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Irvine personal injury lawyer
Catastrophic injuries, wrongful death, aviation crashes, and serious motor-vehicle cases handled out of our Irvine office at 8001 Irvine Center Drive — and across all seven Burg & Brock locations.
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$1B+
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What an Irvine personal injury practice actually covers
Irvine looks calm on a map. Master-planned grids, low-rise corporate campuses, the long green spine of the San Diego Creek Trail. The crash data tells a different story. The I-405, I-5, SR-133, SR-261, and SR-73 corridors all funnel into the city limits, the John Wayne Airport approach path runs over the northwest neighborhoods, and the Irvine Spectrum Center pulls weekend traffic from across south Orange County. Add the UC Irvine campus, three large hospital systems within fifteen minutes, and the residential density between the Quail Hill and Woodbridge villages, and what looks like a quiet city is actually one of the most freeway-saturated places in California.
An Irvine personal injury lawyer handles the cases that follow that traffic and that density. Catastrophic crashes on the 405 and 5. Aviation incidents tied to John Wayne. Cyclists and pedestrians struck along Jamboree, Culver, and Alton. Slip-and-fall and premises cases inside Irvine Spectrum, the District at Tustin Legacy, and the Diamond Jamboree corner. Workplace and construction injuries from the Spectrum-area office build-out. Dog bites along the Jeffrey Open Space Trail. Electric-bike and e-scooter collisions on Sand Canyon. Wrongful-death claims that follow the worst of these.
Burg & Brock has handled cases of this profile out of Orange County for more than two decades. The Irvine office at 8001 Irvine Center Drive is positioned for clients who do not want a downtown Los Angeles drive after a serious injury. We take a small number of catastrophic cases per attorney, work them at trial level from day one, and bring in our own accident reconstructionists, biomechanical experts, life-care planners, and economists. The work product is built so an insurer can see — at the demand stage — what a jury verdict will look like if they make us file.
Below: a quick read of the rights, statutes, and case mechanics you should know before you talk to anyone with an insurance lanyard.
Your rights under California law
Three California rules sit at the foundation of nearly every Orange County injury claim:
- Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 — two-year statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death.
- Civil Code §1714(a) — every person is responsible for injuries caused by their want of ordinary care; this is California's general negligence duty.
- Code of Civil Procedure §340 — one-year window for assault, battery, and certain fraud-adjacent claims; shorter than §335.1, easy to miss.
If a public entity is involved — a city vehicle, a public-school transport van, a CalTrans roadway-design defect — Government Code §911.2 demands a written claim within six months. The Tort Claims Act requirement is procedural and unforgiving; missing it is the single most common way a strong case dies before it begins.
The Supreme Court of California restated the modern duty framework in Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108. The Rowland factors — foreseeability, certainty of harm, closeness of the connection between conduct and injury, moral blame, the policy of preventing future harm, the burden on the defendant, and the availability and cost of insurance — still control how a court decides whether a property owner, business, or driver owed a duty of care. Soule v. General Motors Corp. (1994) 8 Cal.4th 548 is the modern test for products-liability design defects, including the consumer-expectation and risk-benefit tests that come up in serious crash cases.
What you can recover under California law: past and future medical bills, lost income and lost earning capacity, the reasonable cost of household services, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of consortium for a spouse, and — when the conduct is malicious, oppressive, or fraudulent — punitive damages under Civil Code §3294.
How Burg & Brock works your case
- Investigation lock-down. Within hours of being retained, our investigators are on the scene. We pull traffic-signal timing data, request 911 audio, and send spoliation letters to preserve electronic data, surveillance footage, and event-data-recorder downloads.
- Medical roadmap. Treatment guides the case. We coordinate with UCI Medical Center trauma, Hoag, and Kaiser Permanente Irvine for second opinions, and route clients to specialists when the initial workup is thin.
- Liability development. An accident reconstructionist runs the physics. A human-factors expert addresses perception-reaction time. For commercial defendants we subpoena maintenance records, dispatch logs, and electronic logging device data.
- Damages model. A life-care planner projects future medical needs. A vocational economist values lost earnings and household services. A treating physician writes the future-treatment narrative.
