Perris Trip and Fall Lawyer

Serious trip and fall injuries often begin with an uneven surface or obstruction that the property owner failed to address. If unsafe property caused your fall, call Hanson & Mouri at (951) 688-0006 or contact us online for a free consultation with our Perris trip and fall lawyer.

Prepared for the Questions the Insurer Will Ask

• Dani Mouri’s previous insurance defense experience gives our firm insight into how adjusters examine trip and fall claims.

• Your Perris personal injury attorney remains directly involved and explains how property records, medical findings, and likely defenses shape the case strategy.

• You pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. Essentially a contingency fee.

Who Knew About the Hazard, and When?

An owner, tenant, property manager, maintenance company, or contractor can be liable for a trip and fall, depending on who created the condition and oversaw the area. California Civil Code section 1714 holds people responsible for injuries caused by a “want of ordinary care” in managing property.

This law requires property owners or managers to take reasonable precautions, which can include inspecting walking areas, correcting hazards, and warning visitors when an immediate repair is not possible.

Proving a Trip and Fall Claim

A successful claim must establish the following:

• The person or business owned, leased, occupied, or controlled the property and failed to use reasonable care.

• The responsible party created the hazard, knew of, or reasonably should have known, about it in time to repair it or warn visitors.

• The dangerous condition directly caused your fall and injuries.

• You suffered compensable losses (e.g., medical bills, lost wages, physical limitations, emotional distress, etc.)

Prior complaints, inspection logs, work orders, and photographs of the hazard and scene can help prove it existed long enough for the responsible party to correct it.

How Shared Fault Impacts Your Compensation

Property insurers may blame you for failing to step around the defect which can end up reducing your compensation. In Li v. Yellow Cab Co., the California Supreme Court adopted a system that assigns “liability in proportion to fault,” also referred to as pure comparative negligence.

If you share any fault, you can still recover compensation but your fault percentage reduces it by the same amount. For instance, someone awarded $100,000 and assigned 20 percent of the blame can recover $80,000. If you and the at-fault party’s insurer cannot agree on fault during settlement negotiations, you can take the claim to trial for a jury to decide how responsibility should be divided.

Insurance Coverage for a Perris Trip and Fall

A trip and fall injury may lead to dealing with multiple parties and their insurance companies. An accident at a store, apartment complex, or commercial property may involve a landlord, tenant, property manager, and maintenance contractor. Their leases and service agreements can divide responsibility for inspections, repairs, and warnings.

A Perris trip and fall lawyer can handle tracing those relationships, notifying the appropriate insurers, and pursuing each party whose conduct contributed to the hazard. Identifying each party’s responsibilities can keep disagreements between the businesses from delaying your claim. If a party withholds its contracts or insurance information, your attorney can file a lawsuit and require it to provide those records through the court process.

Discuss Your Fall With Hanson & Mouri

Find out how California law applies to your Perris trip and fall. Send us a message or call Hanson & Mouri at (951) 688-0006 for a free consultation.