I get many calls from people who were injured in San Francisco, Oakland, and the greater Bay Area in falls in stores or restaurants. Often times, the callers think that falling in a store or restaurant automatically means that they can recover damages. And to a very limited extent they are actually right: most businesses here in the San Francisco Bay Area have something called "premises medical payments" insurance coverage. This is a category of insurance that will pay medical bills for someone injured on the insured premises, irrespective of any negligence or fault. Unfortunately, this "medical payments" coverage is usually very limited-$2,000 or $5,000 are common policy limits. To recover anything else, you will have to prove that the property owner did something wrong.
Many of these cases, known to lawyers as premises liability cases, involve a substance or thing on the floor, such as a spilled liquid, or some merchandise, packing, or other items. To recover full compensation from the store or restaurant in this situation, we have to be able to prove one of two things: Either the staff caused the dangerous condition or knew about it, and that they had an opportunity to remedy it, but failed to do so. Often we don't know, and can't prove, how the thing that caused the fall got on the floor. If we can show that an employee caused the condition, there's no need to prove they had notice of it. In other cases, the law assumes that the store or restaurant owner knew about the dangerous condition if there's evidence that it was there for about a half-hour, or if there's evidence that an employee actually saw it or was told about it. Thus, if you slip on something spilled by another customer just a few minutes earlier, you may not have a case. Stores maintain "sweep logs" to use when claims are made, to show they have met their duty to inspect regularly. Sometimes, we find that the store did a better job filling in the log than they did actually inspecting the floors, though. These cases can be tough and hard-fought in California.
Contact one of the California injury lawyers at Callaway & Wolf for a free consultation about your slip or fall case, or case where you need a premises liability lawyer. Callaway & Wolf have practiced together for over 17 years, and have handled many accident injury cases in San Francisco, Oakland, Marin, and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
