Dangerous Property

Were you recently injured in a slip and fall accident inside a restaurant in Escondido? Did you trip and fall outside a business in Carlsbad with poor lighting? Did an uneven walkway in Vista cause you to trip and injury yourself? Any property in North County with a dangerous condition can result in serious personal injuries. Under California law, property owners and controllers have a duty to keep their premises free from serious hazards or other “dangerous conditions.” If you were injured on another party’s dangerous property, you may be able to file what is known as a premises liability lawsuit.

An experienced North County premises liability lawyer at Walton Law Firm can talk with you today about your case and your options for seeking a fair and just settlement for your injuries.

Premises liability law is one area of personal injury law. It holds that individuals who get hurt on someone else’s dangerous property may be able to seek compensation for their injuries if the property owner (or controller) was negligent. Under California law, a plaintiff in a premises liability claim must be able to prove that he or she was harmed because of the way the defendant cared for that property. To prove such a claim, a plaintiff's attorney must show:

• Defendant owned, leased, occupied, or otherwise controlled the property;
• Defendant was negligent in his or her use or maintenance of the property;
• Plaintiff suffered an injury; and
• Defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s injury.

Dangerous property lawsuits can arise from many different types of incidents, including but not limited to:

• Slips and falls
• Faulty electrical wiring
• Inadequate lighting accidents
• Negligent security
• Stairway accidents
• Uneven pavement/floor.

What does the it mean when a defendant was negligent in how he or she maintained or used his or her property? California law clarifies that a defendant who owns, leases, occupies, or otherwise controls property can be found negligent “if he or she fails to use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition.”

To keep the property in a reasonably safe condition, a property owner needs to use reasonable care to discover any potentially unsafe conditions. When a property owner learns that there are unsafe conditions, she or he is required by law to repair or replace the problem, or to give adequate warning to individuals on the property.

In deciding whether a defendant used reasonable care to keep the property in a safe enough condition, a jury can consider a number of different factors, such as:

• Location of the property;
• Likelihood that someone would be on the property as the plaintiff was;
• Likelihood of harm from the condition on the property;
• Probable seriousness of the harm;
• Whether defendant knew or should have known that the condition on the property created a risk of harm;
• Difficulty for the defendant of protecting against the risk of harm; and
• Extent of the defendant’s control over the condition that created the risk of harm.

If you got hurt on someone else’s property, you may be able to file a dangerous property claim. Slip, trip, and falls are one common basis for premises liability lawsuits, but dangerous property can result in many different types of incidents for which plaintiffs can seek compensation.

An experienced injury lawyer can assess your case today. Contact the Walton Law Firm for more information about how we can help with your claim.