the street layout may have contributed, and prepare any six-month claim against the City, the County or the State.

The cases we handle for Lomita clients include:

• Car accidents on PCH, Narbonne and Lomita Boulevard
• Pedestrians struck near Lomita Magnet Elementary or crossing PCH
• Cyclists on Narbonne, where the city’s 2018 plan called for bike lanes
• Motorcycle and truck collisions
• A slip-and-fall on a landlord’s broken stairs or a store’s wet floor
• Wrongful death claims

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, in the Torrance area, is a Level I trauma center on the state’s list (EMSA); if you are admitted there, a Lomita car accident attorney from our firm can come to your room, or to your home once you are discharged.

Our consultation costs you nothing. Our fee is contingent, so a case that ends without a recovery leaves you owing us no fee. Or phone (888) 952-2952. The case evaluator works too. En español, the same help is available to Lomita families.

Not legal advice. General information about Lomita Station, Narbonne Avenue and filing deadlines.

Sources

1. Census V2025 — Census
2. Lomita Station — LASD
3. OTS 2023, Lomita — OTS
4. Narbonne striping report — City of Lomita
5. CCP §335.1 — Legislature
6. Gov. Code §911.2 — Legislature
7. CACI 405 — Justia
8. Torrance Courthouse — LA County
9. 2024-GEN-003-00 — LASC
10. Trauma list, 2025 — EMSA
11. Lomita — Wikipedia