- Pre-litigation demand. The demand is structured the way a jury verdict form is structured — economic, non-economic, and where applicable, punitive — with exhibits attached. Insurers know which firms try cases and which do not. The demand reflects that.
- Trial track. If the carrier underpays, the case files. We try cases at the OC Superior Court Civil Complex Center in Costa Mesa and Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange. The case prep does not change just because settlement comes later.
Cases an Irvine personal injury lawyer typically handles
I-405 and I-5 collisions. Sepulveda-pass and El Toro-Y traffic create chain reactions. Rear-impact and underride dynamics dominate the medical pictures.
SR-133, SR-261, SR-73 toll-road crashes. Tolled lanes encourage higher speeds; high-energy collisions follow.
John Wayne Airport approach incidents. Aviation injury work — fixed-wing and helicopter — is a Burg & Brock specialty.
Irvine Spectrum and Tustin Legacy retail injuries. Slip-and-falls, escalator entrapment, parking-structure collisions, and inadequate-security assault claims.
Cyclist and pedestrian strikes. Jamboree at Michelson, Culver at Walnut, and the Sand Canyon corridor see repeat incidents.
Rideshare and delivery-driver crashes. Coverage layers under
PUC §5430 et seq. shift with the driver's app status.
Construction-site and Spectrum office build-out injuries. Multi-defendant analysis under Privette and its progeny.
Catastrophic burn and amputation. Multidisciplinary expert workup; high-stakes life-care planning.
Traumatic brain injury. Mild TBI is often missed at the ER; we work with neurologists and neuropsychologists who routinely testify.
Spinal-cord injury. Lifetime cost projections; ADA accommodation analysis; vocational retraining.
Common causes
- Driver inattention and texting in violation of CVC §23123.5.
- Excessive speed for conditions under CVC §22350.
- Unsafe lane changes and following too closely under CVC §21703.
- Impaired driving under CVC §23152; punitive exposure under Civil Code §3294.
- Failure to maintain commercial vehicles per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (49 CFR Parts 350-399).
- Defective products and design defects (Soule framework).
- Premises hazards: unsafe stairwells, inadequate parking-structure lighting, missing handrails, slippery floors.
- Inadequate security and foreseeable third-party criminal acts (the Ann M. line of cases).
Liability theories
Personal-injury liability in California is rarely about a single bad actor. It is about every entity in the chain whose conduct made the harm foreseeable. In an Irvine practice the typical defendants stack like this:
- The at-fault driver and the owner of the vehicle (vicarious liability under CVC §17150).
- The driver's employer when the negligence occurred in the course and scope of employment (respondeat superior).
- A motor carrier, broker, or shipper for commercial-vehicle cases (federal and state-law theories).
- The property owner and any tenant in control of the area where a premises injury happened.
- A product manufacturer, distributor, and retailer when a design or manufacturing defect contributed.
- A government entity for dangerous-condition-of-public-property claims (Government Code §835), with the §911.2 timeline running from the date of injury.
How damages break down
Economic damages
- Past and future medical bills
- Surgical, hospital, and rehabilitation costs
- Prescription medication and durable medical equipment
- Lost wages and reduced earning capacity
- Home and vehicle modifications
- Out-of-pocket expenses tied to the injury
Non-economic damages
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress and PTSD
- Loss of consortium for spouses
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Disfigurement and scarring
- Loss of bodily function
Punitive damages
- Available under Civil Code §3294
- Requires clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression, or fraud
- Drunk-driving and grossly reckless conduct can qualify
- Calibrated to defendant's wealth and conduct
- Designed to deter, not just compensate
- Appellate review limits the multiplier
Reported settlement and verdict ranges
| Case profile | Injuries | Reported range |
|---|
| Catastrophic motorcycle crash on the I-405 | Open femur fracture, traumatic brain injury, surgical fixation | Reported ranges in California $1.0M–$5.0M, fact-dependent |
| Wrongful death in a freeway tractor-trailer collision | Surviving spouse and minor children | $1.5M–$10M+ with policy-stacking analysis |
| Premises slip-and-fall in a multi-story retail center | Hip and pelvic fractures, surgical repair, lifelong limitation | $250k–$1.2M typical disclosure range |
| Catastrophic burn from a defective consumer product | Third-degree burns, multiple skin-graft surgeries | $2M–$8M+ with punitive exposure |
| Aviation general-aviation crash | Spinal-cord injury, ongoing rehabilitation | $3M–$15M depending on coverage and product theories |
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Settlement values turn on liability, severity, insurance limits, and case-specific facts.
