DANGEROUS OR DEFECTIVE PREMISES: Slip, Trip and Fall (Premises liability)

Anyone who owns property, including homeowners, landlords who own apartment buildings or other rental property and commercial businesses, like supermarkets, or schools, must keep their property, and sometimes, the surrounding areas, including sidewalks, safe for guests, customers or others. Even when property owners hire other people like construction contractors, gardeners, or property managers to take care of the property, the property owner is still responsible if the property is not in a safe condition and causes someone to be injured.

The attorneys at Rahman Gramly have handled hundreds of cases involving people injured, maimed or killed by faulty or unsafe premises. We routinely handle premises liability cases involving:

Potholes
Construction hazards (uneven or grooved temporary pavement, asphalt patches creating uneven surface, open or obscured trenches or holes, scaffold malfunctions, falling objects and debris, unsecured manhole covers)
Trees roots causing uplifted sidewalks or other uneven, or cracked surfaces
Slip, trip or falls caused by liquid or debris on flooring or by slippery surfaces
Faulty handrails
Defective stairways, including damaged steps, lack of handrail, inadequate lighting
Uneven pavement, sidewalks or roadways
Lack of security leading to criminal activity

We handle premises liability cases against private and commercial property owners and against government entities like cities, counties and states. For example, sometimes pedestrians and drivers of cars, motorcycles or bicycles are injured because the public road or highway they were traveling on was defective in its design or it was improperly maintained. When this happens, it may be a “dangerous condition of public property” either caused by a City, County, Town, the State of California, or employees or contractors hired by any of these entities.

Examples of a dangerous condition include:

A complicated, confusing intersection, with few or no stop signs, lights or other controls where a collision occurs;
A pothole, bump, trench or other uneven condition in the road or on a sidewalk;
A raised sidewalk caused by tree roots.
Construction hazards present without adequate warnings for bicyclists or pedestrians, such as uneven pavement, a grooved roadway or an open or partially concealed trench.

In California, the public entity which owns, possesses or controls the roadway is liable for the dangerous condition if it can be established that the property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the injury, that the injury was proximately caused by the dangerous condition, that the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury which was incurred, and either: (a) [a] negligent or wrongful act or omission of an employee of the public entity within the scope of his employment created the dangerous condition; or (b) [t]he public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition a sufficient time prior to the injury to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition. If you have been injured due to a dangerous condition of public property, you have a limited time to pursue legal action. For more information on suing public entities, see Articles/Resources.

Contact Our Attorneys

All personal injury cases at RAHMAN GRAMLY are handled on a contingency fee basis, which means that unless we obtain a monetary recovery for your case you will not pay attorneys’ fees or costs. In most cases, we will pay case costs on your behalf until the conclusion of your case. All other matters are handled on an hourly basis, with a free initial consultation.