When you are hurt on someone else’s property, a California premises liability attorney can help you understand what went wrong and hold the responsible party accountable. At Reiner & Frankel, LLP, we represent injured people throughout California who were harmed by unsafe conditions they had every reason to trust.
A serious fall, a collapsing stair, or an unguarded hazard can change everything in an instant. We see the person behind the injury, and we are here to listen.
Our attorneys have spent decades in courtrooms, not only at the negotiating table. As California personal injury lawyers with over 40 years of experience, we know how property owners and their insurers build a defense, and we know how to answer it.
If a dangerous property has left you or someone you love injured, help is close. Call (855) 248-5659 for a free, candid case evaluation.
What Is Premises Liability in California?
Premises liability is the area of California law that holds property owners responsible when unsafe conditions on their property cause an injury. It is the legal reason a store, landlord, or agency can be required to pay for harm that proper care would have prevented.
Under California Civil Code § 1714, everyone has a duty to use ordinary care in managing their property. When a person or business ignores that duty, and someone gets hurt, California law allows the injured person to seek compensation.
Premises liability is a form of negligence, but it centers on the condition of a place rather than a single careless act. The location and who was responsible for keeping it safe sit at the center of every claim.
This rule reaches far beyond private homes. Stores, apartment complexes, hotels, restaurants, parking lots, and government agencies can all be responsible for the spaces they control.
You encounter these spaces every day. A grocery aisle, an apartment stairwell, a hotel pool deck, and a public sidewalk are all places where a property owner’s choices affect your safety.
The key idea is prevention. Premises liability is not about injuries that no one could have stopped, but about harm a reasonable owner could have avoided with proper upkeep and honest warnings.
Types of Premises Liability Cases We Handle
Our firm handles the full range of premises liability cases, from a simple slip on a wet floor to catastrophic harm caused by a hazard an owner ignored for months. Each case starts with a single question: could reasonable care have kept this person safe?
Specifically, the cases we take on often involve:
- Slip, trip and fall injuries on wet floors, broken pavement, poor lighting or loose flooring
- Stairway, handrail and balcony failures
- Negligent security that allows a foreseeable assault, robbery or other crime
- Swimming pool injuries and drownings, including unfenced or poorly maintained pools
- Falling merchandise or objects in stores and warehouses
- Dog bites and animal attacks, which involve both California’s dog bite statute and dog bite premises liability principles
- Serious injuries from dangerous conditions on public property, such as unsafe sidewalks or government buildings
No two of these cases look alike, and the way we build each one reflects the specific hazard and the people it harmed. Many of them share a common thread, though. A person trusted that a space was safe, and that trust was broken by a hazard someone else was responsible for.
Who Is Liable for a Property Injury in California?
In most California cases, the person or business that owned or controlled the property is liable when their failure to keep it reasonably safe causes an injury. Liability follows control, because the party in charge of a space is in the strongest position to keep it safe.
A property owner is generally responsible when they knew, or reasonably should have known, about a hazard and failed to repair it or warn visitors. A puddle that sat for hours, a step that had been cracked for weeks or a burned-out light in a stairwell can all point to a lack of reasonable care.
Landlords and tenants offer a common example. A landlord may be responsible for a broken common stairway, while a business tenant may be responsible for a spill inside its own store.
California does not force injured people into rigid categories based on why they were on a property. Instead, courts focus on whether the owner acted reasonably under all of the circumstances.
This is the core of California property owner negligence. The question is never simply whether an injury happened, but whether ordinary care would have prevented it.
Figuring out who controlled a space can get complicated when owners, tenants, property managers and maintenance contractors all share responsibility. Our attorneys work through those layers, and you can see how we sort out fault in our slip-and-fall liability framework.
How Do You Prove Property Owner Negligence?
To prove property owner negligence in California, we generally establish four things: a duty of care, a breach of that duty, a direct connection between the breach and the injury, and real damages. Each piece has to hold together for a claim to succeed.
The primary reason evidence matters so much is that property conditions change fast. Spills get mopped, broken stairs get fixed, and security footage gets erased, often within days of an injury.
Consider a grocery store that leaves a spill unattended after an employee walks right past it. If a shopper slips and is hurt, the store’s own records and video can show that reasonable care would have prevented the fall.