Why work with Burg & Brock
Burg & Brock has been representing catastrophically injured Californians since the firm's founding more than two decades ago. The legal team is led by Cameron Yadidi Brock, a graduate of Loyola Law School, who tries catastrophic-injury and wrongful-death cases at the trial level. Cal Bar verification: #183112. Members of the Consumer Attorneys of California, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, and the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association.
- Seven California offices — clients drive less, lawyers respond faster.
- Cases are not staffed up out of a paralegal pool; the named attorney works the file.
- In-house investigators and a working bench of accident reconstructionists, biomechanical engineers, life-care planners, neuropsychologists, and forensic economists.
- Trial track record. Insurers price cases differently when the lawyer on the other side files when the offer is too low.
Seven steps after the crash or injury
- Get medical care immediately. Even when you feel fine. Adrenaline masks injury. The ER record is also evidence.
- Document the scene. Photos of every vehicle, every license plate, the road, signage, and any visible injury. Lighting and weather matter.
- Get the police report number. Call CHP or Irvine Police Department; ask for the report number before leaving.
- Identify witnesses. Names, phone numbers, what they actually saw. Witnesses fade fast.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault carrier. Their adjuster is trained to lock you into language that hurts the case. You are not required to give that statement.
- Preserve evidence. Save the damaged vehicle, the clothing you were wearing, the product that hurt you. Take nothing apart.
- Talk to a lawyer before signing anything. A release, a medical authorization, or a "settlement check for now" almost always closes the door on the rest of the case.
Two-year clock under Code of Civil Procedure §335.1. California gives an injured person two years from the date of injury to file a personal-injury lawsuit
(
CCP §335.1). Government-entity claims have a much shorter six-month deadline under
Government Code §911.2. Miss either deadline and the claim is gone.
Where these cases are filed
The Los Angeles Superior Court routes civil personal-injury filings to specific courthouses based on the location of the incident and the parties. Cases tied to this practice area typically land at:
- OC Superior Court — Civil Complex Center, 751 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Costa Mesa (large-damages and complex cases)
- OC Superior Court — Lamoreaux Justice Center, 341 The City Drive South, Orange (general civil)
- Federal venue: U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Southern Division, 411 W. 4th St., Santa Ana (when diversity or federal-question jurisdiction applies)
Talk to an Orange County trial lawyer at no cost
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Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Irvine, California?
California gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a personal-injury lawsuit, under
Code of Civil Procedure §335.1. If a public entity is involved — a city vehicle, a CalTrans road defect, a school bus — Government Code §911.2 imposes a separate six-month written-claim deadline that runs from the date of injury, not the date of filing. Missing either deadline normally ends the claim. We open the file before either clock expires.
Where will my case be filed if the crash happened on the 405 in Irvine?
Civil personal-injury cases tied to Irvine are usually filed in Orange County Superior Court. Larger and more complex cases (catastrophic injury, wrongful death, multi-defendant, or significant punitive exposure) are routed to the Civil Complex Center in Costa Mesa. General civil cases are handled at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in the City of Orange. When diversity of citizenship or a federal question exists, the case can be filed in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Southern Division, at the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in Santa Ana.
What is the standard for premises liability in California after Rowland v. Christian?
Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108 abolished the historical trichotomy of invitee, licensee, and trespasser and replaced it with a duty of ordinary care to all persons on the property, balanced through seven foreseeability and policy factors. In an Irvine slip-and-fall, dog bite, or inadequate-security case, the Rowland factors are the framework a court applies when deciding whether the property owner owed you a duty. Most premises cases now turn on Rowland combined with Ortega v. Kmart (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1200, which addresses what counts as constructive notice of a hazard.
