Hit by a Drunk Driver in Tarzana: Your Legal Options

Arya Firoozmand, Esq. — Founding Partner

Local Tarzana Injury Attorney · UCLA Law

Arya Firoozmand is the founding partner at L&F Brown. He grew up in Woodland Hills, up Ventura Boulevard from Tarzana, graduated from El Camino Real High School and UCLA Law School, and has spent his career representing injured clients across the San Fernando Valley.

Being hit by a drunk driver is different from a standard traffic crash. The injuries may be similar, but the legal landscape is not. California gives victims of DUI crashes access to remedies that are not available in ordinary negligence cases, including punitive damages that can significantly increase your total recovery. If you were hit by an impaired driver anywhere in Tarzana, whether on Ventura Blvd, Reseda Blvd, or the US-101, understanding your options from the start puts you in a much stronger position.

What Happens Immediately After a DUI Crash in Tarzana

If the crash happened on a surface street in Tarzana, LAPD Topanga Division is the responding agency. If it happened on the US-101, CHP responds. In either case, the responding officers will evaluate the other driver for impairment. Field sobriety tests, a preliminary breath test, and if the driver is arrested, a chemical test at the station will be administered.

The DUI arrest and associated documentation are critical to your civil case. The arrest report, chemical test results, field sobriety test notes, and the arresting officer's observations all become evidence you can use in your injury claim. If the driver was convicted, that conviction can be introduced in civil proceedings as evidence of negligence. If charges are still pending, the criminal case may run parallel to your civil case on different timelines.

Request a copy of the LAPD Topanga Division incident report and arrest report as soon as they are available. Your attorney can obtain these records and monitor the parallel criminal case for developments that benefit your civil claim.

Get to Providence Tarzana Medical Center the Same Day

Regardless of how you feel at the scene, get to Providence Tarzana Medical Center at 18321 Clark Street for evaluation the same day. DUI crashes often involve high-speed or high-impact collisions because impaired drivers fail to brake, swerve, or respond appropriately to traffic conditions. The force involved can produce injuries that are not immediately obvious.

Providence Tarzana provides full emergency services including imaging, trauma care, and specialist referrals. The emergency records generated from your same-day visit establish the medical foundation of your claim. Insurers and defense attorneys routinely scrutinize the gap between a crash and first medical treatment. A same-day record eliminates that vulnerability.

Keep records of every visit, every referral, every imaging session, every prescription, and every bill from Providence Tarzana and any subsequent providers. This documentation becomes the basis for calculating your compensatory damages and, as we explain below, is part of the foundation for a punitive damages claim.

Your Civil Case Is Separate from the Criminal DUI Case

Many victims of drunk driving crashes do not realize that the criminal DUI prosecution and their civil personal injury claim are entirely separate proceedings. The District Attorney's office pursues the criminal case. You, with your attorney, pursue the civil case. The two run on different timelines and serve different purposes.

The criminal case determines whether the driver faces fines, license suspension, probation, or jail time. Your civil case determines whether you receive compensation for your injuries, losses, and suffering. A criminal conviction helps your civil case by establishing the driver's conduct, but you do not need to wait for the criminal case to conclude before filing or settling your civil claim. In fact, waiting too long risks running up against California's two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims.

However, developments in the criminal case, such as a conviction, a guilty plea, or the introduction of blood alcohol concentration evidence, can significantly strengthen your civil position. An experienced attorney will coordinate the timing of your civil case to take advantage of those developments where possible.

Punitive Damages: What Sets DUI Cases Apart

In a standard car accident case, California allows you to recover compensatory damages: your medical costs, lost wages, property damage, and pain and suffering. These damages make you whole for what the crash cost you.

In a DUI case, California Civil Code Section 3294 allows an additional category of damages: punitive damages. Punitive damages are awarded not to compensate the victim but to punish the defendant for conduct that was malicious, oppressive, or in conscious disregard of others' rights and safety. California courts have consistently held that choosing to drive drunk qualifies as conscious disregard for others' safety, making punitive damages available in DUI injury cases.

Punitive damages are not capped in California. They are determined by the jury based on the nature and severity of the defendant's conduct and their financial ability to pay. In cases involving high blood alcohol levels, prior DUI convictions, or particularly reckless behavior at the time of the crash, punitive awards can be substantial, sometimes exceeding the compensatory award.

There is an important caveat: most auto insurance policies explicitly exclude punitive damages from coverage. If punitive damages are awarded, the driver must pay them personally, not through their insurance company. This makes the driver's personal financial situation relevant to your case. If they have assets, real property, business interests, or other financial resources, those can be pursued to satisfy a punitive award.

The Driver's Insurance and Personal Assets

Your first source of compensation is the drunk driver's auto liability insurance. California requires minimum liability coverage of $15,000 per person and $30,000 per occurrence for bodily injury, though many policies carry higher limits. Your attorney will demand policy limit information early in the process.

If the drunk driver's insurance limits are insufficient to cover your damages, especially in a serious injury case where medical bills from Providence Tarzana and ongoing care can exceed six figures, you have additional options:

Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM): If your own auto policy includes UM/UIM coverage, you can make a claim against your own insurer for the gap between the drunk driver's policy limits and your actual damages. This is one of the most overlooked protections in California auto insurance.

The driver's personal assets: If you obtain a judgment that exceeds the driver's insurance limits, that judgment can be enforced against the driver's personal assets, including bank accounts, real property, and wages. Punitive damages, which insurance does not cover, must be collected from the driver directly.

The Timeline of a DUI Injury Case in Tarzana

DUI injury cases typically take longer to resolve than standard car accident cases because of the parallel criminal proceeding and the additional damages at issue. A rough timeline:

Immediately: Seek medical care at Providence Tarzana Medical Center. Document the scene and preserve evidence. Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurer.

Within days: Contact an attorney. The Topanga Division incident and arrest reports become available. An attorney sends a preservation letter for any available camera footage from the crash location.

Within weeks to months: The criminal DUI case proceeds. Your attorney files insurance claims and begins building the civil case with medical records, police reports, and witness statements.

Months to a year or more: If the criminal case resolves with a conviction, it strengthens your civil position. Settlement negotiations with the at-fault insurer happen in this range. If no fair settlement is reached, litigation at Van Nuys Courthouse West begins.

Cases involving serious injuries, punitive damages, and underinsured drivers can take two years or longer to fully resolve. The goal is reaching the right result, not the fastest one.

Do Not Handle This Alone

DUI crash cases involve more legal complexity than standard auto claims. The criminal parallel, the punitive damages analysis, the driver's personal asset exposure, and the coordination with your own UM/UIM insurer all require legal expertise. Insurance companies know this complexity and use it to their advantage when dealing with unrepresented claimants.

Our Tarzana drunk driver accident lawyer handles DUI injury cases on a contingency basis, no fees unless we recover for you. If you were hit by an impaired driver in Tarzana, call us to discuss what happened and understand your full range of options. You can also visit our Tarzana personal injury page to learn more about the cases we handle throughout the area.