There is nothing to laugh about when a person falls at a business or a home and is seriously injured. These injuries may come from a:
- Slip and fall;
- Trip and fall;
- A dangerous condition on the property; or,
- An injury caused by someone or something on the property.
Injuries from these types of circumstances, if occurring while on another’s property, can result in liability for the property owner, or the person responsible for maintaining the property. Each injury on another's property is fact and circumstance based to determine if a person has a claim for injuries suffered on the property. Thus, depending on the circumstances, a property owner, renter, or another may be responsible for injuries suffered due to the conditions on the property.
It is critical to understand that just because a person gets injured on the property of another, it does not mean that the property owner is automatically responsible to pay for those injuries. A slip and fall or trip and fall victim must prove liability in order to secure financial recovery from a property owner or renter of a property. Without proof of negligence on the part of the owner or operator of the property, the injury victim will not prevail on the claim. The law applicable to a premises liability claim in California is complex and requires professional assistance to evaluate the claim and to succeed against the property owner and the insurance company.
California Clearly Defines What’s Needed to Prove Your Claim of Negligence
The California civil jury instructions define the laws that a jury is to follow, and what an injured party must prove if she is going to recover damages from the property owner. The law defines when a person is responsible for the injuries of another:
“The plaintiff claims that she was harmed because of the way the defendant managed its property. To establish this claim, the plaintiff must prove all of the following:
- That the defendant owned/leased/occupied/controlled the property;
- That the defendant was negligent in the use or maintenance of the property;
- That the plaintiff was harmed; and
- That the defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s harm.”
The basic duty of a property owner is defined as follows: “A person who owns, leases, occupies or controls property is negligent if he or she fails to use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition. A person who owns, leases, occupies or controls property must use reasonable care to discover any unsafe conditions and to repair, replace, or give adequate warning of anything that could be reasonably expected to harm others.”
Steps You Can Take to Prove Negligence After Your Injury
The most important part about a premises liability claim is showing negligence on the part of the property owner or operator. The information about how a fall or injury occurred on a property can be lost very soon following the injury. Some of the things an injury victim needs to do following the injury are: taking pictures of where and how the injury occurred, getting witness identification information, evaluating the surroundings and trying to determine what caused the fall.
Do Not Rely On Store Employees to do a Fair Investigation of Your Accident!
A property owner has a natural bias against you and your claim. A good lawyer can help you reach the truth about what happened and a financial recovery if negligence can be proven against a owner or operator of the property. So long as you have some of the basic information following the accident, the rest of the information can potentially be generated later through the process of presenting the claim.
Whether you had a slip and fall in Fontana, California, or a trip and fall in Ontario, or any other premises liability claim in the Inland Empire, a consultation with the injury attorneys at the Inland Empire Law Group will be a valuable investment of time. Call for a free consultation and review of your case. 909-481-0100 or 1-888-MY-IE-LAW.
