A crash on the 134 takes seconds. What happens in the weeks after it decides the next years of your life. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $22.6 Million jury verdict, and we build every Glendale crash case the same way: for trial, so the insurance company prices it that way. In English, in Armenian, or in Farsi, start to finish.
The Crashes We See
Glendale traffic has a shape, and the crash patterns follow it. Three freeways frame the city. The 134 crosses it east to west. The 2 drops out of the foothills and cuts through the center of the city before meeting the 134. The 5 runs the western edge, and the interchanges where those freeways meet are short on merge room and long on sudden slowdowns: freeway-speed traffic braking into congestion, drivers cutting across lanes to make a connector, rear-end chains that start with one driver following too closely.
The surface streets concentrate the rest. Brand Boulevard carries signal-to-signal shopping and dining traffic through the heart of the city, with pedestrians, left turns, and parking maneuvers at every block. Glenoaks Boulevard and San Fernando Road run long, straight corridors where speed builds between lights. Colorado Street funnels cross-town traffic toward the 2 and on toward Eagle Rock. The patterns repeat:
First Things First
The insurance company starts working your case the day of the crash. You should too. Here is the order of operations, whether the collision happened on the 134, on Brand Boulevard, or in a parking structure off Colorado Street.
Adrenaline masks injury. Gaps in treatment are the first thing adjusters use to discount a claim. Glendale crash victims are often treated at Adventist Health Glendale or at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial; wherever you go, describe every symptom, and follow the plan. Those records become the backbone of the case.
Who writes the report depends on where the crash happened. Collisions on Glendale city streets are generally handled by the Glendale Police Department. Collisions on the 134, the 2, and the 5 are generally handled by the California Highway Patrol. Get the report number before you leave the scene if you can.
Vehicle positions, damage to every car, skid marks, debris, the intersection, the signal, your visible injuries. Photographs end arguments that memories start.
Independent witnesses decide disputed-liability cases. They leave the scene in minutes and become unreachable in days.
Your policy requires prompt notice. Give the facts, not opinions about fault, and not a recorded statement to the other side. Before any adjuster records you, read what the recorded statement is actually for.
Early releases and quick checks are priced before your injuries are understood. Once you sign, the case is over, no matter what your MRI shows a month later.
Keep the vehicle, or at least ensure it is photographed and its event data recorder is downloaded before it is repaired or totaled out.
Two years feels like a long time. It is not, and if a public entity is involved, you may have six months. The consultation is free, in English, Armenian, or Farsi.
Hurt in a Glendale crash? Tell us what happened.
Free Case ReviewHow We Work
Settlement value is set by trial risk. An insurance company pays full value for exactly one reason: the alternative is a jury. So we build every Glendale case, from a rear-end on the 2 to a catastrophic interchange crash, as if it will be tried, and we let the carrier watch the construction.
The build starts with evidence that disappears fast. Collision reports. Camera footage from businesses and doorbells, often overwritten within days, which is why preservation letters go out in week one. Event data recorder downloads before the cars are repaired or totaled out. Cell phone records. Vehicle damage analysis and accident reconstruction. By the time the demand goes out, the file reads like a trial exhibit binder, because it is one.
California law gives a crash victim real tools. When a driver violates a safety statute, the violation can establish negligence per se under Evidence Code section 669: the statute sets the standard of care, and breaking it is presumed negligence. Follow too closely in stop-and-go traffic on the 134, and Vehicle Code section 21703 does the work. Drive too fast for the traffic or the weather, even under the posted limit, and the basic speed law of Vehicle Code section 22350 does the work. The citation on the collision report matters. We build on it.
When the defense claims you were partly at fault, Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804 means your recovery is reduced by your percentage, never erased. Understand what that fight is actually about: every percentage point is money, and percentages are decided by juries, not adjusters. Adjusters price files based on what a jury would do with the evidence, which is why the evidence gets built first.
And the adjuster is not confused. The adjuster is friendly, and the adjuster is not on your side. Carriers price claims with software, and the inputs are set in the first weeks: the recorded statement you gave before you knew your diagnosis, the treatment gap from the month you tried to tough it out, the quick settlement offered before your MRI. What moves a carrier off its number is not a louder phone call. It is a file the software cannot discount, in the hands of a firm the carrier knows will file and try the case. Adjusters keep score on which lawyers try cases and which lawyers fold, and that reputation is priced into every offer.
This page covers what makes a Glendale case a Glendale case. The complete playbook, from the recorded statement to how claim software prices a file, lives in our California car accident guide, and the way we approach every injury case, car or not, is laid out in our personal injury overview.
Three Languages
Glendale is home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the world outside Armenia, and this firm was built to serve it properly. Tom Vertanous is an Armenian-speaking trial lawyer. The firm works in English, Armenian, and Farsi, and that is not a translation service bolted onto a law office. It means the case itself happens in your language.
