Slip and Fall Lawyer Los Angeles

Los Angeles Slip and Fall Lawyer

Hurt in a Fall on Property Someone Else Was Supposed to Keep Safe?

You were shopping, heading to your car, or walking home, and one second later you were on the ground. At Ravan Law, we represent people seriously injured in slip and fall and trip and fall accidents on property that someone else was responsible for maintaining. If you are looking for a Los Angeles slip and fall lawyer, you have probably seen one of these: a spill left in a grocery aisle, a broken stair in an apartment building, an oil slick on a parking structure ramp, a lifted sidewalk panel the city had already been told about. A slip and fall takes a second. The result can be a fractured hip, a spinal injury, or a brain injury that changes how you work and live for years.

A property owner is not automatically responsible because you fell. Slip and fall cases in California turn on one question: did the owner know about the hazard, or should a reasonable inspection have found it, and did the owner fail to fix it or warn you? The evidence that answers that question, starting with surveillance footage, is often overwritten within days. We move quickly to secure it. And if you fell on public property, a six-month government claim deadline started running on the day you were hurt.

Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. You work with us directly, and we answer your questions from the first call. Information is available in Spanish.

Slip and Fall Attorney Los Angeles: What California Premises Liability Law Requires

Every slip and fall claim in California starts with Civil Code 1714, which makes each person and business responsible for injuries caused by a lack of ordinary care in the management of their property. As your California slip and fall lawyer, we build from that statute. Premises liability, the branch of negligence law that covers injuries caused by unsafe property conditions, applies to retail stores, restaurants, hotels, apartment complexes, office buildings, parking lots and garages, and private homes.

California does not sort injured people into the “invitee,” “licensee,” and “trespasser” categories many other states still use. Since the California Supreme Court decided Rowland v. Christian in 1968, the question has been whether the owner acted as a reasonable person would under all the circumstances, including how likely an injury was and how easily it could have been prevented. Why you were on the property is one factor. It is not the whole test.

What a Slip and Fall Claim Has to Show

1. A dangerous condition. A spill, a broken step, a loose mat, an unlit stairwell, a raised edge in a walkway: something that created an unreasonable risk of harm.
2. Ownership or control. The defendant owned, leased, managed, or controlled the area. More than one party can share responsibility, such as a landlord and a commercial tenant, or a store and its floor-cleaning contractor.
3. Notice. The owner knew about the condition, or should have discovered it, in time to fix it or warn you.
4. Causation and harm. The condition caused your fall, and the fall caused real injury and financial loss.

Warning Signs and “Open and Obvious” Hazards

A yellow “Wet Floor” sign does not end your slip and fall claim on its own. We look at whether the sign was placed where you could see it, whether it matched the actual hazard, and whether the condition was left in place longer than it should have been. Owners and insurers also argue that a hazard was “open and obvious.” An obvious danger can reduce or eliminate the duty to warn, but it does not necessarily excuse the duty to repair, especially when people have no practical way to avoid it, such as a broken step on the only stairway to a unit.

How a Los Angeles Premises Liability Attorney Proves Notice

Notice is where most slip and fall cases are won or lost, so it is where we put our first effort. It comes in two forms.

Actual notice means the owner knew. An employee saw the spill. A tenant reported the loose handrail in writing. Someone fell in the same spot last month. A maintenance request sat open for weeks.

Constructive notice means the owner should have known. In Ortega v. Kmart Corp. (2001), the California Supreme Court held that an injured person can prove constructive notice by showing the condition existed long enough that a reasonable inspection would have discovered it, and that this can be shown with evidence the owner failed to inspect within a reasonable period of time. There is no fixed number of minutes. A store that has not walked the produce aisle in an hour is in a different position from one that inspected it five minutes before the fall. That is why the inspection log is one of the first records we request as your premises liability attorney.

When the owner or its employees created the hazard, by mopping without a sign, stacking stock in an aisle, or installing a leaking cooler, the owner is treated as knowing about it.

Evidence That Disappears After a Slip and Fall

This is why we send a preservation letter at the start of a slip and fall case. It puts the owner on notice to keep the footage and records. If the owner repairs the hazard after you fall, California Evidence Code 1151 generally prevents the repair itself from being used to prove negligence, but it does not erase the photographs and records of the condition as it was before the repair.

What to Do After a Slip and Fall in Los Angeles

• Get medical care first. Head injuries, spinal injuries, and internal bleeding can present hours or days later. The medical record also ties the injury to the fall.
• Report the fall before you leave. Ask for a written incident report and a copy, and write down the manager’s name.
• Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned up. Take close shots and wide shots, the lighting, and the absence of any warning sign.
• Look for cameras. Photograph them so the footage can be requested by location.
• Get witness names and phone numbers. Include employees who came to help.
• Keep your shoes and clothing in a bag, unwashed.
• Decline a recorded statement. You are not required to give one to the property owner’s insurer, and it is reasonable to wait until you have spoken with us. Do not sign a release or accept a settlement check before the extent of your injuries is known.
• Stay off social media about the fall and your recovery.

