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Los Angeles Serious & Catastrophic Injury Attorneys
Los Angeles Serious Injury Lawyer
A serious injury case turns on what the harm keeps costing long after the emergency room. Burg & Brock build these files around the medical record, the loss of function, the effect on work and home, and the future care the evidence supports.
Free consultation. No attorney’s fee unless we obtain a recovery for you.
Cameron Yadidi Brock
- Role
- Founding Attorney
- Bar
- California #183112
- Since
- Practicing 1996
- 1996Practicing since
- Sherman OaksLos Angeles County office
- No FeeUnless there is a recovery
- FreeConfidential case review
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Reviewed by Cameron Yadidi BrockFounding Attorney, Law Offices of Burg & Brock · California State Bar #183112 · Admitted June 1996
The Short Answer
What Makes a Serious Injury Case Different?
Not the law. The time horizon.
A minor injury case closes when treatment ends. A serious one does not, because the consequences outlive the treatment: care that continues, work that changes, a household reorganized around what one person can no longer do. Those losses are recoverable only if they are documented.
So the work differs. The medical record is read for what it says about function, not only diagnosis, and responsibility is investigated across every party who may share it.
What an evaluation looks at
- How it happenedThe mechanism, and what it says about fault.
- What the record showsDiagnosis, treatment, limits.
- What function changedMovement, self-care, work.
- Who may be responsibleEvery party, and their insurance.
- Which deadline appliesNot always two years.
Liability and Severity
A Serious Diagnosis Does Not Decide Who Is at Fault
Severity governs the size of a loss. It does not establish that anyone caused it.
California recognizes no tort called catastrophic injury. The claim is still negligence, a dangerous property condition or a defective product, and the jury answers the same three questions: was the defendant negligent, was the plaintiff harmed, and was that negligence a substantial factor.
What severity changes
- The scale of the losses.
- How much proof they require.
- How many experts are needed.
- How hard it is contested.
What severity does not change
- What has to be proven to win.
- Whether a defendant was at fault.
- Whether you may sue at all.
- What any particular case is worth.
On the words themselves
California statutes do define serious and catastrophic injury, but each was written for a different job: rating a psychiatric impairment in workers’ compensation, deciding when an employer must report to Cal/OSHA, criminal sentencing. None is a threshold for a civil claim, whose measure is Civil Code section 3333: compensation for all the detriment proximately caused.
What has to be proven
Where to Go Next
Injuries That Change a Life
These pages go deeper on the injury itself.
How the injury happened
Responsibility
One Incident Can Involve Several Responsible Parties
Finding all of them early matters more in a serious case than in any other kind.
The operator
A driver, an equipment operator, or whoever set events in motion.
A business
That person’s employer, or a company whose vehicle was involved.
A property owner
An owner, contractor or another trade sharing the site.
A manufacturer
The maker of a machine, part or vehicle that failed.
A public entity
A city, county, transit agency or school district, on a shorter clock.
Why the number of defendants matters
California splits the two kinds of damages when fault is shared. Economic losses stay the joint responsibility of every liable defendant. Noneconomic damages work differently under Proposition 51: each pays only its own percentage share, so if one is insolvent, the injured person absorbs that gap.
Injured at work
Workers’ compensation is normally the only claim against your own employer, and it pays without regard to fault. It does not touch a claim against anyone else: Labor Code section 3852 preserves the right to pursue all damages against a driver, a manufacturer, a property owner or a contractor. That case reaches losses workers’ compensation does not pay, including pain and suffering. The trade-off is the employer’s lien on the recovery, with litigation costs and fees coming off the top first.
If a government body may be responsible
A claim against a public entity must be presented in writing within six months, not two years, and being a minor does not pause that clock. Public buses, road conditions, public hospitals and school injuries all fall here.
SourcesCiv. Code 1431.2 · DaFonte v. Up-Right (1992) · CACI 3933 · Lab. Code 3600, 3602, 3852, 3856 · Gov. Code 911.2
Long-Term Impact
How the Future Is Documented Rather Than Estimated
California allows recovery for losses that have not happened yet, on one condition: the harm has to be reasonably certain to occur.
