People call me after a fall and start the conversation by apologizing. They think they should have watched where they were going. Maybe they should have. But that is not the whole story, and in California it is rarely the end of the analysis. If you got hurt on someone else's property because that property was not kept reasonably safe, the law may give you a path to recovery. Let me walk you through how these cases actually work here in San Diego.
I'm Joe Crudo. I handle injury cases at Crudo Law, and I have seen how a bad fall changes a person's week, their paycheck, and sometimes their year. A slipped disc from a wet grocery aisle is not a small thing. Neither is a broken wrist from a cracked sidewalk outside a restaurant in Little Italy. This post covers the general rules. Every case turns on its own facts, so treat this as background, not advice for your specific situation.
What "premises liability" actually means
Premises liability is the legal name for a property owner's responsibility to keep their property in reasonably safe condition for the people who come onto it. Slip and fall is the most common example, but the category is broader. It covers trip and falls, falling merchandise, poor lighting on a stairwell, an unmarked step, a broken handrail, a dog that gets loose, and inadequate security that leads to an assault.
The core idea in California is duty of care. A store, a landlord, a hotel, a gym, a city, or a private homeowner owes a duty to act reasonably in maintaining their property. When they fail to do that and someone gets hurt, that failure is negligence. You can read more about how negligence works across different injury cases on our personal injury page, and we go deeper into the specifics of these fall cases on our slip and fall and premises liability pages.
The property owner's duty is about reasonableness
A lot of people assume that if they fell, the owner automatically owes them money. That is not how it works. The question is whether the owner acted reasonably given the circumstances.
California courts look at things like whether the owner knew about the dangerous condition, or should have known about it, and whether they had a reasonable chance to fix it or warn people. A spill that happened thirty seconds before you walked through is different from a spill that sat there for an hour while three employees walked past it. A cracked step the owner inspected regularly is different from one they ignored for months.
That is why timing and knowledge matter so much in these cases. We look for maintenance logs, inspection schedules, prior complaints, and how long the hazard was there. In a grocery store, we want to know the last time someone swept that aisle. In an apartment building, we want to know whether other tenants reported the broken stair before you fell on it.
What you have to prove
To bring a premises liability claim in California, you generally need to show a few things. The owner or occupier controlled the property. They were negligent in the way they used or maintained it. You were harmed. And their negligence was a substantial factor in causing that harm.
Each of those pieces takes real evidence. "I fell and it hurt" is a start, but it is not a case. We build the rest with photos, witness statements, incident reports, medical records that connect your injury to the fall, and sometimes an expert who can speak to what a reasonable property owner should have done.
Comparative fault: partial blame does not end your claim
Here is where I calm a lot of clients down. California is a pure comparative-fault state. That means even if you were partly at fault for your own fall, you can still recover. Your recovery just gets reduced by your share of the fault.
So say a jury decides your total damages are a certain amount, and also decides you were partly responsible because you were looking at your phone. Your recovery gets reduced by that percentage, but it does not disappear. This matters because the insurance company will almost always try to pin as much blame on you as possible. That is their job. Do not let an adjuster talk you into believing that because you had any role at all, you have no case. In California, that is simply not the law.
Insurance adjusters are trained to get recorded statements early, before you have talked to a lawyer, and to get you to say things that sound like admissions. Be careful. You can always call us first. If you want a plainer explanation of how adjusters operate and what to say, our FAQ page covers the questions I hear most often.
Deadlines matter, and some are much shorter than you think
In California, the general deadline to file a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the date of the injury. That comes from Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Miss it, and your claim can be gone no matter how strong it was.
But here is the trap. If your fall happened on public property, say a city sidewalk, a county building, a public park, or a government-run facility, the rules are different and the deadlines can be much shorter. Claims against public entities often require you to file a formal claim within a very short window before you can even sue. San Diego has plenty of public property, so this comes up more than you would expect. If your fall involved anything government-owned, do not wait. Call sooner rather than later so we can protect your rights before a deadline quietly passes.
Common San Diego slip and fall scenarios
I see certain patterns over and over in San Diego. Wet floors in grocery stores and big-box retailers, especially near entrances on rainy days and around produce misters. Cracked and uneven sidewalks outside older buildings. Poorly lit parking structures and stairwells downtown. Spilled drinks and unmarked steps at bars and restaurants in the Gaslamp and Pacific Beach. Pool decks and stairs at apartment complexes and hotels. Loose mats and torn carpeting in office lobbies.
Each of these has its own wrinkles. A fall at a business is handled differently than a fall at a private home or a government building. And falls are not the only way people get hurt on someone else's property. If you were bitten by a dog on someone's premises, that overlaps with our dog bite work, which follows its own set of California rules.
What your case may be worth
I will not throw numbers at you, because anyone who quotes you a figure before reviewing your case is guessing. What I can tell you is the categories of damages California recognizes. Medical bills, both what you have already paid and what your future care may cost. Lost wages if you missed work, and lost earning capacity if the injury affects your ability to do your job going forward. Pain and suffering. In serious cases, the long-term impact on your daily life.
One thing that trips people up is medical liens. If you get treatment on a lien while your case is pending, that provider gets paid out of your recovery at the end. It is a useful tool when you cannot afford care up front, but you want a lawyer managing it so those liens get negotiated down and do not eat your whole settlement. That is part of what we handle for you.
What to do after a fall
If you are able, do a few things right away. Report the fall to the manager or property owner and ask for a written incident report. Take photos of exactly what caused the fall, the wet floor, the broken step, the bad lighting, before it gets cleaned up or fixed. Get names and numbers of anyone who saw it. See a doctor, even if you think you are fine, because some of the worst injuries do not hurt until the next morning. And keep your shoes and clothes from that day. Sometimes they matter.
Then call a lawyer before you talk to the property's insurance company. The evidence in these cases disappears fast. Floors get mopped, video gets recorded over, and witnesses forget. The sooner someone starts preserving proof, the better your position.
A note on how we work
At Crudo Law, you deal directly with an attorney, not a rotating cast of case managers. I practice alongside my father, Frank Crudo, who has been a San Diego attorney since 1975, so there is a lot of local experience under this roof. Consultations are free and confidential, and we handle most injury cases on contingency, which means no fee unless we recover for you. You can learn more about us on our about page.
This post is general information about California law, not legal advice for your specific situation, and laws change over time. The only way to know what applies to your fall is to talk it through with a lawyer who can look at the facts.
Talk to us
If you slipped, tripped, or fell on someone else's property in San Diego and got hurt, let's talk about it. There is no cost to find out where you stand, and no pressure. Call Crudo Law at (858) 622-7280 or reach out through our contact page, and we will take it from there.