For a fuller checklist on why the first days matter, see why time is so important after you have been injured.

Slip and Fall Lawyer Los Angeles: Where Falls Happen and Who Is Responsible

The type of property usually decides who is responsible and how we build your slip and fall case. For a broader explanation of the law behind these claims, see what premises liability cases are.

Grocery Stores, Big-Box Retailers, and Shopping Centers

Produce sections with misted floors, freezer aisles with condensation, leaking coolers, broken jars, and rainwater tracked through the entrance are the most common causes of slip and fall accidents in stores. Large retailers write inspection procedures for exactly this reason, and the question we press in litigation is whether employees followed them. Slip and fall accidents at shopping centers on the Miracle Mile, in Century City, and across the South Bay often involve two defendants: the store, and the mall owner responsible for common walkways, escalators, and parking.

Restaurants, Bars, and Hotels

Kitchen grease tracked onto dining floors, spilled drinks, wet restroom tile, and dim stairways cause many slip and fall injuries in restaurants and bars in Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Santa Monica. Hotels add pool decks, lobby marble, and wet entryways. The restaurant or hotel operator is usually responsible for the floor, while a landlord may be responsible for structural defects like a broken step.

Apartment Buildings and Rental Properties

California landlords must keep common areas reasonably safe: lobbies, stairwells, hallways, parking areas, pool decks, and laundry rooms. Falls on soapy laundry-room floors, whether in an apartment building or a commercial laundromat, are a recurring source of slip and fall claims. If you sent a written maintenance request about a broken stair or a burned-out stairwell light, keep a copy. It is often the strongest notice evidence in a tenant’s case.

Parking Lots and Parking Structures

Oil slicks on ramps, potholes, crumbling curbs, unmarked wheel stops, and poor lighting cause slip and fall and trip and fall injuries in parking areas across Los Angeles. A commercial owner is responsible for the lot or structure it controls, and a parking operator or maintenance contractor may share that responsibility.

Stairways, Lighting, and Construction Zones

Stairway falls cause some of the most serious injuries because the person falls from height and often backward. Missing handrails, uneven risers, worn treads, and inadequate lighting can each support a claim, and building code standards can help show what a safe stairway looks like. Construction and renovation zones add debris, cords, and missing barriers, and can involve the owner, the general contractor, and a subcontractor.

Falls at Work

If your slip and fall happened at work, workers’ compensation is usually the remedy against your employer. A separate injury claim may still exist against a third party who controlled the hazard, such as the owner of a building you were working in or a contractor whose crew created the condition.

We handle slip and fall cases throughout Los Angeles County, including Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, Mid-City, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Culver City, Inglewood, Van Nuys, Panorama City, Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, and Long Beach.

Trip and Fall Attorney Los Angeles: Sidewalks, Public Property, and the Six-Month Claim

Some of the most serious slip and fall cases in Los Angeles happen on property owned by a government agency. A sidewalk panel lifted by tree roots. A wet floor in a city building. A broken stair at a Metro rail station. An unlit walkway in a city park. These cases follow a separate legal track under California’s Government Claims Act, the law that governs injury claims against public entities.

A public entity is liable for a dangerous condition of its property under Government Code 835 when the condition created a foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred, and either a public employee created the condition or the entity had actual or constructive notice of it in time to fix it. Under Government Code 830.2, a defect whose risk is minor, trivial, or insignificant is not a dangerous condition at all, which is why public entities fight small sidewalk height differences hard. Our sidewalk and public-property work centers on serious injuries caused by significant defects: fractures, head injuries, and spinal injuries that change a person’s life.

Public Property Where Angelenos Fall Without Realizing It Is Public

• City sidewalks, streets, and city parks, including Griffith Park and the Venice Boardwalk: the City of Los Angeles. Responsibility for a sidewalk can also involve the adjacent property owner or a utility, depending on what caused the defect.
• LAX terminals and walkways: Los Angeles World Airports is a department of the City of Los Angeles.
• Metro rail stations, platforms, and Union Station: LA Metro. Bus stops: often the city that owns the sidewalk, sometimes Metro or another transit agency.
• County hospitals, county buildings, and unincorporated areas: the County of Los Angeles.
• Public school campuses: the Los Angeles Unified School District or the local school district.
• State highway property: Caltrans and the State of California.
• Other cities: Santa Monica, Long Beach, Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank are each separate public entities with their own claim forms.

The Government Claim Timeline

The six-month deadline under Government Code 911.2 is separate from the two-year statute of limitations under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1, and the longer deadline does not extend the shorter one. When the injured person is your child, the general tolling of the statute of limitations for minors under Code of Civil Procedure 352 does not pause the six-month government claim deadline. A late-claim application may be available for a child under Government Code 911.4 and 911.6, but it has its own one-year limit. Read more on our Los Angeles government claims lawyer page.

Our guides explain the process agency by agency:

• Who is liable for a city sidewalk injury in Los Angeles
• Filing a claim against the City of Los Angeles
• How to file a claim against LA Metro after an injury
• What to do if you have been injured due to a government entity
• Plazos para reclamos contra entidades públicas en California (en español)

Falls at concerts, festivals, and stadiums can involve both a private promoter and a public venue owner. See slip and fall at an event in Los Angeles.