The dollar figure does not have to be exact, because courts accept that future damages rest on probabilities. What must be established is that the harm will continue. That is a medical question, which is why such a claim turns on how carefully the record was built early.
How future damages are supported
What can be recovered for medical care
Not simply the sum on the bills. Where treatment was paid through health insurance, past medical damages are limited to the amount actually paid and accepted as full payment. The billed figure is also inadmissible to prove future medical costs or pain and suffering. Where a person is uninsured, billed charges can go into evidence with expert support.
The care continuum
Stage 01
Acute careEmergency treatment, surgery, stabilization.
Stage 02
RehabilitationInpatient or outpatient therapy.
Stage 03
Ongoing treatmentFollow-up, medication, procedures that repeat.
Stage 04
Lifetime needsCare, equipment and support the evidence shows continuing.
Life care plans
No California statute or case makes a life care plan mandatory. It is evidence, not a legal step: a projection by a qualified professional of the care, therapy, equipment and support a person is expected to need, and what those reasonably cost. Because future care cannot be priced from past bills, it rests on reasonable value rather than invoices.
SourcesCiv. Code 3283 · CACI 3900, 3903A · Howell v. Hamilton Meats (2011) 52 Cal.4th 541 · Corenbaum v. Lampkin (2013) 215 Cal.App.4th 1308 · Pebley v. Santa Clara Organics (2018) 22 Cal.App.5th 1266
Functional Loss
What Changed in an Ordinary Day
A diagnosis names an injury. Function describes what it took away, and that is what damages are measured against.
Attendant care
Where the record supports a need for help, the question is what kind and how much: personal care, supervision, skilled nursing, or a relative doing work that would otherwise be paid for. Family care is still care.
Home and vehicle modification
Ramps, doorway widening, bathroom changes, lifts, hand controls or an accessible vehicle can be future damages where reasonably certain to be needed. Each item traces back to a documented limitation.
Assistive equipment
Wheelchairs, prosthetics, braces and communication devices wear out. Where the evidence supports it, the analysis accounts for replacement cycles, not only the first purchase.
A note on medical questions
Nothing here is medical advice, and none of it predicts any outcome. What an injury will require over time is a question for treating clinicians.
Work and Earnings
Three Different Losses, Often Run Together
California treats past earnings, future earnings and earning capacity as separate things, and the same loss cannot be counted twice.
What each one measures
Why capacity is the one that gets missed
Vocational and economic analysis
No rule of California law requires a vocational expert or an economist. They appear because future losses have to be proven rather than asserted, and the trial judge acts as a gatekeeper: speculative opinion gets excluded.
Medical Proof
Causation, Prior Conditions and What the Record Shows
The defense in a serious case rarely argues the injury is minor. It argues something else caused it.
So causation is proven, not assumed: connecting the mechanism of injury to the diagnosis through the records themselves, including what was reported at the scene and whether treatment was continuous.
If you were already vulnerable
- The rule
- A defendant takes an injured person as they find them. Being more susceptible than a healthy person does not reduce what is owed.
- Why it matters
- An earlier condition is no reason to assume there is no case.
If you had a prior condition
- The rule
- Damages cover how much worse the defendant made that condition. They do not cover the condition itself.
- Why it matters
- Prior records help, because they establish the baseline.
Permanence, scarring and psychological effects
Permanence is a medical finding rather than an assumption. Where a limitation is documented as lasting, every future year is in issue. Scarring and disfigurement are recognized categories in California’s instruction on noneconomic damages, alongside physical impairment and loss of enjoyment of life. So are mental suffering, emotional distress and anxiety, where supported by evidence rather than presumed.
Family and Household
Two Claims People Constantly Confuse
Loss of household services
Loss of consortium
The distinction sits in the instruction: jurors deciding consortium are told not to include the cost of hiring domestic help to replace the injured spouse’s work. California also limits who may bring it. A child cannot sue for the loss of an injured parent’s companionship, a parent cannot sue for a child’s, and unmarried partners cannot bring it.
