A slip and fall case in Los Angeles usually takes longer than a car crash case with the same injury. If the property owner’s insurance company accepts responsibility, a claim settles roughly six to twelve months after your treatment ends. If it denies fault, which happens in most store and parking lot falls, a lawsuit is filed and the case takes 18 to 24 months or more, because Los Angeles Superior Court sets trial dates that far out and the defense will not make a real offer until the evidence is pinned down.
What stretches a fall case is one issue: notice. A driver who rear-ends you is at fault the moment it happens. A store that had grapes on the floor in aisle 7 is at fault only if it knew or should have known the grapes were there and did nothing in a reasonable time. That question is answered by sweep logs, surveillance video, employee statements and inspection policies, none of which the store hands over voluntarily. Getting that evidence takes a lawsuit and discovery, and discovery takes months. A fall with $40,000 in medical bills and a video that shows the spill sitting there for 45 minutes settles. The same fall with no video and a manager who says the floor was checked ten minutes earlier is a two-year case.
How long does a slip and fall case take in Los Angeles?
Six to twelve months after treatment ends if the property owner’s insurer accepts liability and the injury is documented. Eighteen to twenty-four months or longer if a lawsuit has to be filed, which is common because stores and landlords usually deny that they knew about the hazard. Cases involving surgery, a government property owner, or a dispute over how long the hazard existed take the longest.
The stages and how long each one takes
The first stage is treatment, and it sets the clock. A demand is not sent until you have finished treating or your doctors can say what the future holds, because a demand sent while you are still in physical therapy undervalues the case. A sprained wrist and a bruised hip from a fall at a Ralphs in Granada Hills might mean eight weeks of care. A fractured hip at a Costco in Burbank with surgery and rehab might mean eight months.
The second stage is the investigation, which runs alongside treatment and is where fall cases are won or lost. A preservation letter goes to the property owner within days asking it to keep surveillance video, incident reports, sweep logs and the names of employees on shift. Stores overwrite video on a cycle of days or weeks, and a letter sent two months late is a letter sent to a blank hard drive. Photos of the hazard, the footwear, the lighting and any warning signs are collected from the client and any witnesses.
The third stage is the demand and negotiation, which takes 30 to 90 days with a cooperative carrier. For a fall, the demand lays out the notice evidence as much as the medical evidence, because the adjuster’s first question is not how badly you were hurt but why the store should pay for it.
The fourth stage, if needed, is litigation. The complaint is filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the store answers, and discovery begins. Written discovery, the client’s deposition, depositions of the store manager and the employee assigned to the area, and a subpoena for the corporate inspection policy take six to twelve months. Mediation usually follows. Trial, for the cases that get there, is typically set 18 to 24 months after filing.
Government property follows a separate track. A fall on a broken sidewalk maintained by the City of Los Angeles, or at a Metro station, or at a public hospital, requires a written claim with the government entity within six months under Government Code 911.2. The entity has 45 days to respond, usually rejects, and a lawsuit then has to be filed within six months of the rejection. These cases almost always go into litigation.
What the property owner’s insurance company will do
The carrier’s first move in a fall case is to deny. The denial letter will say the store had no notice of the condition, that the condition was open and obvious, or that you were not watching where you were going. All three are arguments about comparative fault and notice, and all three are made in nearly every file regardless of the facts.
The second move is to wait. Carriers know that fall plaintiffs need the store’s own records to prove notice, and that the records come only through a lawsuit. A low offer or no offer at the demand stage is common. The number moves after the manager’s deposition, when it turns out there was no sweep log for that day, or after the video shows a cart of leaking produce parked in the aisle for an hour.
The third move is the medical attack: a preexisting knee problem, a gap in treatment, a 60-year-old’s degenerative findings on MRI. These are answered with the treating doctor’s records and opinions, but they add months because the defense will want its own examination.
What you should do now
Report the fall to the store before you leave and ask for a copy of the incident report. Photograph the hazard, the area around it and your shoes. Get the names and phone numbers of anyone who saw it or who helped you up. Go to a doctor the same day or the next, even if you think it is just a bruise. A fall at a Target in Northridge with a first doctor visit nine days later will be described by the carrier as an injury from something else.
Keep the shoes you wore and do not wear them again. Write down what happened while it is fresh, including what the floor looked like, whether there was a sign, and what employees said. A manager who says “we’ve been meaning to fix that” has handed you the case, but only if you wrote it down.
Call an attorney early. Video preservation is the single most time-sensitive step in a fall case, and it is the one most people miss.
Common mistakes that add months
Waiting to see if the pain goes away before reporting. A fall that is reported two weeks later has no incident report, no video and no witnesses. Giving a recorded statement to the store’s carrier in which you say you “didn’t see” the hazard, which the carrier will treat as an admission that it was your fault rather than proof that it was hard to see. Posting about the fall. Stopping treatment early because the copays add up, which creates the gap the carrier will use. Settling directly with the carrier for the medical bills before anyone has looked at whether the injury is permanent.
Questions people ask next
How long do I have to file a slip and fall lawsuit in California? Two years from the fall under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1, and only six months to file a government claim if the property is owned by a city, county or other public entity.
Do slip and fall cases settle before trial? Most do, but usually later than car accident cases, often at mediation after the store’s employees have been deposed.
Why is my fall case taking longer than my friend’s car accident case? Because fault in a car crash is often clear from the start, while fault in a fall depends on what the property owner knew, and proving that requires the owner’s own records.
Manoukian Law Firm handles falls on unsafe property throughout Los Angeles County, and the attorney personally sends the preservation demands, takes the depositions and negotiates the settlement. If you fell on someone else’s property and want to know what your case will involve, call (818) 818-5031 for a free consultation.
