Slip and fall accidents definitely rank among the most frequent kinds of injury claims that people have because such accidents are incredibly common, but many people are often left confused about how exactly they can hold property owners accountable for negligence relating to maintaining safe premises. When you believe that another party was at fault for your own slip and fall accident causing serious injuries, be sure to contact a San Francisco personal injury lawyer.
A slip and fall accident will generally result in a premises liability action, which is a personal injury claim relating to a property owner’s failure to keep their property safe for their visitors. You need to know that most insurance companies for such property owners are very likely to deny any wrongdoing by their clients, and they will usually work hard to try to argue that you were the one who was at fault for your own injuries.
General California Slip and Fall Laws
California Civil Code § 1714(a) is the state law that establishes a duty of care all people owe to one another, with only a few exceptions. The law states that every person is responsible, not only for the result of their willful acts, but also for injuries occasioned to another person by their failure to exercise ordinary care in the management of property or person, except so far as a person brings injury upon themselves.
California Civil Code § 1714(c) states that no social host furnishing alcoholic beverages to any individual may be held liable for any kind of damages sustained by the same individual, or for injuries to the person or property of, or death of, any third party, resulting from the consumption of those beverages. This section, however, will not preclude a claim against a parent, guardian, or another adult who knowingly furnished alcoholic beverages at their residence to a person whom they knew, or should have known, was under 21 years of age, in which case, the furnishing of the alcoholic beverages can be found to be the proximate cause of resulting injuries or death.
Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, a person has two years to file a claim for injury to or for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another party. California Code of Civil Procedure § 338(j), however, establishes a three-year time limit for filing a claim relating to physical damage to private property, meaning that you will have three years to file a claim for any property you had damaged in a slip and fall accident.
Recovering damages in a slip and fall case is going to require a person to prove four elements of a personal injury case:
- A property owner either owned, leased, occupied, or otherwise controlled the property in question
- The property owner was negligent in their use or maintenance of the property in question
- The victim suffered harm by slipping or falling on the property in question
- A property owner’s negligence was a significant factor in causing harm to the victim
California Slip and Fall Laws Relating to Governmental Entities
If slip and fall accidents happen on any kind of government-owned property, their statute of limitations is going to be far shorter. Under California Government Code § 911.2, any claim relating to a cause of action for injury or death to a person or personal property must be presented not later than six months after the date of the accident.
A claim that relates to any other cause of action must be presented no later than one year after the date of the cause of action. In determining whether a claim was commenced within this time period, the date the claim was presented to the Department of General Services must be one of the following:
- The date for submission of the claim with a twenty-five dollar ($25) filing fee
- When a fee waiver is granted, the date the claim was submitted with the affidavit requesting the fee waiver
- If a fee waiver ends up being denied, the date the claim was submitted with an affidavit requesting a fee waiver, provided that the filing fee ends up being paid to the department within 10 days of the notice for the denial of the fee waiver being mailed
California Government Code § 911.4 establishes that if someone does not file a claim within six months when required, a written application can then be made to the public entity for leave to present that claim. The application has to be presented to the public entity within a reasonable time – not to exceed one year – and must state the reason for the delay in presenting the claim.
These laws are a part of what is known as the California Tort Claims Act (CTCA), a law the California Legislature designed to protect the state government from liability in certain personal injury cases. The law effectively establishes that public entities are not liable for injuries caused by public entities or their employees in some cases, which is also known as the concept of sovereign immunity.
Premises liability claims are generally one type of personal injury action against public entities that are allowed, but one important caveat in these cases is that punitive damages cannot be awarded to victims in these cases. In general, a premises liability claim against the government will involve a victim needing to show:
- Property involved a dangerous condition at the time of an injury
- The injury was proximately caused by that dangerous condition
- The dangerous condition involved a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that occurred, and either the danger was created by a wrongful or negligent act of a public employee, or the public entity had some kind of notice of the dangerous condition as well as enough time to correct the dangerous condition
Call Us Today to Schedule a Free Consultation with a San Francisco Personal Injury Lawyer
If you sustained any kind of serious injury in a slip and fall accident in California, do not try to negotiate with an insurance company on your own. Contact Cartwright Law Firm for assistance recovering every last dollar of financial compensation you need and deserve.
Our firm will be able to conduct an independent investigation into your accident and secure the evidence necessary to prove that another party was at fault. You can call (415) 851-6486 or contact us online to set up a free consultation that will allow us to review your case and also answer whatever legal questions you might have.
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