The first call. The questions about your medical history, where precision decides what gets treated and what gets missed. The explanation of what comparative fault means for your file. The preparation before a deposition. The phone call when the offer comes in and the decision is yours to make. All of it in Armenian or Farsi when that is the language your family actually speaks around the kitchen table. Your parents can ask their own questions and get their own answers. Nothing is lost in translation, and nobody's case rides on a relative interpreting the most important conversations of their life.
This matters for a reason that has nothing to do with comfort. Insurance companies take statements from crash victims in their second language and use every imprecise word against them. That does not happen to our clients.
Our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena is minutes from Glendale on the 134. Close enough to be local. Serious enough to know the difference between a Brand Boulevard fender tap and an interchange crash that changes a family's life.
Damages
No honest lawyer quotes a number at the first call. But the components are settled, and building each one correctly is the job:
The injury that most often hides in a crash file is the brain injury. Concussion, post-concussive syndrome, memory loss, personality change. If your family says you have not been the same since the crash, that observation is evidence, and we know how to develop it. We wrote the guide: traumatic brain injury cases in California.
One warning California drivers deserve to hear early: state law generally limits an uninsured owner or driver to economic damages, even when the other driver was entirely at fault. The medical bills and lost earnings survive; the pain-and-suffering claim usually does not. If you were uninsured at the time of the crash, tell us at the first call, because it changes the strategy, and there are exceptions worth examining.
Our own motor vehicle results include a $2.5 Million mediation settlement ranked among TopVerdict's Top 20 Los Angeles motor vehicle accident settlements of 2025. The difference between a discounted settlement and full value is rarely luck. It is preparation the carrier can see. The full breakdown, including the multiplier myth and how claim software actually prices files, is here: what your case is actually worth.
Find out what your Glendale case is actually worth.
Free Case ReviewDeadlines
Three deadlines matter in every Glendale crash case. First, the general statute of limitations: two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Second, the government claim deadline: if a city, county, or state vehicle or roadway is involved, a written claim must generally be presented within six months under Government Code section 911.2, long before any lawsuit. A crash caused by a missing signal, a broken streetlight, or a dangerous roadway design is a dangerous condition of public property claim, and the six-month clock controls it. Third, your own policy's deadlines for uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, which are contractual and unforgiving.
Glendale cases proceed in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The Glendale courthouse sits on East Broadway, minutes from Brand, and depending on the case an injury lawsuit may be heard there or in downtown Los Angeles. Either way, no courthouse extends the deadlines above.
Evidence has a clock too. Camera footage is overwritten in days. Vehicles are repaired. Witnesses move. The earlier we start, the stronger the case.
If we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
No honest lawyer can give you a number at the first call. Value turns on liability, the medicine, the available insurance, and how well the case is built. What we can tell you is what drives the number: medical expenses past and future, lost earnings, and the human damages a jury is allowed to award for pain, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life. Build those correctly and the number follows.
It depends on who responded. Crashes on Glendale city streets, such as Brand Boulevard or Glenoaks Boulevard, are generally handled by the Glendale Police Department, and the report is requested from them. Crashes on the 134, the 2, or the 5 are generally handled by the California Highway Patrol. Bring us the report number, or just what you remember, and we will track the report down.
No. California follows pure comparative negligence under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, not eliminated by it. A driver found 30 percent at fault still recovers 70 percent of their damages. Adjusters use fault arguments to discount claims; juries decide percentages, and the percentage is worth fighting over.
Generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. But if a public entity is involved, such as a city vehicle or a dangerous roadway condition, you must present a government claim within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Miss that deadline and the case can die before it starts. Call before you assume you have time.
Yes. Tom Vertanous is an Armenian-speaking trial lawyer, and the firm works in English, Armenian, and Farsi. The first call, the questions about your medical history, the strategy conversations, and every update along the way happen in your language, for you and for your family. Nothing is lost in translation, and nobody has to rely on a relative to interpret the most important conversations of the case.
Yes. Our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena is minutes from Glendale on the 134, and Glendale is one of the communities we serve most. Glendale cases proceed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, whose Glendale courthouse sits on East Broadway, and depending on the case an injury lawsuit may be heard there or in downtown Los Angeles. Distance is not a factor. The consultation is free.
Nothing out of pocket. We work on contingency: the consultation is free, we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery you owe no attorney fee.
Client Reviews
Ani A., Glendalevia Yelp"The guy who hit me had a low max coverage. I don't know what magic Vertanous Firm worked, but I got paid for my damages less than a year out from my accident, and was paid three times more than the policy limit."
Tony K., Burbankvia Yelp"Tom is the absolute best. He knows the law and he also knows medicine. One meeting with Tom and he was able to understand the medicine behind my condition and find the appropriate doctors."
Bobby S., Los Angelesvia Yelp"Tom is a straight shooter and he's whip-smart. He treated my case as though it were his own. He has a gift for compassion that sets him apart from other legal professionals."
Where We Work
From our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena, minutes from Glendale on the 134, we represent crash victims across Glendale, the San Gabriel Valley, and all of Los Angeles County, in English, Armenian, and Farsi.
Contact
Call, text, email, or send a brief message. We respond the same day. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
