Slip and Fall Lawyer for Los Angeles and Orange County

Falls get laughed off until you’re the one with a fractured wrist, a torn rotator cuff, or a concussion from a tile floor. Property owners in California owe everyone who lawfully comes onto their property reasonable care, and when they cut corners on cleanup, lighting, or repairs, the law holds them responsible. Fred Yadegar represents people injured in slip, trip, and fall accidents across Los Angeles County and Orange County.

What a premises liability claim actually requires

Every person and business in California is responsible for injuries caused by a failure to use ordinary care (Civ. Code §1714). For a fall case, that breaks into a few questions. Was there a dangerous condition? Did the owner or occupier know about it, or should they have known? Did they fix it, warn about it, or block it off within a reasonable time? And did the condition cause your injury?

The fight is almost always over the second question: notice. A grocery store isn’t liable just because a grape was on the floor. It’s liable if the grape had been there long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it, or if an employee saw it and walked past. That’s why inspection logs and sweep sheets matter so much. A store that can’t show when it last checked the aisle has a problem, and California courts allow a jury to infer notice from that gap (Ortega v. Kmart Corp., 2001).

The evidence disappears fast

Most stores, apartment complexes, and parking structures run security cameras. Most of them also overwrite footage on a loop, sometimes within a week or two. The video of your fall, and of the twenty minutes before it when no one mopped up the spill, will be gone unless someone tells the owner to keep it.

Fred sends a written preservation letter to the property owner and its insurer as soon as he’s retained. It demands the video, the incident report, the inspection logs, and the maintenance records for the area, and it puts the owner on notice that destroying them after the demand has consequences in court. This is the single most time-sensitive step in a fall case, and it’s the reason to call this week, not next month.

Where falls happen, and who’s responsible

Stores and restaurants. Spills, leaking coolers, freshly mopped floors with no sign, produce on the floor, and merchandise in the aisles. The business that controls the premises is responsible, whether it owns the building or leases it.

Apartment buildings. Landlords must keep common areas safe: stairwells, walkways, parking areas, laundry rooms, pool decks. Broken handrails, burned-out lights, and loose carpet on stairs are recurring problems in older Los Angeles and Orange County buildings, and a tenant’s own complaints often prove the landlord knew.

Sidewalks and parking lots. Lifted sidewalk slabs, potholes, unmarked curbs, and grease-slick parking structures. Responsibility can sit with the adjacent property owner, the city, or both, depending on who created the hazard and local ordinances. Sorting that out early matters because of the next category.

Government property. A fall on a city sidewalk, in a county building, at a public school, or at a Metro station is a claim against a public entity (Gov. Code §835). You must file a written government claim within six months (Gov. Code §911.2), and the entity will argue the defect was “trivial.” The clock on these is brutal.

“You should have been watching where you were going”

You’ll hear this from the adjuster. California uses pure comparative negligence (Li v. Yellow Cab, 1975), so even if a jury decides you share some fault, you still recover the rest. Wearing flip-flops, looking at your phone, or being in a hurry reduces a claim; it doesn’t end it. The owner’s failure to inspect, clean, light, or warn is still the owner’s failure.

What to do right now

• Get medical care today and tell the provider exactly how you fell. That record ties the injury to the incident.
• Report the fall to the manager or landlord before you leave, and ask for a copy of the incident report. Describe what happened; don’t guess at causes.
• Photograph the hazard, the surrounding area, the lighting, and any warning signs or the lack of them. Include something for scale.
• Photograph your shoes and keep them. Insurers argue footwear constantly.
• Get names and numbers for witnesses, including employees who commented on the hazard.
• Don’t give a recorded statement to the property’s insurer, and don’t accept “we’ll cover your medical bills” as a settlement.
• Write down the time, the weather, and what you saw before and after the fall while it’s fresh.
• Call a lawyer so a preservation letter goes out before the video is overwritten.

When a fall becomes a serious injury case

Hip fractures, spinal injuries, and head injuries from falls change lives, especially for older adults. Those cases are built around future care and are covered on our serious injuries page. If the property’s insurer is stalling or denying, our insurance company disputes page explains the deadlines it has to meet. A fall caused by a vehicle, or while crossing a street, may belong under pedestrian accidents instead.

Why call Fred

Fall cases are lost in the first two weeks more often than in the courtroom, because the video vanished and no one wrote down who saw what. Fred Yadegar moves on evidence immediately and builds the notice case the insurer will otherwise say doesn’t exist. He represents fall victims across Los Angeles and Orange County on a contingency fee, with no upfront cost. If you don’t get paid, we don’t get paid.