Los Angeles Premises Liability Attorney

Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 19, 2026

If you were hurt on someone else’s property in Los Angeles, the legal question is rarely whether you fell or were attacked; it is why the floor, the stairway, the parking structure or the sidewalk was in a condition that put careful people in danger, and who knew about it. California premises liability law requires whoever controls a property to use reasonable care to keep it safe, and it holds them responsible when they knew about a hazard, or should have found it, and let it stay. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a South Bay trial firm that handles premises cases across the City of Los Angeles. The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict; every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

• The rule: property owners and businesses must use reasonable care to keep their premises safe, and to fix or warn about hazards they know of or should discover.
• Notice wins cases: proving how long the hazard sat there, and what inspections should have caught it, is usually the whole fight.
• Government property is different: a fall on a City sidewalk, in a public building or in a park runs on a separate statute and a six-month claim deadline, and the City of Los Angeles accepts that claim only through the City Clerk.
• The deadline: most California premises lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury.
• The first step: a free, confidential case evaluation with an attorney. Call 310-750-4149 any time, day or night.

Hurt on a property in Los Angeles? Call now, before the spill is mopped and the camera footage is overwritten. The evaluation is free, and there is no fee unless we recover for you.

The Law Behind a Los Angeles Premises Case

California’s general duty statute, Civil Code § 1714, makes everyone responsible for injuries caused by their failure to use ordinary care in managing their property. For a business, that duty has a practical shape: inspect the premises the way a reasonable business would, fix hazards or warn about them, and do it on a schedule that actually catches problems. A grocery store that has no working inspection routine is not exercising ordinary care, and California courts allow juries to infer notice of a hazard from the absence of a reasonable inspection program. That is why the store’s sweep sheets, inspection logs, and surveillance footage are the first things we demand, in writing, before they disappear.

The duty is not limited to the owner. In Los Angeles the party that controls a property is often a management company, a commercial tenant, a security contractor or a maintenance vendor rather than the name on the deed, and more than one of them can be responsible at once. Finding every party that had control, and every policy that insures them, is where a premises case is built.

The Premises Cases We Handle in Los Angeles

Slip, Trip and Fall

Spilled liquids and dropped produce in supermarkets and big-box stores. Freshly mopped floors with no cones. Broken pavement and potholes in parking lots. Poor lighting in stairwells and parking structures. Missing or loose handrails. Uneven walkways at apartment buildings, restaurants, hotels and office towers. Fall injuries concentrate in wrists, hips, shoulders, knees and heads, and a fall is rarely a minor case: broken hips and wrists, head injuries and surgeries are routine consequences, especially for older adults.

Negligent Security

A property owner’s duty of reasonable care can extend to protecting tenants, guests and customers against foreseeable criminal acts by other people, such as an assault in an apartment complex, a parking structure or a nightclub, where the owner knew or should have known of similar incidents and failed to take reasonable steps such as working locks, lighting, cameras or security staff. Whether the harm was foreseeable, and what a reasonable owner would have done about it, is proved with the property’s own incident history and the police calls to that address; those records are where a negligent security case lives.

Apartment and Rental Hazards

Landlords who control common areas, stairways, balconies, railings, pools and parking areas must keep them reasonably safe and must repair known hazards. A tenant’s or guest’s injury from a broken stair, a loose railing, a defective gate or an unlit walkway is a premises case against the owner and the manager, and the lease does not waive it.

Dangerous Conditions on Public Property

A fall on a public sidewalk, in a City facility, at a school, or in a public park is not an ordinary premises case. Claims against public entities run under Government Code § 835, the dangerous condition statute, which has its own elements, its own defenses, including the argument that a small sidewalk defect is legally “trivial,” and one unforgiving rule: a written government claim is generally due within six months under the Government Claims Act deadline. In Los Angeles that entity is usually the City for a city sidewalk, street, park or building, and the City accepts a claim only through the Office of the City Clerk, not the City Attorney; the County of Los Angeles for a county facility; or the State for a state building or a freeway. If your injury happened on public property, the clock that matters is already running.

The Defenses You Should Expect

Property insurers run the same plays in nearly every premises case. “We had no notice”: answered with inspection records, prior complaints, and how long the physical evidence says the hazard existed. “It was open and obvious”: California treats obviousness as a factor, not an automatic bar, especially where people foreseeably encounter the hazard anyway. And comparative fault: California reduces recovery by your percentage of fault rather than eliminating it, so the insurer’s claim that you “should have been looking” is an argument about percentages, fought with evidence, not a reason to abandon the case. Do not give a recorded statement to the property’s insurer before you have counsel.