SourcesCACI 3903E, 3920 · Borer v. American Airlines (1977) 19 Cal.3d 441 · Baxter v. Superior Court (1977) 19 Cal.3d 461 · Elden v. Sheldon (1988)
Damages
What Can Be Claimed, and Why No One Can Price It Here
On case value
There is no formula. California’s instruction says it plainly: no fixed standard exists for noneconomic damages, and jurors use their judgment on the evidence. There is no multiplier of medical bills, no per-day rate, and no chart. What moves a serious case is the documentation behind each item above.
Insurance and available resources
A documented claim still has to be paid from somewhere, so early work includes mapping what exists: the policies covering each responsible party, any excess or umbrella layer, and uninsured motorist coverage on the client’s own policy.
Present value, and caps
Future economic losses can be reduced to present value, but not automatically: the defense has to prove an appropriate method and discount rate through expert testimony, and without that evidence the jury is not to reduce the award at all. Future pain and suffering is never discounted. California caps noneconomic damages only in claims against health care providers, not in ordinary injury cases.
Evidence
Four Layers, Built in Parallel
A serious case is not one investigation. It is four, and the fourth is the one most often started too late.
01 The incident
- Scene conditions, vehicles, equipment.
- Video, photographs, data recorders.
- Witnesses, while memories are recent.
02 Responsibility
- Ownership, control, contracts, maintenance.
- Training, inspections, prior complaints.
- Every party, and the insurance behind each.
03 The medical record
- Complete records, not a summary.
- Imaging, operative reports, therapy notes.
- Prior records, which establish the baseline.
04 Long-term consequences
- Documented limits on function.
- Job requirements, and what changed.
- Household roles, care needs, equipment.
Professionals a case may involve, none required by law
- Treating physicians and specialists
- Reconstruction and engineering analysts
- Life care planners
- Vocational and economic experts
Which of these a case needs is a judgment, not a checklist, and each opinion has to satisfy the court’s gatekeeping standard.
Right Now
What Helps in the First Weeks
- 01Get care, and keep goingContinuity in the record is what later proves the injury.
- 02Preserve what existsEquipment, clothing, vehicles, photographs, and what you remember.
- 03Take care with statementsAn account given before the full extent is known gets used later.
- 04Do not sign a release earlyA signed release ends the claim, including losses not yet identified.
Early offers
An offer arriving before treatment has stabilized is made without the information that decides a serious case. Future care, permanence and earning capacity are often unknown for months.
Talking to insurers
The other side’s adjuster is not neutral. You are not obliged to give a recorded statement to another party’s insurer, sign a blanket medical authorization, or accept their account of your injuries.
Case Development
How Burg & Brock Build a Serious Injury Case
Ten stages, in this order, because several of them expire.
Your Options
How This Compares to Handling It Yourself
Three routes are open to someone hurt after a life-changing injury. They differ in who does the work, what gets investigated, and when it ends. Nothing below is a prediction.
Handling It Yourself
- You gather records, photographs and witness details
- You deal with the adjuster yourself
- You decide what to ask for, and when
- You track the filing deadline
- No attorney fee
Accepting an Early Offer
- An offer arrives before the claim is worked up
- Payment follows acceptance
- A signed release generally ends the claim
- Treatment may still be running, so the total cost is not yet known
- If the injury worsens later, the claim is usually closed
Bringing in a Lawyer
- The firm gathers and preserves the evidence
- Future-care and earning-capacity evidence is assembled
- Experts are retained where the cause is disputed
- Deadlines are tracked, including any shorter than the general one
- Contingency fee, case costs set out separately
Which route fits depends on facts often unsettled in the first weeks: what future care will involve, and what earning capacity has been lost. A release signed before then is still a release.
Deadlines
How Long Do I Have to File in California?
Two years is the general period for a personal injury claim. It is a default, not a universal rule, and some exceptions are much shorter.
*No page can calculate your date. When the clock started, which period applies, and whether an exception is available all turn on the facts.
