26+ Years of Experience as a Premises Liability Attorney Serving Bakersfield

California property owners are obligated to keep their properties reasonably safe for tenants, customers, and visitors. If you’re injured in the Bakersfield area because a property owner did not meet this duty, contact a Bakersfield premises liability attorney at The Paris Firm.

You could slip on a damp floor in a supermarket or restaurant, trip on a cracked sidewalk or a pothole in a parking lot, or be injured by falling merchandise, a runaway shopping cart, or even by your neighbor’s aggressive dog.

Trip-and-fall and slip-and-fall accidents are the most frequent property-related accidents. Slipping or tripping and falling can cause head, back, and neck injuries, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, contusions, broken bones, and other serious injuries and medical conditions.

In any of these scenarios, after a medical provider treats you, schedule a consultation with a Bakersfield premises liability lawyer at The Paris Firm by calling 909-325-6185. You may be eligible to obtain compensation for your lost wages, medical care, and other losses and damages.

What is Negligent Security?

California law also holds negligent property owners responsible for dangerous property conditions when their failure to implement certain reasonable safety measures fosters crimes like assaults and robberies.

In negligent security cases, filing an injury claim isn’t “blaming” a business for a crime, but it holds the business accountable for ignoring dangerous conditions and failing to take reasonable measures to keep visitors safe.

Business owners aren’t expected to prevent every crime, but the law does require them to take reasonable security measures when commercial properties are hazardous. If a business owner ignores a need for better lighting, surveillance cameras, or security guards, the owner may be held liable for injuries a visitor sustains in a predictable and preventable crime.

What Makes a Negligent Security Claim Valid?

You can’t sue a business merely because a crime happened there. The legal requirement is foreseeability. You and your Bakersfield premises liability attorney must prove the property owner knew or should have known that criminal activity was likely.

California courts consider several factors in negligent security cases. Have similar crimes happened at the business or in the adjacent neighborhood? Bakersfield property owners have a duty to provide security measures that match the risk level.

What Are a Landlord’s Obligations?

Landlords and other California property owners are legally obligated to keep their properties reasonably free of hazards for tenants and visitors. The law seeks to balance a landlord’s duty to prevent injuries with tenants’ and visitors’ obligation to be aware of their surroundings.

Landlords must comply with building, housing, safety, and health codes, maintain working water, heat, and electricity, and make repairs when needed. Landlords must also inform tenants of any lead paint hazards and provide information about lead paint contamination.

California landlords may be held accountable for injuries caused by dilapidated stairs or balconies, poor lighting, cracked sidewalks or parking area pavement, a lack of fire alarms or sprinklers, or inadequate security.

When Are Landlords Negligent?

The law presumes landlords can’t prevent every possible accident that might happen at apartment buildings or other properties, but landlords must take reasonable measures to prevent accidents and injuries and to make all legally required disclosures and necessary repairs.

To prevail with a premises liability lawsuit and acquire compensation for an injury caused by a landlord’s negligent or deliberate failure to make a necessary repair, a tenant must prove one of the following claims with the help of a premises liability lawyer:

1. A reasonable landlord would have been aware of the hazard and repaired it.
2. The landlord was aware of the hazard and refused or neglected to repair it.
3. The landlord’s negligence was the direct cause of the injury.

What Are a Landlord’s Defenses Against an Injury Claim?

If you’re injured because your landlord fails to make a necessary repair, and you bring a premises liability claim, the landlord may contend that you are the cause of your own injury and offer one of these defenses:

1. The tenant was not paying attention to the surroundings.
2. The tenant had been warned of the hazard.
3. A reasonable person would have seen and avoided what was plainly a hazard.

Most injury claims against Southern California landlords are settled out of court, but when a claim cannot be resolved privately, which is unusual, a jury trial can determine if the landlord reasonably had sufficient time to remedy the hazard that caused your injury.

Other Property-Related Injuries

Hotels, gyms, and homeowners who allow others to use their swimming pools are usually liable for any injuries that occur in those pools. If you’re injured in another party’s swimming pool because it was poorly maintained, you may have grounds for a premises liability claim.

Dog bite injury cases are considered premises liability cases in California because a dog is considered a legal extension of its owner’s property. California has established a strict liability rule for dog bites, so the first time a dog bites and injures someone, its owner may be held liable.

What Are an Injury Victim’s Rights and Options?

In California, if you are injured because of a property owner’s negligence, whether that party is a landlord or another residential property owner, a private business, or a government agency, you have a right to seek compensation for your lost wages, medical bills, and other damages.

If you are injured due to a landlord’s negligence or a crime on someone else’s property, take these steps immediately:

1. Call 911 to summon the police if you’re the victim of an assault or robbery at a business or apartment building. A police report may be the key to your premises liability claim.
2. Seek medical care: Call for paramedics or go to an emergency room immediately. You need a medical record linking your injury to an accident or criminal activity.
3. Take photos: If you can, take pictures of the accident or crime scene. Photograph the broken lock, the open gate, or the lack of lighting.
4. Do not speak to an insurance company: The property owner’s insurance company may contact you. Refer their calls and inquiries to your attorney at The Paris Firm.

What Else Should You Know About Premises Liability?

Premises liability laws do not overlook a visitor’s obligation to act cautiously and safely. If you’re injured while trespassing, or if you walk into your neighbor’s pool or fire pit while looking at your smartphone, the property owner has no liability and cannot be sued.

But if you are injured on someone else’s property in the Bakersfield area because the property owner was negligent, summon or seek medical attention at once. After you’ve been treated, call to schedule your first consultation with a Bakersfield premises liability lawyer at The Paris Firm.

In most premises liability cases in California, you have two years from the date of the injury to file a claim. But before you can sue a government agency, you have six months from the injury date to file a notice with that agency. A lawyer can help you complete and submit the notice.

How Are Claims Against Property Owners Resolved?

Most premises liability cases are settled privately before trial. If liability for your injury is in dispute, if the extent of your injuries is disputed, or if no acceptable settlement offer is made in the private negotiations, your attorney at The Paris Firm can take your case to trial.

At a premises liability trial, your attorney will explain to the jurors how (and how severely) you were injured and why the property owner’s negligence directly caused your injury. Jurors will then determine if the property’s owner should be ordered to compensate you.

If your lawyer can prove a property owner’s negligence directly caused your injury, you can be compensated for your pending and projected future medical expenses, your lost wages and projected future lost earnings, your personal pain and emotional distress, and related damages.

Schedule a Free Case Evaluation

Attorney Eric Paris has 26+ years of experience representing the injured victims of negligence in Bakersfield and throughout Southern California. He can resolve the most complex premises liability and personal injury claims, and his legal team provides exceptional client service.

If you’re injured, your first legal consultation is free. Because premises liability attorneys in California represent clients on a contingency fee basis, you will pay no attorney’s fee until and unless The Paris Firm recovers the compensation you are entitled to, need, and deserve.

Contact The Paris Firm at once if you’ve been injured on another party’s property in the Bakersfield area or if this happens to you in the future. You can call our law offices now at 909-325-6185 to learn more, schedule a free case evaluation, or begin the legal process.