Motorcycle dooring
accident lawyers.
A door opened into your path with no warning. California law puts the legal duty squarely on the person who opened it — not on you. We build the case and pursue full recovery.
Dooring accidents
The law is clear: check before you open the door.
"Dooring" happens when a driver or passenger opens a vehicle door into the path of a passing rider — in a standard travel lane, a bike lane, or the space a lane-splitting motorcyclist is lawfully occupying. California Vehicle Code § 22517 makes this a clear statutory duty: no person may open a door on the side of a vehicle exposed to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe and can be done without interfering with that traffic. The duty falls on whoever opens the door — driver or passenger alike.
At the speed a rider is typically traveling, a suddenly opened door leaves no time to react. Contact with the edge of a car door — or the fall and slide that follows swerving to avoid one — produces serious injury even at moderate speeds. These crashes cluster in dense urban corridors: parallel-parked streets in Downtown LA, Hollywood, and Koreatown, and anywhere with heavy rideshare pickup and drop-off activity.
Liability in dooring cases is often straightforward once the mechanism is documented — but insurers still look for angles, particularly around lane position and speed. We build the record early: photographs of the door's position relative to the lane, witness statements, and any available camera or dashcam footage.
Under California's pure comparative fault rule (Civil Code § 1431.2), even a disputed fault allocation only reduces your recovery — it doesn't eliminate it. Contact us today — evidence at the scene clears fast.
Step-by-step
What to do after a dooring crash.
Dooring scenes clear quickly — the vehicle often just parks and the door closes. Document everything you can before that happens.
Free case review →Get the officer's name, badge number, and report number. Make sure the report identifies who opened the door — driver or passenger — and captures their statement.
Document exactly how far the door extended into the travel lane or bike lane, the vehicle's parked position, and any lane markings. This single photograph often resolves the entire liability question.
Identify who was in the vehicle and who opened the door. If it's a rideshare vehicle, note the app, driver name, and trip details from the passenger's phone if possible.
A sudden collision with a door edge, or the fall that follows swerving to avoid one, can cause injuries that aren't immediately obvious. A same-day visit protects your claim.
Storefront and business surveillance along commercial corridors frequently captures dooring incidents. Note every camera you see and tell us immediately — most systems overwrite within days.
Insurers sometimes try to argue you were traveling too fast or too close to parked cars. Do not give a recorded statement. We present the clear statutory duty and hold the responsible party accountable.
Common injuries
A sudden obstacle,
a serious fall.
Whether you strike the door directly or lay the bike down avoiding it, dooring incidents produce injuries out of proportion to the low speeds often involved.
Clear liability doesn't stop the pushback.
Even with a statutory duty squarely on the driver or passenger, insurers still look for an angle. Here's what they try.
Questions & answers
Dooring accident FAQ.
Two years to file. The scene clears in minutes.
California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 gives you two years from the incident date to file a personal injury lawsuit. But dooring scenes clear fast — the vehicle parks, the door closes, and the physical evidence of the door's position disappears. If a government vehicle was involved, the deadline is six months under Government Code § 911.2. The sooner we start, the stronger the record.