Catastrophic Slip and Fall Injuries and the Lifetime Cost of Care

Not every slip and fall is minor, and the serious ones are often underestimated at the start. Falls are the leading cause of injury death among adults 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The injuries that drive the largest slip and fall claims include:

• Hip fractures, which in older adults often mean surgery, a long rehabilitation stay, and a permanent loss of independence.
• Traumatic brain injuries from a backward fall onto hard tile or concrete, including injuries that do not show on an initial scan but affect memory, concentration, and work.
• Spinal cord injuries and herniated discs, especially from stairway falls.
• Complex fractures of the wrist, elbow, shoulder, or ankle that require hardware and leave lasting limits on movement.
• Wrongful death, where a fall leads to a fatal head injury or to complications after a fracture.

These cases need more than a quick settlement built on the first month of bills. We build them with medical projections, a life-care plan, an analysis of lost earning capacity, and a valuation built around what the injury will cost across a lifetime, so that the compensation we pursue reflects decades of care. When we act as your Los Angeles slip and fall lawyer in a catastrophic case, we ask what care you will need in ten years, not only what the emergency room charged. Where a death results, surviving family members can bring a wrongful death claim, generally within two years under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. If a public entity is involved, the six-month government claim deadline still applies. Read more about catastrophic injury claims.

What Compensation a Los Angeles Slip and Fall Attorney Can Pursue

Compensation in a California injury claim falls into two categories of compensatory damages, and we pursue both. For a longer explanation, see what economic and non-economic damages are.

Economic damages cover measurable financial loss: emergency care and hospitalization, surgery, physical therapy and rehabilitation, future medical care, in-home care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity.

Non-economic damages cover harm with no invoice: physical pain, emotional distress, disfigurement, and the loss of the activities and independence that made up your normal life.

Punitive damages are a separate category. They are not compensation, they require clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression, or fraud under Civil Code 3294, and they are rare in slip and fall cases. Under Government Code 818, they are not available against a public entity.

How Comparative Fault Affects a Settlement

California follows pure comparative fault. If you were partly responsible, for example because you were looking at your phone, your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault rather than eliminated. A person found 30 percent at fault still recovers 70 percent of the damages. In a slip and fall case, insurers raise this argument early, often citing footwear or distraction, because every point of fault they assign lowers the settlement. We answer it with footage, photographs, and your shoes.

The value of your slip and fall case depends on the severity and permanence of the injury, the cost of future care, whether you can return to your prior work, the available insurance, and your share of fault. An early settlement offer made before the long-term medical picture is clear rarely accounts for future care.

Premises Liability Settlements and Verdicts

In his first year of practice, attorney Ted H. Ravan obtained more than $1 million for his clients. Every settlement or verdict depends on the facts, the injuries, and the available coverage.

What Happens After You Call a Slip and Fall Lawyer in Los Angeles

1. Free review of your slip and fall. You talk with us, and we tell you whether there is a claim worth pursuing, including when the answer is no.
2. Preservation and investigation. We send preservation letters for footage, logs, and incident reports, and we document the scene before it changes.
3. The deadline is identified. If a public entity owns or controls the property, we prepare the Government Code 911.2 claim and present it inside the six-month window.
4. Medical documentation. We document your treatment and, in serious cases, project future care with treating physicians and life-care planners.
5. Negotiation. We present a demand with the evidence behind it. Most cases resolve by settlement.
6. Litigation where needed. If the settlement offer does not reflect the harm, we file the case in Los Angeles County Superior Court and prepare it for trial.

No fee unless we win.

Slip and Fall Attorney Los Angeles: Questions to Ask Before You Hire

• Who will handle my case day to day? At Ravan Law, you work with us directly. We keep you updated at every stage and answer your questions.
• Do you handle claims against public entities? Yes. Government claims are a core focus of our practice. Ted H. Ravan went into injury law after his grandfather was in a near-fatal incident involving a city-operated bus. That is why our firm takes these cases.
• How will you prove notice? Ask what records will be requested in the first week and how the footage will be preserved. We are glad to walk you through both.
• How will future care be valued? We build serious cases with life-care planning and lost earning capacity analysis, so that compensation covers decades, not months.
• What does it cost? We work on contingency. No fee unless we win.

Clients rate the firm 4.9 on Google. For more on choosing counsel, see four questions to ask a potential personal injury lawyer. We also represent clients in dog bite cases, car accident cases, and other personal injury claims.

Speak With a Los Angeles Slip and Fall Lawyer Before the Deadline Runs

If you or someone in your family was seriously hurt in a slip and fall at a store, a restaurant, an apartment building, a parking structure, or on a public sidewalk in Los Angeles, the footage that proves what happened may already be on a deletion schedule. If the property is public, the six-month claim deadline under Government Code 911.2 began on the day of the fall. You do not have to sort this out alone.

Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. We give every case careful attention and keep you updated at every stage. No fee unless we win.

6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048

Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.

Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.