That is why we move quickly to preserve proof. The record we build often includes:
- Photographs of the hazard before it is repaired
- Maintenance, cleaning and inspection logs
- Security camera or cell phone video
- Statements from employees and eyewitnesses
- Medical records that tie the injury to the incident
Causation ties the pieces together. It is not enough to show that a hazard existed, so we connect that hazard directly to the injury using medical evidence and a clear timeline of what happened.
Gathering this record early is one of the most valuable things a premises liability lawyer in California can do, and it is a step we rarely can afford to delay.
Serious Injuries We See in Premises Liability Cases
Premises liability injuries range from broken bones to life-altering harm, and our practice focuses on the most serious of them. A bad fall can cause far more than bruises.
We regularly represent people with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, complex fractures and chronic pain that reshape daily life. These are the cases at the heart of our work.
Catastrophic and brain-injury claims demand medical understanding, careful documentation and lawyers who have handled them before. The more serious the injury, the harder an insurer may fight the claim.
Some injuries are not obvious at first. A head injury can look minor in the moment and grow into a lasting problem, which is one more reason to have your condition documented early.
We prepare these cases thoroughly, so the full, long-term cost of an injury is never treated as an afterthought by the other side. A person’s future care and lost earning ability deserve as much attention as today’s medical bills.
What Is the Deadline to File a California Premises Liability Claim?
In California, you generally have two years from the date of your injury to file a premises liability lawsuit, under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Missing that window can end a claim before it begins, no matter how strong it is.
There are important exceptions. A claim against a public entity, such as a city or county, usually requires a formal written claim within six months, and different timelines can apply when the injured person is a minor.
Injuries caused by dangerous conditions on public property fall under California Government Code § 835, which sets specific rules for holding a government agency accountable. These claims move on a much faster clock than most.
California also follows a pure comparative negligence rule. Even if you were partly at fault, you can still recover, with your award reduced by your share of responsibility. The California Courts Self-Help Center explains the basics of how civil claims move through the system.
The deadline is only part of the picture. Because proof fades long before two years pass, the strongest cases usually begin with a call soon after the injury.
Our Results Reflect Decades in the Courtroom
Our results come from a willingness to try cases, not just settle them. Property owners and insurers know which firms are prepared to stand in front of a jury, and that reputation shapes every negotiation.
Together, our attorneys bring over 150 years combined experience and have won more than $600 million for clients across California. We have won 98% of the cases we have taken to trial, a record built one verdict at a time.
Our verdicts include a $180 million result in a case involving heart surgeries and a $37 million verdict for injuries caused by dangerous public property. We also hold the largest single-plaintiff verdicts in both Shasta County and Humboldt County history.
Recognition from Super Lawyers, the National Trial Lawyers Association, AVVO and Martindale-Hubbell reflects that work. Behind these results are attorneys Russell Reiner, Richard Frankel, April Stratte and Rick Lundblade, who prepare every case as if a jury will decide it.
Past results do not predict the outcome of any future case, but they show how seriously we take the trust our clients place in us.
Serving Redding and the Surrounding Community
We are proud to serve injured people in Redding and the wider Northern California community as neighbors representing neighbors. This is our home, and the people we represent are not case numbers to us.
Our office sits at 2851 Park Marina Dr. #200 in Redding, near the Sacramento River and the Sundial Bridge. We know the local courts, the community, and the businesses here in a way that an out-of-town firm simply cannot.
Every case is personal to us. When a family in our community is hurt, we treat their fight as our own, and we handle Redding premises liability claims with the same care whether a case settles or goes before a jury.
We also help families across the surrounding region who were hurt on unsafe property. Distance is never a reason to face a serious injury without steady support from a California premises liability attorney who knows the area.
That closeness is part of how we work. You will always know who is handling your case, and you will always be able to reach a person who understands your story.
Why Injured Californians Turn to Our Firm
People choose our California premises liability law firm because we pair a proven trial record with real, personal care. You should never feel like just another file.
We built this practice on being candid and honest with the people we serve, so you get straight answers instead of pressure. Here is what that looks like in practice:
- No fee unless we win, because we work on contingency and never collect until you do
- Free, candid case evaluations with no obligation
- A trial-tested team with over 40 years of experience serving California families
- Compassionate, plainspoken guidance during one of the hardest chapters of your life
- Deep local roots paired with a statewide reputation for results
When you work with us, you get a firm that treats your case as personal, because to us it always is. Call (855) 248-5659 for a free consultation, and let us listen to what you are going through.
