A Westside crash lawsuit is usually a Los Angeles Superior Court case, but it is not always filed in the building closest to Brentwood. Two courthouses come up constantly in these files. Stanley Mosk is the downtown civil hub. The Santa Monica Courthouse is the Westside building many families actually walk into. This page repeats the official addresses, public hours and published phone numbers, and then explains how limited-civil and small-claims ceilings affect the path you choose.
Stanley Mosk Courthouse
Stanley Mosk Courthouse is at 111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. A public notice issued by the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on April 16, 2026, says public hours at Mosk, when the doors open and close for security screening, are 7:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except court holidays. That is earlier than the 8:00 opening the same notice gives for most other courthouses. Clerk’s offices in the court’s courthouses, including this one, are open 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except court holidays. The court’s official call-center list publishes the Mosk number as (213) 830-0800.
Unlimited civil cases, and many larger injury and death cases, are often associated with this downtown building. Filing assignments can change, and a case that starts in one courthouse can be heard in another. Confirm the current filing location with the court before you carry a thick file across town.
Santa Monica Courthouse
Santa Monica Courthouse is at 1725 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401, the address on the court’s official appointment and courtroom pages. The April 16, 2026 public notice puts this building in the general group of courthouses whose public hours are 8:00 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except court holidays, with the same 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. clerk’s-office hours. The official call-center list publishes the Santa Monica number as (310) 255-1840.
For many Westside families, this is the closer counter. It is still a Los Angeles Superior Court building, not a separate city court, and it is not automatically the correct filing location for every Brentwood crash. Ask the clerk, or a lawyer who files these cases, which courthouse should receive the complaint.
Limited civil and small claims
CCP 85 and CCP 86 treat a civil case as limited when, among other conditions, the amount in controversy does not exceed thirty-five thousand dollars, exclusive of attorney fees, interest and costs in the definition section 85 uses. A serious injury with a hospital stay often asks for more than that, and then the case is not a limited civil case. A modest property-damage and minor-injury dispute might fit, but boxing a still-evolving injury into the limited ceiling is a poor trade if later treatment outruns it.
CCP 116.221 gives the small-claims court jurisdiction in an action brought by a natural person if the amount of the demand does not exceed twelve thousand five hundred dollars, except as otherwise prohibited by section 116.220, subdivision (c), or section 116.231. CCP 116.231 also limits how many small-claims actions over two thousand five hundred dollars a person may file in a calendar year. Small claims is a money-demand path with its own procedures. It is often a poor fit for an uninsured-motorist dispute, a child’s settlement or a case that needs discovery. If the injury is still changing, talk with a lawyer before you choose that path.
The official court site and self-help
The court’s public information, including courthouse locations, is published from lacourt.org. California Courts also publishes plain-language pages on injury lawsuits and on lawsuit deadlines, at the personal-injury self-help page and the statute-of-limitations self-help page. Those pages are a starting point. They do not replace advice on a particular Westside file, and they do not change the two-year date in CCP 335.1 or the six-month government-claim date in GOV 911.2.
Filing fees, department assignments and holiday closures change. Ask the clerk for the current fee and the current filing location.
What to bring, and when a lawyer is worth the trip
If you go to a clerk’s window, bring identification, the crash report if you have it, and any papers you have already been given. If you are thinking about filing a limited or unlimited civil complaint, a short conversation with an attorney is usually worth more than a same-day guess at the ceiling. Bring the report number, the declarations page and the medical bills. Confirm the person’s California license. The deadline and fault guide explains the two-year date that still sits behind any of these filing choices.
If you have a deadline approaching and you are not sure which building should receive the papers, do not guess from a neighbor’s story about a different kind of case. Ask the clerk, or file with help from a lawyer, in time for the two-year date in CCP 335.1 or for any shorter government-claim date. A case filed in the wrong location can often be moved. A case filed after the date is a much harder problem.
- Public hours
- The hours a courthouse building is open to the public for security screening, which the April 16, 2026 notice distinguishes from clerk’s-office hours.
- Limited civil case
- A superior-court path available when the amount in controversy is not more than thirty-five thousand dollars and the other conditions in CCP 85 and CCP 86 are met.
- Small claims
- A streamlined money-demand path that, for a natural person, has a twelve-thousand-five-hundred-dollar ceiling under CCP 116.221, with additional limits in the same chapter.