Over the last decade, the City of Los Angeles has paid out more than $90 million to civilians who have been injured in crashes caused by police officers. That money, which spans more than 1,200 lawsuits, helped victims get the care they needed to recover from serious injuries caused by negligent police driving. But not everyone who gets hit by a police car knows they have grounds for a lawsuit.
Have you been in a traffic accident with a police car, or did an LAPD vehicle hit your car during a police chase? Getting hit by any vehicle is disorienting, but when an emergency vehicle is involved, the situation can feel even more dramatic and confusing. If youโve experienced this, youโre probably asking: Do police officers have to follow the same rules as everyone else? Who would I file an insurance claim against? Can I even do anything about this?
The answer is yes. If a police officer’s negligent driving injured you in California, you generally have the right to compensation. But claims against the police don’t work like ordinary car accident claims. They go through a special legal process with a short filing deadline and different rules depending on exactly what happened on the road.
Filing claims for these complicated accidents, which involve both citizens and government officials and where liabilities are determined by a web of nuanced laws and exceptions, is a job for a specialized accident attorney. At Stalwart Law Group, our lawyers have the knowledge and experience to navigate these complex cases and demand fair compensation for your accident with a police car. This guide answers common questions and explains what you need to know before making any decisions.
If you were involved in a car accident with the police and are ready to speak with an accident attorney, contact our California accident lawyers now.
Car Accidents Caused by Police
When people come to us about police-involved traffic accidents, they usually fall into one of two situations, each with different applicable laws.
The first kind of situation involves a police car hitting your car directly. An officer runs a red light, rear-ends you at a stop, speeds through an intersection and strikes your vehicle, etc. Here, the government agency that employs the officer (not the officer personally) is generally responsible for the accident. This mostly works the same as how an employer is responsible for an employee driving on the job.
The second kind of situation involves an accident during an emergency response where police are pursuing another driver. If the fleeing suspect hits your vehicle or causes your accident, they will be primarily at fault. But fleeing suspects are often uninsured, and California law gives police agencies significant legal protection from lawsuits over crashes caused by the people they pursue. Recovery in these cases is possible, of course, but can be more complicated.
According to a 2023 report from the LA Board of Police Commissioners, police pursuits in Los Angeles led to more than 1,000 collisions that caused injuries and deaths between 2018 and 2023. Half of those victims were innocent motorists and bystanders, meaning civilians paid a higher price than both responding police officers and the suspects themselves. Some of those accidents and injuries were caused by fleeing suspects, and others were caused by police. In both scenarios, injured drivers, pedestrians, and their families are entitled to compensation for those injuries.
Do Police Have to Follow Traffic Laws?
In general, yes. When an officer is driving like anyone else, whether theyโre patrolling, driving back to the station, or just running an errand, they are held to the same traffic rules and expectations as you are. If they cause a crash through careless driving, the police agency would be held responsible for damages.
The rules for police loosen during a genuine emergency response. If an officer is responding to an emergency call or pursuing a suspect with their lights and sirens activated, they are exempt from certain traffic rules under California law, such as speed limits and red-light running. Activating lights and sirens when responding to an emergency call is called a โCode 3.โ
There is, however, a notable limit on that exemption, which is that they still must abide by โthe duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons and propertyโ (VEH ยง 21807). Flying through a blind intersection at high speed, or running Code 3 without activating lights and sirens at all, can still make the agency liable for a resulting crash.
A Common Way Police Break Traffic Rules
Police officers, especially in Los Angeles, are known to break traffic laws related to Code 3, and they even have a name for it. Because of tight rules on when officers can use Code 3 (turning their lights and sirens on and speeding through traffic), officers employ what they call โCode 2 ยฝโ, an off-the-books, unofficial code that means theyโre racing through traffic as if theyโre responding to an emergency call, but without ever activating their lights and sirens. Itโs easy to see how this can be extremely dangerous, and it has caused hundreds of accidents where the police were at fault for injured victims.