Can I still recover if I was partly at fault for the accident?
Yes. California is a pure comparative-fault state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804. A jury assigns a percentage of fault to each party, and your recovery is reduced — but not eliminated — by your share. Even a 90 percent allocation leaves a 10 percent recovery on the table. Insurance carriers routinely overstate a plaintiff's share at the demand stage; an attorney's job is to challenge the assumptions behind that allocation with reconstruction evidence and expert testimony.
What damages are available for a wrongful-death claim in Orange County?
Under
CCP §377.60, surviving spouses, registered domestic partners, and surviving children can recover the financial support the decedent would have provided, the loss of gifts and benefits the heirs would have received, the reasonable value of household services, and non-economic damages including loss of love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, moral support, and (where applicable) loss of training and guidance. A separate survival action under
CCP §377.30 recovers losses the decedent suffered before death.
Does my health insurance get paid back from my settlement?
Often yes, depending on the policy. Private health-plan reimbursement rights, ERISA-governed plan liens, Medicare conditional-payment recoveries, and Medi-Cal's statutory lien under
Welfare & Institutions Code §14124.71 all behave differently. A meaningful part of catastrophic-injury practice is negotiating those liens down — sometimes by 50 percent or more — so the net to the client is closer to the gross.
How does an Irvine personal-injury lawyer charge for the case?
On contingency. Burg & Brock advances costs and earns a fee only if there is a recovery. The percentage is fixed in a written contingency agreement at the outset and is regulated by California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5. There is no out-of-pocket cost to the client during the case, and there is no fee unless we recover.
What happens if the at-fault driver does not have insurance or is underinsured?
Your own auto policy's uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage steps in. UM/UIM benefits are mandatory-offer coverage in California, and most insureds carry them whether they realize it or not. We make a UM/UIM claim in parallel with the third-party claim and arbitrate the value if the carrier disputes it. Stacking — applying coverage from multiple policies in a household — is sometimes available depending on the specific endorsements.
How are pain-and-suffering damages valued in California?
There is no formula. The jury is instructed under CACI 3905A to award what is reasonable based on the evidence. Practical drivers include the severity and duration of the injury, the nature of the medical treatment, the long-term physical and emotional impact, the credibility of the plaintiff and treating physicians, and venue norms. Insurance-carrier algorithms apply rough multipliers to medical specials, but the jury is not bound by any multiplier — the Rodriguez v. McDonnell Douglas Corp. (1978) 87 Cal.App.3d 626 framework continues to guide future-pain projections.
Will Burg & Brock take my case if I have already talked to another firm?
Yes. A signed retainer with another attorney is not permanent. California Rule 1.16 governs withdrawal and substitution. We routinely review files mid-stream and substitute in when a client wants different counsel. The contingency-fee agreement reorganizes accordingly; the client owes no double fee.
What if my injury did not show up until a few days after the accident?
Common, and not fatal to the case. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, internal bleeding, and herniated discs frequently announce themselves 24 to 72 hours later. Document the new symptoms with a treating physician, and tell us when you call. The time the symptoms first appear is part of the medical record and is part of the case theory; it is not a reason to assume the case is dead.
Is there any reason not to use my own health insurance for the medical care?
Sometimes. If your policy is ERISA with aggressive subrogation, paying through health insurance can erode the net recovery. Some catastrophic-injury cases are better routed through medical liens with treating providers willing to wait for the case to resolve, or through an MPN if a workers'-compensation overlay applies. The right structure depends on the policy, the providers, and the projected case value. Decide that with counsel before you make appointments — once a claim is filed it cannot be unfiled.
Does the Irvine office handle cases that occurred outside Orange County?
Yes. Burg & Brock has offices across California and we handle cases statewide. The Irvine location is convenient for Orange County clients and for cases tied to John Wayne Airport, the I-405 corridor, and the Spectrum/Tustin Legacy commercial districts. Where the case is venued is decided by the law of venue (CCP §395 et seq.), not by which office a client first walked into.
Reviewed by
Founding Partner, Catastrophic Injury & Wrongful Death
Areas of practice: Catastrophic injury, wrongful death, aviation accidents, motor vehicle, premises liability
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