Contra Costa County · Areas we serve
Personal injury lawyers serving Lafayette
Highway 24 carries Lafayette's commute and most of its serious crashes. Our Walnut Creek office is one exit east — and the case review is always free.
Lafayette is built along a single spine: Highway 24 runs straight through it, with the BART line down the freeway median and Mt. Diablo Boulevard tracing the old route through downtown a block away. Nearly everyone in town uses that corridor daily — driving toward the Caldecott Tunnel in the morning, back over the hill in the evening — and the stop-and-go compression near the Pleasant Hill Road and Oak Hill Road interchanges is where many of the crashes we see from Lafayette begin.
Away from the freeway, the picture changes but the risk does not. Lafayette's residential roads are narrow, tree-lined, and often without sidewalks or shoulders, and they are shared with a serious cycling community — riders circling the Lafayette Reservoir, heading down Moraga Road, or connecting through to the Lamorinda hills. When a car meets a cyclist or a pedestrian on a road like that, the injuries are rarely minor.
Oguz Injury Lawyers LLP is one exit east on Highway 24, in downtown Walnut Creek. If you were hurt in Lafayette, we are close enough to meet you where convenient — but most cases begin with a simple phone call. That first conversation is free, and if we take your case, you pay nothing unless we win.
Local information
Courts
Contra Costa County Superior Court
Injury lawsuits from Lafayette are filed with the Contra Costa County Superior Court, which handles civil cases in Martinez. Filing is a tool, not a starting point — the majority of claims settle with the insurer first — but knowing the venue and preparing for it is part of doing the job right.
Nearby hospitals
- John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek (trauma center)
- Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center
Getting your accident report
Collisions on Lafayette's own streets — Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Moraga Road, the residential hills — are documented by the Lafayette Police Department, and you can request the report from the department once it is complete. Anything on Highway 24 itself belongs to the California Highway Patrol, and the report will come from the CHP. If you would rather not spend your recovery chasing paperwork, we will identify the right agency and request the report for you — it is part of the free case review.
How we can help in Lafayette
Frequently asked questions
I was rear-ended on Highway 24 near Lafayette. Who investigated it?
Highway 24 is a state freeway, so the California Highway Patrol handles crashes there — not the Lafayette Police Department, which covers the city's surface streets. Your collision report will come from the CHP. We can request it for you and, just as importantly, read it the way an insurer will.
I'm a cyclist who was hit by a car in Lafayette. Do I have the same rights as a driver?
Yes. California law gives cyclists the same right to the road and the same right to compensation when a negligent driver causes injury. Insurers sometimes lean on stereotypes about cyclists to shift blame; California's pure comparative negligence rule means even a rider found partly at fault can still recover, reduced by their share. Do not accept a fault story built without your side of it.
How much time do I have to bring a claim?
For most injuries, two years from the date of the incident under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If a public entity may be responsible — for example, a claim involving a government vehicle or a dangerous condition of public property — a written government claim is generally required within six months. Those six months pass quickly when you are focused on healing, so ask early.
The crash seems minor. Is it worth calling a lawyer?
Sometimes the honest answer is no, and we will tell you that for free. But injuries have a way of outlasting first impressions — soreness that becomes a disc problem, a wrist that needs surgery months later. A short call costs nothing and protects you either way, because you will know what your options are before you sign anything from an insurer.
How are you paid?
On contingency: no money up front, and no fee at all unless we recover for you. Our interest is aligned with yours from the first phone call, and that first phone call is free.
Nearby areas we serve
Injured in Lafayette? Talk to us first.
The case review is free and confidential, and you pay nothing unless we win. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you honestly where you stand.