The issue of police officers cutting through traffic and speeding past red lights and stop signs without their sirens on has caused some of the worst police-involved collisions in the history of California. In 2025, the Los Angeles Police Department was forced to pay an $18 million settlement for two elderly brothers who were catastrophically injured when an on-duty LAPD officer struck their vehicle. The officer was driving 80 mph in a 40-mph zone without lights or sirens. The city’s own collision investigation team found the officer solely responsible. This is just one case contributing to the $90 million of settlements the City of Los Angeles has paid out to injured drivers as a result of negligent driving by the police.
Filing a Lawsuit Against the Police Department for a Car Accident
If a police officer was at fault for your accident, you can pursue compensation for your damages by filing a lawsuit. One key point to understand is that you rarely pursue the individual officer. California law protects officers from personal liability for crashes during emergency driving, so your claim is made against the government entity that employs them.
In Los Angeles, if you were hit by:
- An LAPD vehicle, your claim goes to the City of Los Angeles.
- An LA County Sheriffโs vehicle, you file against the County of Los Angeles.
- A California Highway Patrol (CHP) vehicle, your claim goes to the State of California.
Filing a claim or lawsuit against these government agencies is more complex than filing against a fellow civilian. There are very strict procedures and deadlines that must be met, and certain strategies are more effective than others, depending on your case.
Donโt make the mistake of filing with the wrong entity. It is one of the most common and most damaging mistakes made by victims of accidents who think they can bring their lawsuit without legal help. Each agency has its own claim form, filing office, and procedures. An informal complaint, a phone call, or the police report itself does not count as a legal claim and can even hurt your chances of recovering the money you are owed.
Six-Month Statute of Limitations: The Deadline for Filing
For most car accidents in California, you have two years to file a lawsuit, but claims against government entities are different. Under the California Government Claims Act, you must present a formal written claim to the correct public entity within six months of the accident.
If the entity rejects your claim, you then have a limited window to file a lawsuit. Importantly, even if they ignore your claim and never respond, their silence will count as a formal rejection after 45 days. Because no documents are sent and the person filing never hears back, victims sometimes assume theyโve put the ball in the governmentโs court, and they can simply wait for a response. But because of the 45-day rule, waiting for a response leads to missed deadlines and lost cases.
If you miss the statute of limitations (the six-month filing deadline), you will most likely lose your right to compensation, no matter how strong your case was. Late-claim relief exists in narrow circumstances, but it’s discretionary and never guaranteed.
Another reason to act quickly is evidence. Police vehicle cases often turn on body camera footage, dash cam video, and dispatch records, but agencies routinely delete this footage after short retention periods. An attorney can send a preservation letter immediately to keep that evidence intact and improve your chances of recovery.
What Compensation Can You Recover?
Compensation in a police vehicle accident case follows the same framework as any California car accident claim, where your compensable damages are split between economic damages and non-economic damages.
- Economic Damages: Medical bills, future care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, vehicle damage
- Non-Economic Damages: pain, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, etc.
California’s pure comparative negligence rule also applies to accidents in which the police were at fault. This means that you can be partly at fault for the accident, but are still able to pursue damages. Deciding how much you can claim is the job of a knowledgeable, experienced accident attorney who can prove the precise degree to which you caused the accident, increasing your chances of receiving a maximum settlement.
What matters most in these cases is thoroughly documenting your actual losses, especially in cases of serious or catastrophic injury, so you can secure the financial support needed to cover future care costs (which often drive most of the value).
Injured by a Police Vehicle? We Can Help
If you were involved in a car accident in California because of a police officerโs negligence, Stalwart Law Group is here to help protect you and fight for the maximum possible recovery available to you. Claims against police departments and government entities are among the most procedurally demanding cases in California injury law. There are short deadlines, strict filing rules, and defendants with experienced legal teams. Our firm has deep experience holding government entities accountable, including a $9 million recovery for a client whose catastrophic injuries were caused in part by a public entity’s negligence.
Our core value at Stalwart Law Group is to fight for every client as if you were our own family. We can evaluate your case, identify the correct entity to file against, act quickly to gather evidence, and demand the financial support you and your family need. If you or your family need to file a lawsuit against the police department for an accident caused by an officer, donโt hesitate to contact our attorneys today.
