Premises Liability cases that hold property owners to a real standard.

Premises liability is the area of California law that holds property owners and occupiers responsible when their failure to maintain a reasonably safe environment causes injury to a lawful visitor. It covers a wide range of situations, including slip and fall on a wet grocery store floor, trip and fall on a broken sidewalk, injuries caused by inadequate security at an apartment complex or hotel, and accidents at swimming pools that lack proper fencing or supervision.

Under California law, property owners owe a duty of reasonable care to people on their property. That duty does not require perfection. It requires the owner to inspect the property, identify foreseeable hazards, fix what they reasonably can, and warn of dangers they cannot immediately repair. When an owner ignores a known hazard, fails to inspect at all, or creates a danger themselves, they can be held responsible for the injuries that follow.

To prevail in a premises liability case, you generally have to show that a dangerous condition existed on the property, that the owner knew about it or should have known about it through reasonable inspection, that they failed to fix it or warn of it, and that the condition caused your injury. Each of those elements is fact-specific, and the evidence often disappears quickly. Surveillance video may be overwritten in days. The wet floor sign may go up after the fall. The broken step may be repaired before anyone documents it.

Spiering Law moves fast on premises cases. We send preservation letters, request surveillance footage, identify witnesses, and document the condition before it can be altered. We work with engineers, building code experts, and security consultants when they can help establish what went wrong and what should have been done.

We handle premises liability cases against grocery stores, big box retailers, hotels, restaurants, apartment complexes, vacation rentals, public properties, and private homeowners throughout the Monterey Bay region.

Who this is for

This page is for anyone who was hurt on a property they did not own or control because the property was not maintained safely. That includes falls on commercial property, injuries caused by inadequate lighting or security, swimming pool incidents, dog bites on another person's property, and similar situations.

What to do after a premises injury

1. Report the incident to the property owner, manager, or staff and ask for a copy of the incident report.
2. Photograph the hazard exactly as it was, ideally from multiple angles, before anything is cleaned up or repaired.
3. Identify any witnesses and get their contact information. Their accounts can make or break the case later.
4. Get medical attention promptly. Falls in particular can cause injuries that are not obvious in the first 24 hours.
5. Preserve the clothing and footwear you were wearing. Defense lawyers often blame the victim's shoes, and the actual evidence can rebut that argument.
6. Call Spiering Law as soon as possible. Surveillance video is often overwritten within days, and we need to send preservation requests immediately.

Key California legal concepts