What to Do After an Injury on a Los Angeles Property

1. Get medical care the same day. Fall injuries, especially head injuries, do not always announce themselves immediately.
2. Report it to the store manager, the property owner or the building management, and ask that an incident report be created. Get a copy or its reference number. If you were attacked, call the LAPD and get the report number; that report is the foundation of a negligent security case.
3. Photograph the hazard before it is cleaned, fixed, or dried: the spill, the broken step, the lighting, the broken lock or gate, and your footwear.
4. Get witness names, including the employees who responded.
5. Preserve what you wore, especially shoes, and do not surrender them to an insurer.
6. Call a lawyer early, so a preservation letter reaches the property before camera footage is overwritten, often within days.

What Your Claim Can Include

The damages follow the medicine: emergency and future medical care, including surgeries and rehabilitation; lost wages and reduced earning capacity; and non-economic damages for pain and the loss of mobility and independence that serious injuries cause, particularly in older adults. When a property hazard or an assault on a property takes a life, the family’s claim is a wrongful death case, and our Los Angeles wrongful death page explains who can bring it and what it covers. The value of any case depends on its own facts and evidence, and no outcome is ever guaranteed.

The Deadlines That Control a Los Angeles Premises Case

Most California premises lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury under CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, and an injury on public property triggers the six-month government claim deadline first; the two-year rule does not rescue a missed claim. The evidence deadline is shorter than either: surveillance systems in most businesses overwrite themselves in days or weeks. Most premises lawsuits arising inside the City of Los Angeles are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Central District and assigned to an independent calendar judge at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, downtown; the court assigns the courthouse by where the injury happened, so a case from the Harbor, the San Fernando Valley or the Westside can land in another district.

How Do I Find the Best Los Angeles Premises Liability Lawyer?

Start with trial experience, because a property insurer settles for real value only when it believes the case will be tried. David Gammill has tried over 100 cases to verdict. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Before that, he spent seven years as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, so he knows how the other side prepares. Two practical questions cut through the rest: will the lawyer who signs you up be the one who handles your case, and can the firm point to real results in cases like yours? The firm’s record is set out below.

Why Los Angeles Premises Victims Choose Gammill Law

A Dangerous-Condition Verdict the Defense Knows

Our firm’s results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict in a dangerous condition case against a public entity, tried to a jury after a $10,000 pre-trial offer; separately, the firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Results like these reflect their own facts, and no outcome is ever guaranteed, but they are why insurers treat a case differently when trial is a real possibility. See our case results.

No Fees Unless We Win

We work on a contingency fee: nothing upfront, no hourly bills, and a fee only out of the recovery, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.

Personal Attention, Experienced Hands

You will know the attorney handling your case, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. An initial consultation can be held by Zoom video, and if you are injured and cannot travel, we meet clients at the hospital, at home, or wherever recovery requires.

Frequently Asked Questions About Los Angeles Premises Liability Claims

I tripped on a broken City sidewalk in Los Angeles. Who do I claim against?

Usually the City of Los Angeles, under Government Code § 835, and the written claim must reach the Office of the City Clerk within six months of the injury; the City Attorney cannot receive it. The City will argue the defect was trivial, and the measurements, the photographs and the City’s own repair records answer that. Where a private owner’s tree roots or driveway caused the defect, that owner can be a second defendant.

I was assaulted in my apartment building’s parking garage. Is the landlord responsible?

Possibly. The question is foreseeability: whether the owner knew or should have known of similar incidents at or near the property and failed to take reasonable steps such as working gates, lighting or security. The building’s incident history and the police calls to the address are the evidence, and the LAPD report of your assault is where the case starts.

The store says it had no idea the floor was wet. Does that end my case?

No. Notice is proved, not conceded. The store’s inspection schedule, its sweep logs, its surveillance footage and how long the physical evidence says the hazard existed all answer that defense, and a store with no reasonable inspection program can be found to have constructive notice.

How long do I have to file a premises liability lawsuit in Los Angeles?

Two years from the injury for most claims, under CCP § 335.1. If a public entity is involved, a written claim is due to that entity within six months under Government Code § 911.2, and the two-year rule does not save a missed claim.

How much does it cost to hire Gammill Law?

Nothing upfront and nothing unless we win. We work on a contingency fee, paid only out of the recovery. The written contingency fee agreement linked above sets out the arrangement in detail.

Serving Los Angeles and the South Bay

Our office is in Torrance, and we represent people hurt on properties across the City of Los Angeles, from San Pedro and the Harbor through South Los Angeles and downtown to the Westside and the San Fernando Valley, and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For every kind of injury case in the city, see our Los Angeles personal injury lawyer page.

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Your free case review includes a real evaluation with an experienced attorney, a clear explanation of your options, and an honest assessment of what your claim is worth. No obligation, and everything you share is confidential.

Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149 now. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win.

This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice for any specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.