Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries in California

Slip and fall / premises liability: California uses one reasonable-care standard for everyone on the property rather than separate invitee, licensee and trespasser duties. A person who owns, leases, occupies or controls property must use reasonable care to keep it reasonably safe, to discover unsafe conditions, and to repair, replace or adequately warn of anything that could reasonably be expected to harm others. To prove an unsafe-condition claim, the injured person must show that a condition created an unreasonable risk of harm, that the owner knew or with reasonable care should have known about it, that the owner failed to fix it, protect against it or warn, and that this was a substantial factor in causing the harm. Claims against public entities follow separate dangerous-condition rules (CACI No. 1100 and following).

Public sidewalks: under California's official jury instructions, an owner or occupier must avoid creating an unsafe condition on the surrounding public streets or sidewalks. The instruction's authorities state the general rule that, absent a statute, an abutting landowner has no duty to maintain the public sidewalk, but an owner who altered a portion of the sidewalk for the sole benefit of the property, for a purpose different from ordinary sidewalk use, must use reasonable care in creating and maintaining that altered portion. A public entity that owns or controls the sidewalk can be liable for a dangerous condition if its employee created the condition or it had actual or constructive notice of the condition long enough to have protected against it.

Claims against a city, county or other government agency: before suing, you must file a written claim with the agency; for a city or county, you contact that city or county to learn how to submit it. A claim for injury to a person or damage to personal property must be filed within 6 months of the injury. The agency has 45 days to respond; if it denies the claim, you have 6 months from the date the rejection was mailed to sue, and if it does not respond, you generally have up to 2 years from the injury to sue. The same Government Claims Act process covers the state and local agencies (state claims go to the Government Claims Program).

A lawsuit for injury to a person (for example, accidents, assault, battery, or negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress) must generally be filed within 2 years from the date of the injury. If the injury was not discovered right away, the time generally starts when it was discovered or should reasonably have been discovered.