Santa Ana Premises Liability Attorney
We focus 100% of our time representing injured Santa Ana residents.
Legal Representation for Victims of Slip and Fall and Trip and Fall
Living in Orange County offers seemingly endless opportunities to explore interesting places. From world-class shopping outlets to breathtaking beach fronts, famous theme parks to dynamic centers for the arts, there is no reason for anyone to suffer from boredom if they live in Orange County and have the ability to get from one place to another with ease. Unfortunately, many interesting places in Santa Ana and greater Orange County are, quite frankly, not terribly safe. As a result, both residents and visitors regularly sustain injuries on public and private property.
If you have been
injured while visiting another’s property, you may have strong grounds for a premises liability case. Premises liability is concerned with the duty of care that property owners and residents owe to visitors and even to trespassers. Too often, premises liability victims fail to explore their legal options because they are unaware that they have legal rights as a visitor to another’s property. Whether you slipped and fell on a slick floor in a theme park restaurant, were attacked in a parking lot, or your child broke bones falling off unsafe playground equipment, you may be entitled to compensation
under the law.
Knowledgeable Representation for Injury Victims Harmed on Another’s Property
The unethical actions and approaches employed by some personal injury attorneys have led to a widespread misconception that personal injury lawyers are “ambulance chasers” by trade. As a result of this misconception, some injury victims are hesitant to explore their legal options because they fear being taken advantage of by legal professionals. Our firm has earned a reputation for quality legal services and excellent client care because we believe that every client deserves to be treated with respect and that every case deserves to be treated with a seriousness of purpose. Rather than representing as many clients as we possibly can, we limit our client roster so that we can provide comprehensive, compassionate, and client-focused representation for everyone we serve.
We also choose to offer free case evaluations for all
injury victims
because we believe that everyone deserves to understand their rights under the law. Our firm will never pressure you to file for legal action or to work with our firm moving forward. When you attend a consultation appointment – offered at no cost to you and with no strings attached – you will simply be granted the opportunity to ask questions and to receive personalized legal guidance in exchange for an hour or two of your time. Once you’re empowered to make informed decisions about your options, we will provide you with the comprehensive support you’ll need, should you choose to exercise and enforce your rights as an injury victim.
What Is Premises Liability?
Premises liability is the subsection of personal injury law concerned with harm that occurs as a result of a property owner’s or resident’s failure to safely maintain their property. This area of law “covers” a wide range of injury scenarios in which victims suffer harm on either public or private property. Property owners and other potentially liable parties may be held accountable for a failure to ensure that their property itself is safe (example: slip and fall accidents) or a failure to ensure that others may be kept reasonably safe on their property (example: attacks that occur on an owner’s property due to negligent security measures).
Usually, an unsafe or defective condition of the property itself is at issue in premises liability cases (ill-maintained parking lots, defective amusement park rides, dark stairwells where people can fall or be attacked, etc.). However, a property owner’s failure to account for unsafe scenarios generally may also serve as grounds for personal liability action (example: a dog is not properly restrained and bites a visitor to the property owner’s residence). Sometimes, damages to injury victims are paid by the property owner personally, although the property owner’s residential or commercial insurance policies often cover these damages.
Common Reasons Why Premises Liability Cases Are Filed
As premises liability law affects so many different injury scenarios that can potentially occur on public or private property, there is a seemingly endless list of injury “types” that can inspire the need for a family to file a premises liability lawsuit. With that said, some of the most common reasons why these lawsuits are filed include:
- Slip and fall injuries
- Trip and fall injuries
- Inadequate maintenance of property
- Defective conditions on an owner’s property
- Inadequate security that results in assault or other injury
- Elevator and escalator injuries
- Wild and domestic animal attacks
- Dog bites
- Swimming pool injuries
- Amusement park injuries
- Flooding
- Toxic exposure to fumes, chemicals, or other hazardous substances
- Injuries caused by fires
- Defective staircases
- Defective flooring
- Injuries caused by parking lot hazards
Filling a Successful Premises Liability Case
Premises liability claims generally progress in the same ways that other personal injury claims do. Meaning, that the injury victim must present a case that illustrates that the property owner (at least, more likely than not) behaved in reckless, negligent, or intentionally dangerous ways that directly led to the harm caused by the injury victim.
