Slip and Fall

California threw out the old categories in 1968. Whether you were an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser is not the test any more.

Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108 put the duty back on the general rule in Civil Code § 1714:

"Every one is responsible, not only for the result of his willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his property or person."

What decides a premises case now is notice.

The three ways a case is proved

Actual notice. Someone told them. A prior complaint, an incident report, a work order, an employee who saw it.

Constructive notice. The condition was there long enough that reasonable inspection would have found it. This is where sweep logs, inspection schedules, and camera footage decide cases — and it is why the first letter out is a preservation demand.

The defendant created it. A spill from their own operation, a mopped floor without a sign, a display that collapsed, a repair done badly. No notice is required when the owner made the hazard.

Evidence with a shelf life

Surveillance footage is the single most valuable thing in a retail or commercial fall case, and most systems overwrite in fourteen to thirty days.

Ask for it in writing, immediately, and name what you want: the fall itself, the two hours before it, and every angle covering the area — because the two hours before are what prove how long the hazard sat there.

Also perishable, in roughly this order:

• Sweep and inspection logs for the shift
• The incident report the store wrote that day
• Employee statements taken before anyone had a lawyer
• The footwear you were wearing, unwashed
• The condition itself — photograph it before it is mopped, repaired, or repainted

Who the defendant is

The property owner, the tenant, and the management company are frequently three different entities with three different insurers, and the lease decides who owed what.

A maintenance or janitorial contractor, where the hazard was theirs.

A public entity, for a dangerous condition of public property — with six months to present the claim under Government Code § 911.2(a), and then either six months from a written rejection under § 945.6(a)(1) or two years from accrual if no notice is ever given under § 945.6(a)(2).

And under Civil Code § 1431.2(a), how liability splits among them differs by damage category: non-economic damages are "several only and shall not be joint", while economic damages are not limited that way by § 1431.2.

If you fell at work

Workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer — and only against your employer. If you fell on premises your employer does not own or control, Labor Code § 3852(a) preserves the claim against whoever does.

That is the ordinary situation for delivery drivers, home-health aides, in-home caregivers, technicians, and anyone whose work happens on someone else's floor. I fell at work. · How both claims run.

What to do this week

Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned up — and photograph it with something in frame for scale.

Report it and get a copy of the report before you leave, if you can.

Send a written preservation demand for the video in the first few days. This is the step that cannot be recovered later.

Keep the shoes. Do not clean them.

Write down who was there — employees, witnesses, the manager's name.

Common questions