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The city of Los Angeles pays annually for police misconduct, travel and falls, up from $64 million last year to $254 million and this year to $289 million, with other lawsuits rising.
The reasons are complex, leading to a huge rise in lawsuits against the city, ranging from aging sidewalks to the ju-degree tendency to make big decisions on possible changes to the city’s attorney’s office’s legal strategy.
The biggest payments in the past five years were “dangerous situations” (study depicting single-minded urban infrastructure, such as broken elevators), followed by civil rights violations and illegal use of force in 18%, and traffic collisions involving city vehicles in 18%.
City officials cite legal payments as a key factor in the roughly $1 billion budget shortfall in 2025/26, which was shut down due to layoffs and other spending cuts.
City atty. Heidefeldsteinsoto, who took office in December 2022, leads the office protecting the city from lawsuits.
In an interview with the City’s Times and public appearances, Feldsteinsoto cited a backlog of cases from the Covid-19 pandemic, where courtrooms were barely moving.
The “structured settlement” negotiated by her predecessor, Mike Faier, is paid annually rather than a single lump sum, but she also contributes to the tab.
Feldstein Soto also said he believes the ju umpire will become increasingly hostile to the city government and will bring about a bigger verdict.
Feuer said in an interview that the city was in a structured settlement before he took office, but he doesn’t think he has increased their use.
To explain the increased liability payments during his tenure, he cited the lack of investment in urban infrastructure, such as streets and sidewalks, from around $40 million in 2013 to about $91 million in 2022 – during the 2008 financial crisis.
In public, Feldstein Soto has sometimes accused the plaintiffs of trying to obtain financial compensation for what they characterized as dangerous behaviour or interpersonal conflicts.
Speaking to the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association earlier this year, she said two types of lawsuits — “dangerous situations” and lawsuits filed by city employees based on working conditions — are ripe for abuse. Feldstein Soto said some employees suing the city simply didn’t like her, claiming that High Up had retaliated against her after complaining to her boss, citing the lawsuit by LAPD captain Stacey Vince. Vince was awarded $10.1 million by the ju judge, and the city then settled the lawsuit for just under $6 million.
Feldstein Soto also described one man who accused the city of “an idiot.” The man was riding an electric scooter without a helmet, Feldstein Soto said, crashing on an uneven sidewalk and suffering from traumatic brain damage.
According to Feldstein Soto, taxpayers will ultimately pay the price for these cases.
“Understand that every dollar you award is your money,” she said.
The number of lawsuits filed against the city has increased annually since the pandemic from 1,131 in 2021 to 1,560 in 2024.
At the same time, the average amount paid by cities has increased dramatically from under $50,000 in 2022 in 2022 to $132,180 in 2024.
From July 2024 to March 2025, the city paid more than $1 million in 51 lawsuits.
Feldstein Soto said these “nuclear verdicts” would be severely cut into the city’s budget and could raise payments for similar cases in the future.
Total annual payments for police misconduct cases jumped from $15 million in 2020 to $50 million in 2024. The risky situation cases increased from around $41 million in 2020 to around $84 million in 2024.
Earlier this year, the city paid plaintiffs $21 million in a series of lawsuits related to the failed LAPD Bomb Squad Fireworks explosion that injured more than 20 people and expelled many residents.
This year, the city also paid a $17.7 million verdict to the family of a man with mental health issues who was killed by a LAPD officer on duty.
This fiscal year, the city has increased its liability payment allocation from around $87 million to $187 million (up from a $14 billion budget, much less than what it has been paying in recent years.
Councillor eunisses Hernandez, who chairs the city council’s public works committee, said the rising payments were partly attributable to the city’s lack of investment in long-term infrastructure. Last year, the city spent about 10% of its street budget on streets and other public works. That’s significantly less than it was spent on police, said Hernandez, who supports a smaller LAPD.
“As a city, we are not investing in maintaining our city,” she said. “I felt like I was falsely screaming about some of these things.”
In one lawsuit this year, the city agreed to give $3 million to a man who tripped over a slightly uneven sidewalk and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Last April, the city reached a $21 million settlement with a man whose skull was broken by a section of a streetlight that fell on him. The city went to trial, and the ju judges awarded $22 million, but the political parties ultimately settled for a slightly lower amount.
“I think the driving force is the delay and lack of maintenance in the city that caused an increase in such cases,” said Arash Zavetian, the lawyer for the man who was hit by street lights.
Some plaintiffs’ lawyers say Feldsteinsoto’s legal strategy is contributing to the rise in liability. They claim that she has taken many cases in the trial, resulting in a bigger verdict than if she had settled down.
Matthew McNicholas, a lawyer who frequently sues the city on behalf of police officers, recently went to trial on five cases, saying they all won.
He said he was happy to solve all five cases totaling under $10 million.
One of the lawsuits, which ended with a $13 million verdict, was filed by two male officers accused of drawing a penis on the abdomen of the suspect. The officers alleged that the top didn’t cast the same suspicions on female colleagues.
In another lawsuit, the whistleblower allegedly was punished for highlighting the issue of the LAPD bomb detection K-9 section. Ju’s judge also awarded him $13 million.
“It’s not a tactic to say we’re going to play hardball. It’s just stupid,” MacNicholas said. “I’m frustrated because she doesn’t blame my clients and runaway judges on her problems.”
Another plaintiff’s lawyer, Greg Smith, said he also noticed a tendency to put cases on trial in Feldstein Soto’s office.
“It’s all a fight,” Smith said. “I have been suing the city for 30 years, and this was the worst administration when it came to trying to solve cases.”
Feldsteinsoto said her office will solve “all cases we can do.”
“No one is interested in going to court, that’s a waste of resources,” she said. “But we don’t resolve cases where we don’t think we’re responsible or that demand is unreasonable.”
To stem the flood of large payments, Feldsteinsoto has sought help from Sacramento to propose lawsuits against the California city, either $1 million or triple the economic losses caused by the triple incident, whichever is greater. According to Feldstein Soto’s office, the maximum damages cap already exists in 38 states.
She has yet to find a state legislator to sponsor the bill.
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