With that said, there are a few nuances to premises liability law that aren’t factors in many other personal injury cases. For example, landlords often enjoy limited legal liability when their tenants behave in ways that cause harm. Also, some private properties – including theme parks, museums, trampoline parks, and other entertainment venues – benefit from limited legal liability encoded in “fine print” present when patrons buy tickets to enter these venues. This doesn’t mean that landlords, entertainment venues, and others who enjoy certain protections under the law can’t be held financially accountable when visitors (and even trespassers) are injured on this property. It simply means that premises liability cases tend to be unusually complex.
This is one of the many reasons why it is important to speak with an attorney about your options if you’ve been harmed on another’s property. You may have grounds for a case, even if you signed a legal liability waiver before you entered the owner’s property. However, the complexity of your situation means that you shouldn’t try to navigate the legal and financial aftermath of your circumstances on your own.
Who May Be Held Liable in a Premises Liability Case?
Simply because a dangerous condition, such as a slick spot on a restaurant floor, is present on another’s property doesn’t mean that the owner of that property may be held automatically liable for any harm caused by that dangerous condition. In California, juries are instructed to consider the following criteria when determining whether an injury victim has a viable cause of action:
- The defendant owned/leased/occupied/controlled the property in question;
- The defendant was negligent in the use or maintenance of the property in question;
- The injury victim suffered harm; and
- The defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing the injury victim’s harm
Essentially, successful premises liability claims must illustrate that the negligent actions or inactions of the defendant served as a substantial factor in causing the victim’s injuries. Consider the slick floor spot example. If the restaurant owner knew that spills often occurred near the site of the victim’s injuries because that area of the restaurant contained a self-serve beverage station – yet failed to properly prevent accidents from occurring by laying down mats, adjusting the height of the counter, etc. – they may be held liable if someone slips, falls, and hurts themselves due to that inadequate maintenance of their property. However, if the restaurant owner had no way of knowing that a child had vomited on the flooring near the bathrooms and another patron slipped and fell on that spot 30 seconds after the child got sick, there might not be grounds to hold the restaurant owner liable for the fall, as it didn’t occur due to negligent maintenance of the property in question.
You don’t need to know for sure whether you have grounds to file a premises liability action before speaking with our team about your situation. Understanding the nuances of the law and how it’s applied is our job. When you attend a free consultation, we’ll explain whether the circumstances of your accident provide you with strong grounds for a legal claim at this time.
Comparative Negligence – Good News for Injury Victims
California observes a legal theory known as “comparative negligence.” Comparative negligence allows injury victims to hold others accountable for the harm they have suffered, even if they (the injury victims) also contributed to the cause of their harm. This means that even if you behaved in ways that may have directly led to the cause of your accident, if the property owner’s negligent use or maintenance of their property served as a “substantial factor” in the cause of your harm, you remain entitled to hold them accountable for the “portion” of your harm that they caused. Practically speaking, say that the value of your harm is $40,000. If you are deemed to be 25 percent at fault for the cause of your accident, the property owner may still owe you $30,000 for their contributions to your harm. Once we learn about your case, we’ll give you our objective assessment of the fault percentages likely to be assigned to each party involved and an assessment of the likely compensation value of your case.
What if I Was Injured at Work?
If you were injured while working on a job site, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits as a result of your injuries. However, you may not be able to sue your employer via a premises liability lawsuit if you are eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits. This is because California law extends a limited liability shield to employers for injuries that may result from work-related harm. The logic of this system is that if workers’ compensation benefits are automatically extended to employees, regardless of fault, there is no need for those employees to hold their employers legally accountable in court. With that said, if a third party somehow contributed to the cause of your harm, you may be able to hold them accountable via a personal injury lawsuit while also collecting workers’ compensation benefits. This is a common scenario for employees who have been harmed by property-related hazards on job sites that are neither owned nor primarily maintained by their employers. For example, if you slip in a parking lot while taking out garbage from the restaurant you work at and the parking lot is not owned by your employer but by the company that operates the strip mall where the restaurant is located, you could potentially collect workers’ compensation benefits and hold the property owner accountable for injuries caused by your fall.
Contact Our Firm Today for a Free Case Evaluation
Everyone deserves to understand their rights under California law. Therefore, our firm offers free consultations to anyone injured on another’s property who is interested in learning about their legal options. If you haven’t yet scheduled a free case evaluation, please do so now. We look forward to speaking with you.