Maison Law can help you through the claims process when you’re hurt in a slip-and-fall accident in Manhattan Beach. A slip-and-fall is one of the most common kinds of accidents you could be in here in Manhattan Beach, and it’s not all that surprising to figure out why: they can happen anywhere. But what changes the equation is when a property owner or manager doesn’t warn you about a fall risk or simply doesn’t take care of it. We can help you through everything. Set up a free consultation today.
Does Getting a Lawyer Make Sense?
Think about the places you visit every week around Manhattan Beach. Most days, you don’t think twice about where you’re walking. But all it takes is a wet restaurant floor, uneven sidewalk, broken stair, loose tile, poor lighting, or a spill that wasn’t cleaned up to turn an ordinary day into a trip to the emergency room.
It’s unfortunate, but a “simple” slip-and-fall can leave you facing pretty significant injuries. Even still, most people aren’t thinking about getting a lawyer. But then you start getting calls from an insurance company and feel like people are questioning you and what happened. That’s a lot to take on while just trying to get back to normal, and that’s also the point where talking to our lawyers starts to make more sense. Our Manhattan Beach slip-and-fall accident team can:
- Walk you through your options without all the legal jargon
- Gather the photos, records, and evidence needed to build your claim
- Figure out exactly what caused your fall and who was responsible
- Deal with the insurance company so you don’t have to
- Go to court if that’s what it takes to get a fair result
While you focus on healing and getting back on your feet, we’ll handle the paperwork, deadlines, phone calls, and claims process. Our overall goal is to make the process easier for you and your family.
What to Look For After a Slip-and-Fall Accident
A slip-and-fall can catch you completely off guard. One minute you’re walking through a grocery store or restaurant, and the next you’re on the ground wondering what happened. What you do next can make a difference—not just for your health, but for any claim you decide to file later.
Your first priority is always your health. The first step is asking someone nearby to help. Reporting the accident to somebody in charge (or just somebody nearby) and getting medical help is one of the most important things you can do. From there, try to get a few basic things at the scene, like:
- Pictures/videos of what caused your fall before it’s cleaned up or repaired.
- Names and contact information of anyone who saw what happened.
Once you’ve gotten medical treatment, it’s time to start keeping track of information that could help support your claim. You don’t have to do all of this on your own, but the more information you have, the easier it is to understand what happened and who’s responsible. Some of the most helpful things to keep include:
- An accident report from the grocery store, restaurant, apartment complex, hotel, or wherever your fall happened.
- Your medical records, including ER visits, doctor’s appointments, X-rays, MRIs, prescriptions, and physical therapy.
- Surveillance footage from any nearby cameras. Pretty much every business has a security camera that looks over the property, and frequently catches the actual fall. The problem is that it’s only kept for a short time before it’s automatically deleted, so acting quickly can make a big difference.
- Your own notes, along with receipts, medical bills, and records showing missed work or other expenses.
Getting this information doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have a successful claim. But it gives you a much stronger starting point. And with that, the focus becomes figuring out who was responsible and what your next steps should look like.
Who’s Responsible For a Slip-and-Fall Accident?
Because it legally falls under the umbrella of a premises liability claim, a slip-and-fall accident is about answering one core question:
- Who was responsible for keeping the property reasonably safe?
That’s a pretty broad ask of someone, but with a slip-and-fall you’ll need to show that whoever was responsible either:
- Knew about something dangerous and didn’t fix it, or
- Should have known about it but didn’t take action.
With that, it’s pretty easy to see that whoever owns or manages the property is going to carry most of the responsibility if something goes wrong. They’re supposed to keep up the property and do regular checks to try to hit off any problems. With that said, though, it also comes down to what actually happened. That could potentially bring in others who might share responsibility, like:
- Employees who never bothered to clean up a spill or otherwise respond to a reported problem.
- Apartment managers or landlords who didn’t take care of maintenance problems.
- Maintenance or cleaning crews that did poor repair work or didn’t keep the property safe.
- Government agencies if the fall happened on public property like sidewalks, parks, beach paths, or parking lots.
California also follows comparative negligence rules. That means even if you may have been partly responsible—like not noticing a warning sign or looking at your phone when you fell—you can still file a claim. It’s just whatever result you get could potentially be reduced by your percentage of fault.
What Damages Can I Get After a Slip-and-Fall Accident?
When you’re hurt in a slip-and-fall accident, you’re probably not thinking about filing an injury claim—at least right away. But at least legally, you have the same options as you would in a car accident or any other type of accident. You can get damages by filing either:
- Filing an insurance claim.
- Filing a personal injury lawsuit.
Many of these situations start with an insurance claim. If the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement, filing a lawsuit might be your next option. Even then, many cases resolve before reaching trial. Depending on your situation, you may be able to recover damages for:
- Medical expenses
- Future medical treatment
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Property damage
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Like other injury claims, there’s a two-year deadline from the date of your fall to file. But you have to also think about the fact that waiting too long can make surveillance footage disappear, witnesses become harder to locate, and other evidence more difficult to preserve. If your fall happened on public property, much shorter deadlines may apply.
Where Slip-and-Fall Accidents Usually Happen in Manhattan Beach
Slip-and-fall accidents can happen almost anywhere, but given the circumstances, it’s also not surprising that they tend to happen in the same places over and over again throughout the city, especially in:
- Downtown Manhattan Beach, mostly because of constant foot traffic between restaurants, boutiques, and local shops.
- The Strand and areas around the Manhattan Beach Pier, which brings in hundreds of walkers, runners, bicyclists, and beachgoers every day.
- Shopping centers and grocery stores, all of which regularly deal with spills, leaking refrigeration units, freshly mopped floors, and cluttered aisles.
- Apartment complexes and condos can become dangerous when owners/management ignore maintenance issues like broken stairs, loose handrails, cracked sidewalks, poor lighting, or slippery common areas.
- Parking lots and parking garages, which can have problems that people don’t notice until it’s too late. Potholes, uneven pavement, oil slicks, poor drainage, and broken curbs can all lead to serious falls.
Many of these accidents are preventable with routine maintenance or something as simple as placing a warning sign. When property owners fail to take those basic steps, innocent people can end up paying the price.
Talk to Maison Law After a Slip-and-Fall Accident in Manhattan Beach
While it can happen in a split-second, a slip-and-fall accident in Manhattan Beach can leave you facing problems that extend far beyond the initial fall. But you don’t have to deal with the aftermath alone.
At Maison Law, our Manhattan Beach slip-and-fall accident lawyers will be there to help you understand your options, look into what happened, and get the financial help you need to get back on your feet. Set up a free consultation today to talk over your options.
