Agoura Hills Slip & Fall Attorney

Personal Injury Attorneys Helping Clients in Los Angeles

If you slipped, tripped, or fell on someone else’s property and got injured, you may be eligible to file a claim that seeks compensation for medical expenses, lost wages and other damages. We offer our services for residents throughout Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, and all surrounding counties.

Common Causes of Slip & Fall Accidents

A slip and fall doesn’t necessarily have to occur on a commercial property. You may be in danger of a fall while you are at a friend or neighbor’s house.

These are some of the most common causes of slip and fall accidents:

• Puddles or spills
• Greasy floors
• Slippery floors
• Carpets with curling corners
• Slippery stairs
• Broken stairs
• Weak guardrails
• Poorly lit staircases
• Uneven stairs
• Ice accumulation on a sidewalk

Can I Sue for a Slip & Fall Accident?

It may be possible to sue a property owner for damages after a slip and fall accident, but in order to do so, you will need to prove a few key elements.

Successful slip and fall cases rely on proving the following:

• The Property Owner Owed You a Duty of Reasonable Care: This means that the property owner had a legal duty to ensure your safety—within reason—while you are on the property. Typically, this involves conducting reasonable maintenance and/or addressing any issues or dangerous conditions that could result in “foreseeable” harm. Commercial and municipal property owners are typically automatically presumed to owe this duty of care. Private homeowners and land owners also owe visitors and anyone else who is lawfully on their properties the same duty of care. In either case, establishing that you were legally on the property when the accident occurred is critical to your claim, as property owners do not owe the same duty of care to trespassers.
• The Property Owner Failed to Uphold the Duty of Care: This means that the property owner, through negligence or wrongful conduct, failed to take reasonable steps to ensure your safety. Examples of this include failing to conduct proper maintenance or failing to repair or address an unsafe condition, such as broken stairs or torn carpeting. Failing to warn of a dangerous condition, such as by putting out wet floor signs after an employee mops a grocery store aisle, could also be considered negligence and, therefore, may constitute a failure to uphold the duty of care.
• As a Result, You Were Injured/Suffered Measurable Damages: Lastly, in order to sue for damages, you must prove that your injuries and/or damages were directly caused by the property owner’s failure to uphold the duty of care and that your damages are measurable in some way. This does not mean that they must be economic in nature; you can also seek compensation for intangible damages, such as pain and suffering or emotional distress. However, in order to do so, you will need to be able to establish a way of measuring these damages.

In order to sue for a slip and fall accident, you must be able to prove all of these elements; failing to establish even one bars you from bringing a claim.

Responsible Parties in a Slip and Fall Claim

The responsible parties’ and their insurance companies are supposed to compensate the victims of slip and fall accidents if injury is caused by the carelessness of the responsible parties. There are a number of potential responsible parties in a slip and fall claim, depending on the ownership, lease, control or management of the property.

For instance, if your slip and fall accident occurred in a store, the responsible party may be the owner or lessee of the store in your claim, but also the owner of the property if the store was leased or rented. Other responsible parties can include property management companies and government agencies if the slip and fall involved a hazard on city or county property. If a lawsuit is filed in court, the responsible party is named but the insurance company compensates the victim of slip and fall accidents.

Proving Liability Can Be Challenging

There may be certain exceptions to the defendant’s responsibility to maintain a safe property and prevent a fall. For instance, if you slipped on a puddle of water outside a store in heavy rain, the insurance company may say that you were also partially negligent by your failure to look out for the puddle of water in such wet weather. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have grounds for a claim, though. Determining liability in these cases is challenging, and you need legal guidance to identify all liable parties.

For assistance filing a claim, speak to a Los Angeles personal injury attorney at our firm, We can help you determine how to identify all of the parties you can hold accountable for your losses.