A slip and fall can seem like a straightforward injury claim. You fell, you were hurt, and there may have been a dangerous condition on the property. The difficult part is proving that the property owner knew about the condition or should have known about it. You also need evidence showing that the condition caused your injury and the losses you are claiming.
Burg & Brock has represented injured Californians since 1996, and we have handled more than 20,000 personal injury cases. Premises liability claims are a core part of that work, and we go after inspection records and surveillance footage before they are overwritten. Call us for a free consultation, and we will tell you what your case is missing while it can still be fixed.
Below you will find what the law actually requires, the one element that decides most cases, how owners defend them, and what evidence wins.
A slip and fall case is a premises liability claim. You were hurt on someone else’s property because of a dangerous condition the owner was responsible for. The common scenarios are familiar. A spill in a supermarket aisle, an unmarked wet floor in a lobby, a broken step, or a poorly lit stairwell. California law treats these as personal injury claims arising from someone else’s negligence. Premises liability cases follow the same basic rules as any other injury claim. What sets slip-and-fall lawsuits apart is the evidence problem.
These are common injuries, not edge cases. The National Safety Council reports that more than 8.8 million people were treated in emergency rooms for fall injuries in 2023. It also reports that 48,308 people died in falls at home and at work in 2024. Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in the country.
California’s legal framework is more favorable than most people assume. In Rowland v. Christian, decided in 1968, the California Supreme Court swept away the old categories that gave trespassers, licensees, and invitees different levels of protection. Property owners now owe ordinary care to everyone lawfully present, and the question is simply whether they acted reasonably.
The deadline is two years from the date the fall occurred, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. A claim against a government entity is far shorter. Government Code section 911.2 generally requires a written claim within six months.
A property owner is not automatically responsible for everyone who enters the property. To win, you must prove four things. The owner owned, leased, or controlled the property. The owner was negligent in its use or maintenance. You were harmed. And that negligence was a substantial factor in causing your harm.
The word doing all the work is negligent. To prove negligence, you must show the property owner failed to act reasonably, not merely that you were hurt. A dangerous condition existed is not enough on its own. You have to show the property owner knew about it, or should have known about it and had time to do something. Lawyers call the second one constructive notice, and it is where most slip and fall claims are won or lost.
Here is what that means in practice, from a real case. In Girvetz v. Boys’ Market, a shopper slipped on a banana on a supermarket floor. The only evidence of how long it had been there came from another customer. She had seen it about a minute and a half earlier. The court held that ninety seconds was too short to charge the store with notice, and the shopper lost.
Read that again, because it is the honest answer to the question in the title. She fell, she was hurt, the hazard was real, and she still lost. Not because the market was careful, but because nobody could prove how long the banana had been on the floor.
The burden of proof sits entirely on you. Insurance companies know the notice problem better than any claimant does, and their defenses are predictable. The first is lack of notice. The hazard appeared moments before you fell, so nobody could reasonably have found it. The second is comparative fault. California uses pure comparative negligence, so any share of blame assigned to you reduces your recovery proportionally.
Insurance adjusters may try to place part of the blame on you, sometimes arguing that you were 30% or even 50% responsible for the accident. Any percentage of fault assigned to you can reduce the amount you receive. Common arguments include claims that you were distracted by your phone, should have seen the hazard, wore improper footwear, or entered an area you were not supposed to enter.
None of these end a claim in California, because fault is divided rather than assigned. Each one shaves value off what you recover from the at-fault party. The third defense is causation. The property owner’s actions did not cause your condition; your existing back problem did. Concrete evidence beats this, usually imaging taken before and after.
Winning often depends on supporting your argument with documents and other evidence. The table below maps each element to what the defense will say and what actually answers it.
| What you must prove | What the defense argues | What answers it |
| A dangerous condition existed | It was open and obvious | Photographs taken the same day, the incident report |
| The owner created it or knew of it | Nobody knew anything about it | Employee statements, prior complaints, maintenance work orders |
| Or should have known | It had only just happened | Sweep logs, inspection schedules, timestamped surveillance footage |
| It caused your injury | You already had that condition | Same-day medical treatment, imaging from before and after |
| The extent of your harm | You were partly at fault | Wage records, treatment records, evidence of how you were walking |
The third row is the one that decides cases. Sweep logs and inspection records are internal documents showing how often staff were supposed to check an area and when they last did. Suppose a store claims a spill appeared seconds earlier. If its own logs show nobody inspected that aisle for two hours, it has handed you the case. Gathering evidence early is what turns an assertion into compelling evidence. Those records exist, and they are obtainable, but only through a formal request that a claimant acting alone rarely knows to make.
Surveillance footage is also important for the same reason, and it is far more perishable. Many systems overwrite recordings within days. A preservation letter sent immediately is often what saves a claim. It needs to go out long before an insurer decides anything.
Getting medical attention quickly can provide the evidence needed to support your claim. Get treated the same day, because a gap between the fall incident and your first appointment is the easiest thing an insurer can attack. Report the slip and fall incident to the property owner or manager in writing and get a copy. Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned, and collect witness statements while people are still there.
