Written by Ali Razavi

Aviation accidents are not common, but when they happen, they are rarely simple. The injuries tend to be catastrophic, the liability picture involves multiple parties, and the federal regulatory framework alone can overwhelm someone who has never handled one of these cases. I’ve worked on aviation injury claims for years, and I can tell you that the single biggest factor separating a good outcome from a bad one is who you hire — and how quickly.

If you or a family member was hurt in a plane crash, helicopter accident, or any other aircraft-related incident near West Hollywood, California, you need legal representation that understands both federal aviation law and California personal injury statutes. At Razavi Law Group | Who Hurt You?, we handle exactly these cases. Our office is located at 925 N La Brea Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90038, United States, and we serve clients across California.

How to Improve Aviation Accident Attorneys in West Hollywood?

The quality of aviation accident legal representation in West Hollywood — and across California — comes down to a few specific things: depth of technical knowledge, access to qualified aviation experts, investigative resources, and the willingness to go up against major airlines, manufacturers, and their insurers. A general personal injury attorney without aviation experience will often settle too fast, miss liable parties, or fail to properly value a claim under federal law.

From my perspective, improving the standard of aviation accident representation means attorneys need to invest in ongoing education on FAA regulations and NTSB investigative procedures. The National Transportation Safety Board controls crash investigation access and determines probable cause — an attorney who doesn’t know how to work within that process will lose critical evidence. Attorneys should also build relationships with accident reconstruction engineers and certified aviation safety experts before they ever need them, not scrambling for names after a client walks in the door.

For clients, improving your chances starts with choosing a lawyer who has handled aviation cases specifically — not just someone who handles all transportation accidents in general. Ask how many aviation cases they’ve taken, whether they’ve dealt with the NTSB investigation process, and whether they understand the interplay between the Warsaw Convention, the Montreal Convention, and California negligence law. That conversation alone will tell you a lot.

What Makes Aviation Accident Cases Different from Other Personal Injury Claims?

Most personal injury claims in California — car accidents, slip and falls, even truck crashes — are governed primarily by state law. Aviation is different. The Federal Aviation Act and FAA regulations preempt many state claims, and the NTSB has exclusive authority over crash investigations. That means your attorney cannot freely hire their own investigators to access wreckage or interview witnesses at the scene the way they might in a California car accident case.

The parties potentially liable in an aviation accident can include the aircraft manufacturer, component parts makers, the airline or charter operator, the pilot, air traffic control (which falls under the FAA and the federal government), maintenance crews, and airport operators. Each of those parties has different liability exposure and different insurance structures. Missing even one of them can leave significant money on the table.

In my experience, the damages in aviation cases are also higher on average than in most other accident types. Victims frequently suffer traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, severe burns, or lose their lives entirely. California law allows recovery for economic losses like medical bills and lost income, as well as non-economic damages for pain and suffering — but calculating those correctly requires expert economic witnesses, life care planners, and sometimes vocational rehabilitation specialists. The FindLaw legal resource database offers a useful starting point for understanding how damages are categorized, though the specific amounts depend heavily on the facts of each case.

Statutes of limitations create another layer of complexity. California’s standard personal injury statute gives you two years from the date of injury. Claims against the federal government — for example, if air traffic control error contributed to a crash — require filing an administrative claim within two years under the Federal Tort Claims Act, with different procedural rules attached. Missing either deadline is fatal to your case. This is not an area where you can afford to wait.

How Does the NTSB Investigation Affect Your Aviation Accident Claim?

The NTSB will investigate any accident involving a U.S.-registered aircraft. They have right-of-way at the crash site, and their investigation can take anywhere from several months to over two years. Their final report determines probable cause — and while that report is not admissible in civil litigation under federal law, the underlying factual findings, witness interviews, and technical documentation that feed into it are extremely valuable to your case.

What I tell clients is this: the NTSB investigation does not replace your own civil claim, but you have to track it carefully. Attorneys who know this area of practice will monitor the investigation, request public docket materials as they become available, and sometimes submit questions through proper channels. They will also move fast to preserve evidence independently — black box data, maintenance logs, pilot records, and ATC communications — before anything gets lost or overwritten.