Against a private party
- General period
- Two years from when the claim accrues.
- Minors
- Generally paused during childhood, so the claim is usually brought within two years of turning eighteen.
- Delayed discovery
- Accrual can be postponed, but the bar is low: the clock starts once a person has reason to suspect someone did something wrong.
Against a public entity
- Claim presentation
- A written claim within six months, not two years. No suit until it is presented and acted on.
- Minors
- Childhood does not pause this deadline. A child hurt by a city bus or a school district cannot wait.
- If it is missed
- A late-claim application is possible, but no later than one year from accrual.
Medical negligence runs on its own clock
A claim against a health care provider is due three years from the injury or one year from discovery, whichever comes first. Minors get a flat three years from the wrongful act.
SourcesCode Civ. Proc. 335.1, 340.5, 352 · Gov. Code 911.2, 911.4, 911.6, 945.4, 945.6 · Jolly v. Eli Lilly (1988) 44 Cal.3d 1103
The Attorney Responsible for This Page
Cameron Yadidi Brock
- California State Bar#183112 · license active
- AdmittedJune 1996
- PracticePersonal injury, plaintiff representation
- OfficeSherman Oaks, Los Angeles County
Cameron Yadidi Brock founded the Law Offices of Burg & Brock in Sherman Oaks and has practiced in California since 1996. The practice is plaintiff injury work. The State Bar certifies no specialty in this field, and none is claimed.
Why Clients Come to Burg & Brock
- 01Personal injury is the practice
- 02Practicing in California since 1996
- 03Los Angeles County office
- 04Evidence preserved early
- 05Multiple-defendant investigation
- 06Future-damages documentation
- 07Litigation capability
- 08Contingency representation
Serious injury cases in Los Angeles
Cases here are filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. One collision can involve a city street, a county intersection, a transit vehicle and a private driver, putting a six-month deadline next to a two-year one on the same facts.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Is catastrophic injury a separate legal claim in California?
No. It describes severity. The claim is still negligence, a premises claim or a product claim.
Are my medical bills the same as my medical damages?
Usually not. Where insurance paid, past medical damages are limited to the amount paid and accepted as full payment.
Is workers’ compensation the only claim for a work injury?
Against the employer, usually. A claim against a third party is preserved.
What is lost earning capacity?
The loss of the ability to earn. California’s instruction states that a work history is not necessary.
Can my family bring their own claim?
A husband or wife has a separate consortium claim. A child, parent or unmarried partner cannot.
How is pain and suffering calculated?
There is no formula. No fixed standard exists, and no multiplier or daily rate is an entitlement.
How long do I have to file?
Two years generally, but a public entity claim is due in six months and medical negligence runs differently.
What does it cost to hire the firm?
Contingency. No attorney’s fee unless we obtain a recovery, and case costs are separate.
Free Consultation
Talk to a Los Angeles Serious Injury Lawyer
If an injury has changed what you can do, Burg & Brock can review the record, identify who may be responsible, and document what the harm keeps costing.
Confidential consultation. No attorney’s fee unless we obtain a recovery.
Free Case Evaluation
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Law Offices of Burg & Brock, A Professional Law Corporation · Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles County, California
Attorney advertising. Cameron Yadidi Brock is licensed to practice law in California, State Bar #183112. This page is general information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every result depends on its own facts. No verdict, settlement or success-rate figure is claimed, no outcome is predicted, and no certification in a legal specialty is claimed. Nothing here is medical advice.
Attorney’s fees for qualifying matters are contingent on obtaining a recovery. Case costs are separate from attorney’s fees, and whether a client is responsible for costs if there is no recovery is set out in the written fee agreement, which controls the representation.
Authority relied on includes the 2026 Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (Nos. 400 and the 3900 series), Code of Civil Procedure sections 335.1, 340.5 and 352, Civil Code sections 1431.2, 3283, 3333 and 3333.2, Government Code sections 911.2 to 945.6, Labor Code sections 3600 to 3856, and Evidence Code sections 801 and 802. Contact the office about a specific situation.
