Orange Personal Injury Lawyer

If you were seriously hurt in the City of Orange, Kubota & Craig can help. We are a personal injury firm based nearby in Irvine, and founding partners Yoshiaki C. Kubota and Cynthia A. Craig personally handle every case the firm takes — you work with the attorneys who will try your case, not a case manager. From crashes on Tustin Street, Chapman Avenue, and the freeways to falls and pedestrian collisions in Old Towne, we represent people hurt across the City of Orange — and we hold the insurance companies that try to underpay them accountable. (This page is about the incorporated City of Orange, not Orange County as a whole.)

City of Orange Personal Injury Cases We Handle

We represent people across every major kind of serious-injury case in the City of Orange:

Why Injured Orange Clients Choose Kubota & Craig

Yoshiaki C. Kubota (California Bar #175555) has more than 30 years of trial experience and has been named to Super Lawyers every year since 2010 and to Best Lawyers in America since 2025. Cynthia A. Craig (California Bar #226318) has more than 20 years representing injured people and is a trial lawyer who has tried dozens of cases to verdict; a past president of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, she has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America (2022–2026) and Super Lawyers (2024–2026). Both founding partners are personally involved in every case — the attorney you meet is the attorney who handles your claim.

What Our Orange Clients Say

Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case depends on its own facts.

Understanding Injuries in the City of Orange

The sections below are background for anyone who wants it — what the City of Orange's own police data and road-safety studies show about how and where people are hurt here. It reflects the local ground we work on; your own claim is always built on the evidence in your case, not on citywide statistics.

What Orange Police reported for 2024

In its most recent traffic-safety data, the Orange Police Department investigated 1,071 crashes in the City of Orange in 2024 — 517 of them injury crashes, hurting 741 people, with 5 fatal crashes. Unsafe speed was the most common primary factor, cited in 231 crashes (including 118 injury crashes), and the department reported 537 DUI arrests.

What the City of Orange's Road Safety Plan found

The City of Orange's Local Road Safety Plan analyzed 3,583 collisions reported on City roadways from 2017 through 2021. Broadside (T-bone) crashes were about 33% and rear-end about 24%. Most telling for how these cases are fought, the City's own analysis ranked the leading primary collision factors:

That lines up with the current data: unsafe speed led the City's 2017–2021 study and remained the most common primary factor in Orange Police's 2024 crashes — a consistent theme across two City datasets years apart. The historical plan also recorded 160 pedestrian-involved and 136 bicycle-involved collisions in that period.

Intersections the City's safety analysis flagged

Rather than guess, the City ranked intersections in its safety plan. These are locations the City of Orange identified for further study based on its 2017–2021 collision data — not a lawyer's list of "dangerous" corners:

Pedestrian safety in Old Towne and around Chapman University

Two parts of the City draw unusual foot and bike traffic: Old Towne, whose growing restaurant and nightlife scene around Plaza Square pulls people into the streets, and the Chapman University area. Orange Police's current traffic-safety materials specifically flag pedestrian and bicycle activity around the campus and downtown as an enforcement concern, and the City's road-safety plan recorded 43 collisions at the unsignalized Glassell Street / Plaza Square location — the highest raw count among the unsignalized intersections in its table. For anyone hurt walking or riding here, the evidence that decides the case is local and time-sensitive: crosswalk and signal conditions, nearby business surveillance, lighting, and witnesses.

How City of Orange traffic injuries changed, 2021–2023

California Office of Traffic Safety data — for the incorporated City of Orange, not the county — show injuries rising, with the sharpest increases among people on bikes and on foot.

Bicyclists killed or injured nearly doubled — from 20 in 2021 to 38 in 2023 — and speed-related fatal or injury collisions rose from 80 to 121. Here is the bicyclist trend:

Emergency and trauma care in the City of Orange

Unlike many Orange County cities, the City of Orange is home to two of the county's designated trauma centers: UCI Health in Orange, at 101 The City Drive South, and Rady Children's Hospital — Orange County (which, despite the name, is at a City of Orange address on West La Veta Avenue). St. Joseph Hospital in Orange is another major emergency hospital in the city. In a serious crash, a patient is routed through Orange County's EMS process based on trauma-triage criteria, and those trauma and hospital records often become central medical evidence.

What if the City of Orange may be responsible?

Some injuries involve a public agency — a public sidewalk or roadway condition, a traffic-control issue, a City vehicle, or a public facility. A claim against the City of Orange is submitted on the City's Claim for Damages form to the City Clerk at 300 E. Chapman Avenue. California generally requires a written claim within six months of the injury — far shorter than the two-year deadline for most lawsuits, though limited relief may exist for certain late claims — so it should be evaluated by an attorney right away.

Where an Orange personal injury lawsuit is filed

There is an Orange County courthouse physically in the City of Orange — the Lamoreaux Justice Center at 341 The City Drive South — but it handles juvenile, family-law, and related matters, not ordinary personal injury cases. Injury lawsuits from Orange are generally filed at the Central Justice Center, 700 Civic Center Drive West, in Santa Ana (limited and unlimited civil), with complex cases at the Civil Complex Center. Venue can depend on factors such as where the injury occurred and where a defendant resides, so your attorneys sort out the correct filing location for your case.

How an Orange Injury Claim Works

Most injury claims come down to negligence — showing that another party owed you a duty of care, breached it, and caused you real harm. California applies comparative fault, so more than one party (sometimes including you) can share responsibility, and compensation is adjusted accordingly; being blamed by an insurer, or listed as a contributing party in a report, does not by itself end a claim. When liability is established, the compensation available can include past and future medical costs, lost income and earning capacity, pain and suffering, and other losses tied to the injury. What a case is worth depends on its facts and the available insurance — not a formula — and we give a realistic assessment after reviewing the records.

Deadlines matter. Most California personal injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1), and property-damage claims within three. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is generally due within six months. Because the deadlines and the responsible party vary, it's best to talk with us early.

Orange Personal Injury FAQ

Sources & Methodology