Parallel to the NTSB, the FAA may open its own enforcement inquiry. If the accident involved a commercial carrier operating out of LAX or Burbank, you may also be dealing with an airline’s rapid-response legal team that was on site within hours of the accident. They are there to protect the airline, not the victims. Having your own aviation accident attorney engaged early is the only counter to that dynamic.

For a deeper read on how federal agencies interact in these investigations, Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute maintains current text of the Federal Aviation Act and related regulations.

What Compensation Can West Hollywood Aviation Accident Victims Recover?

The answer depends on the nature of the accident, the parties involved, and whether the flight was domestic or international. For domestic flights, California negligence law generally governs the damages calculation, subject to federal preemption issues. For international flights on carriers that are party to the Montreal Convention, special liability caps and rules apply — though those caps have been periodically updated, and in 2026 the Special Drawing Rights limits under the Montreal Convention remain a point of active litigation in U.S. federal courts.

Broadly, recoverable damages fall into two categories. Economic damages cover things you can put a number on: past and future medical treatment, hospitalization, rehabilitation, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and in fatal accidents, funeral costs and loss of financial support to surviving family. Non-economic damages cover pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life. California does not cap non-economic damages in most aviation cases the way some states do.

Wrongful death claims deserve a separate mention. If someone was killed in an aviation accident, California’s wrongful death statute allows surviving spouses, domestic partners, children, and sometimes other financial dependents to bring a claim. The estate may also bring a survival action for damages the decedent suffered before death. These are two distinct claims that run concurrently, and handling them correctly requires careful coordination.

Punitive damages are rarely available in aviation cases, but when there is clear evidence that a manufacturer knowingly concealed a defect — as happened in several high-profile crash litigations — courts have allowed punitive awards. I wouldn’t lead with that expectation, but it’s a factor worth investigating when the facts support it.

What Should You Do Immediately After an Aviation Accident?

The first 72 hours after an aviation accident are critical, and most people don’t know what to do. Here’s what I recommend based on what I’ve seen go wrong when clients wait.

Get medical attention immediately, even if you feel fine. Adrenaline masks injuries. Traumatic brain injuries and internal bleeding can present with minimal symptoms at first and worsen quickly. Documented medical treatment also creates a contemporaneous record of your injuries — without that, defense attorneys will argue your injuries were minor or pre-existing.

Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company — not your own, not the airline’s, not anyone’s — before speaking with an attorney. Insurers use recorded statements to lock in your account of events before you’ve had a chance to understand the full scope of your injuries or investigate the cause of the accident. That statement can be used against you later.

Preserve everything. Ticket stubs, boarding passes, emails confirming the flight, photos you took, any communications you had with the airline or charter operator before or after the flight. If you witnessed something important, write it down in detail while your memory is fresh. Courts treat contemporaneous notes as credible evidence.

Then call an aviation accident attorney. Not a general personal injury attorney. Not your family lawyer who handles wills. An attorney with specific aviation accident experience, who will immediately begin the evidence preservation process and put airlines and manufacturers on notice that a claim is coming. Notice letters matter because they trigger litigation hold obligations — they force the other party to stop destroying or overwriting records.

Our team at Razavi Law Group | Who Hurt You? handles the full range of aviation accident claims across California. We also handle related serious injury matters including truck accident claims and motorcycle accident cases for clients throughout the region.

Ready to Talk? Here’s How to Reach Us

Aviation accident cases move fast, and the evidence doesn’t wait. If you were injured — or lost a family member — in an aircraft accident in or around West Hollywood, California, reach out today.

Call us at (323)-612-8002 to speak with a member of our team. There’s no charge for the initial consultation, and we work on contingency — you pay nothing unless we recover for you.

You can also contact us online to schedule a consultation at a time that works for you.

Visit our West Hollywood office at 925 N La Brea Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90038, United States.

Aviation accident victims deserve attorneys who treat these cases with the seriousness they require. That’s what we do.