Environmental causes are one of the most common. Many slip and fall claims involve conditions such as wet floors, poor lighting, uneven surfaces, torn carpet, missing handrails, and cracked walkways. Each condition can present a different evidence problem. A broken step may still be there weeks later, while a spilled drink can be cleaned up within minutes.
The type of hazard can affect what you need to prove. A cracked step may have existed for months, making it easier to show that the property owner knew about it. A puddle may have appeared only moments before the accident, so you may need evidence showing how long it was there.
Human factors are the second category. Inadequate signage, no warning signs after mopping, understaffed maintenance, and ignored prior complaints about the same spot. Prior complaints are quietly among the most valuable evidence available, because they destroy the argument that nobody knew.
Weather plays a particular role in Southern California. Rain is infrequent enough that entrances are often unprepared for it. Tracked-in water at a doorway on the first wet day is a recurring pattern.
The first steps a slip and fall lawyer takes are often simple but important. They may send preservation letters for surveillance footage and inspection records. They also contact witnesses who still remember what happened. An experienced lawyer also knows what records a retailer is likely to have and how to request them.
“The client always wants to talk about how badly they were hurt,” says Artin Fiterz, an attorney at Burg & Brock. “I want the sweep log. Injury decides what the case is worth, but the maintenance record decides whether there is a case at all.”
From there, it becomes case evaluation and strategy, and an experienced attorney will tell you early if a claim is not worth filing. Slip and fall attorneys assess a case based on the evidence showing whether the property owner had notice, and insurers do the same. Settlement amounts often depend more on the strength of the maintenance records than on how serious the fall was. Where liability is solid, most fall cases settle once the insurer sees the notice evidence. Where it is contested, preparing the file as though it will be tried is what moves the number.
Legal representation also changes the comparative fault conversation, and the legal process stops being one-sided. An unrepresented claimant offered a settlement reduced by forty percent for their own fault has no way to test that figure. A slip and fall attorney does, and most work on a contingency fee basis, so the cost of asking is nothing.
Yes, when the notice evidence exists, and the honest answer is that it often does. The cases that fail are rarely the ones with weak injuries. They are the ones where nobody asked for the sweep log until the footage was already gone. If you fell in the last few days, get a preservation demand to the property owner now.
At Burg & Brock, our legal team requests the inspection records and surveillance footage in the first week, because that is what decides these claims. We have recovered over $1 billion for injured clients, and we work on a contingency fee basis with no fee unless we win. Contact us today to get a free case evaluation.
Below are common questions about slip-and-fall accidents in California along with their respective answers.
Notice comes first, meaning whether the property owner knew or should have known about the hazard in time to fix it. Then evidence, because a claim without photographs, records or witnesses is an assertion. Then your own share of fault, which reduces recovery under pure comparative negligence. Injury severity matters too, but it sets the value rather than deciding whether you win. Serious injuries do not rescue a claim with no notice evidence behind it.
Get medical attention the same day, even for what look like minor injuries. Report the fall to the property owner or manager and ask for a written incident report. Photograph the hazard, the surrounding area, and your injuries before anything is cleaned up, and take names from witnesses. Then speak to a personal injury lawyer quickly, because surveillance footage is often gone within days.
Two years from the date of the injury for most claims. If the fall happened on government property, a written claim is generally due within six months, which is a very different clock. Waiting also costs you evidence rather than just time. Footage is overwritten, memories fade, and staff moves on, so the practical deadline is much earlier than the legal one.
Medical bills and future medical expenses, lost wages and lost earning capacity, and compensation for physical pain, chronic pain, and reduced quality of life. Severe injuries, including spinal cord injury, spinal injuries, and traumatic brain injuries, carry substantially higher value. The future care costs are simply much larger, which is why maximum compensation cases are almost always catastrophic ones. You recover compensation for what the slip and fall injuries will cost over a lifetime, not just what they have cost so far. Fair compensation depends on documenting that properly, whether the claim settles or becomes a personal injury lawsuit.
By getting the evidence that decides the case before it disappears. That means preservation letters, formal requests for inspection and maintenance records, and locating witnesses. A skilled slip and fall attorney also handles the insurance company directly and tests the comparative fault percentage rather than accepting it. Most work on contingency, so you find out where you stand at no cost.
Disclaimer: This article is general information about California premises liability law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Burg & Brock. Whether a claim succeeds depends on the specific facts, the evidence available, and the conduct of everyone involved. Deadlines vary with the identity of the property owner, so speak with a licensed attorney about your own situation before acting.
Cameron Brock is a recognized personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles with extensive experience and success representing individuals and families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases.
Cameron’s established track record of helping those who have been harmed by wrongful conduct, violations of safety rules, and defective products has focused on claims involving automotive product defect, tire product defect, commercial truck accidents, trash truck accidents, airplane and helicopter crashes, train disaster, government liability for dangerous condition of public property, and general negligence.
Read more about Cameron BrockWe turn your pain into payouts. No stress, no upfront fees, just real results when you need them most.
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