California gives you two years from the date of a fall to file a personal injury lawsuit. If the fall happened on property owned by the City of Clovis, Fresno County, a school district, or any other public entity, you have six months to present a written claim before you can sue at all. Miss that six month window and a case worth six figures can be over before it starts.
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Slip and fall cases in Clovis are filed in Fresno County Superior Court, and they turn on a narrower question than most people expect. It is rarely enough to prove you fell and got hurt. You have to prove the property owner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to fix it or warn about it. Here is how that gets done, step by step.
Key Takeaways
- Two years is the general deadline. California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 sets a two year limitations period for personal injury claims.
- Public property means six months. A written government claim must be presented to the public entity first, and the entity generally has 45 days to respond.
- Notice is the central battleground. You must show the owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the hazard, which usually means proving how long it was there.
- California abolished the old visitor categories. Since Rowland v. Christian, landowners owe a general duty of ordinary care rather than different duties to invitees and licensees.
- Partial fault does not bar recovery. California uses pure comparative negligence, so an award is reduced by your percentage of responsibility rather than eliminated.
- Surveillance video is the first thing to lose. Many systems overwrite in 14 to 30 days, so a written preservation demand should go out immediately.
What You Have to Prove Under California Law
A slip and fall claim is a negligence claim built on premises liability. In California you must establish four things: the defendant owned, leased, occupied, or controlled the property; the defendant was negligent in the use or maintenance of that property; you were harmed; and the negligence was a substantial factor in causing that harm.
The duty of ordinary care
California is not a state where your status as an invitee, licensee, or trespasser controls the outcome. The Supreme Court of California abandoned those rigid categories in Rowland v. Christian and replaced them with a general duty to use reasonable care in managing property, with the reason for a person being there treated as one factor among many. Courts weigh foreseeability of harm, the closeness of the connection between the conduct and the injury, moral blame, the burden of preventing harm, and the availability of insurance.
Notice: actual and constructive
An owner is not automatically liable because a hazard existed. Liability requires either actual notice, meaning someone knew about the spill or broken step, or constructive notice, meaning the condition existed long enough that a reasonable inspection would have found it. California courts have held that an owner who cannot show a reasonable inspection routine may face an inference of constructive notice from evidence about how long the condition was present.
In practice this makes sweep logs and inspection records the most important documents in the case. If a grocery store inspects every 30 minutes and the video shows the spill occurred four minutes before your fall, the case is difficult. If inspection logs are blank for three hours, or the store cannot produce them at all, the case changes completely. Dirty footprint tracks, dried edges on a liquid, or a cart wheel path through a spill are all used to establish elapsed time.
Identifying the Right Defendant
Naming the wrong party wastes months. In a Clovis shopping center, the responsible party may be the property owner, a management company, a commercial tenant whose lease gives it control of the entry area, a janitorial contractor, or a landscaping company that created the hazard. Often more than one is named, and the lease allocates responsibility between them.
Private property
Start with the Fresno County Assessor and Recorder records to confirm ownership, then check the business entity filings with the California Secretary of State to identify the operating company and its registered agent for service. For a fall in an apartment complex common area, both the owner and the property management company are typically named. Responsibility for a public sidewalk in front of a business is fact specific in California, since a city can be responsible for the walkway while an abutting owner may still bear responsibility depending on what created the hazard.
Public property
Falls in a city park, a public library, a county building, or a school campus fall under the Government Claims Act. The standard differs from ordinary negligence: you must show a dangerous condition of public property that created a reasonably foreseeable risk, and that the entity either created it through an employee acting within the scope of employment or had notice of it with enough time to take protective measures. These cases also carry immunities that do not exist in private claims, which is why the six month claim deadline and an early evaluation both matter so much.
Evidence and Preservation
Report the fall to a manager before you leave and ask that a written incident report be completed. Request a copy. Many businesses decline, but the request establishes that a report exists. Photograph the hazard immediately from several distances, include a shoe or a coin for scale, and capture the lighting, the flooring surface, and whether any warning cone was present. Photograph what you were wearing on your feet, since footwear will be an issue.
Send a written preservation letter to the business and its insurer within days. It should demand retention of surveillance footage covering at least the hour before and after the fall, sweep and inspection logs, prior incident reports for the same area, maintenance and repair records, employee schedules, and the incident report itself. Video is the highest value evidence in these cases and it is also the easiest to lose, because retention on many systems is measured in weeks. A personal injury lawyer in Clovis who regularly handles Fresno County premises cases will typically send that letter, obtain the assessor records, and interview witnesses before the store manager rotates out or the flooring is replaced.
Medical Treatment and Documenting Damages
Get evaluated quickly. Fractures, rotator cuff tears, and head injuries are the most common serious outcomes in falls, and hip fractures in older adults carry the most severe consequences. A gap between the fall and the first medical visit is the argument the defense makes in nearly every case. Describe the mechanism of the fall to the provider so it appears in the chart, because the intake note becomes evidence about causation.
Economic damages include past and future medical expenses, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, and out of pocket costs. In California, recovery for medical expenses is generally limited to the amounts actually paid or still owed rather than the full billed charges, so the billing ledger and the payment history both need to be collected. Noneconomic damages cover pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, and there is no statutory cap on those damages in an ordinary premises liability case. The strength of a medical claim often comes down to how clearly the treating physician links the injury to the fall, which our guide on How a Doctor’s Report Can Make or Break an Injury Case in Cumming covers in more detail.
Deadlines You Cannot Miss
- Two years for private defendants. Measured from the date of the fall for most adult claimants.
- Six months for a government claim. Present the written claim to the public entity, which generally has 45 days to act on it.
- Six months to sue after a written rejection. If the entity rejects the claim in writing, a short window opens for filing suit, and it is much shorter than the general two year period.
- Sixty days to serve the complaint. California court rules expect service on each defendant within 60 days of filing.
- Five years to bring the case to trial. California requires dismissal of cases not brought to trial within five years of filing, subject to limited exceptions.
Different rules apply to minors and to plaintiffs who were incapacitated, and claims against a landlord for a condition that continues over time can raise separate accrual questions. If there is any doubt about which deadline applies, treat the shortest plausible one as the real deadline.
Filing the Lawsuit in Fresno County
Choosing the right court
Clovis cases are filed in Fresno County Superior Court. California divides civil cases into limited civil, which covers claims up to $35,000, and unlimited civil for anything above that. Small claims court handles smaller disputes, currently up to $12,500 for an individual plaintiff, with no attorneys allowed at the hearing. Most injury cases involving surgery or ongoing treatment are filed as unlimited civil. First appearance filing fees run several hundred dollars, and fee waivers are available for people who qualify based on income or public benefits.
What goes in the complaint
The complaint identifies the parties, alleges the facts of the fall, states the negligence and premises liability causes of action, and requests damages. In California personal injury cases the complaint does not state a specific dollar amount; instead the plaintiff serves a separate statement of damages when the defendant asks for it or before a default is taken. Filings also include a civil case cover sheet and a summons. Naming Doe defendants preserves the ability to add a contractor or management company identified later in discovery.
Service and response
Each defendant must be personally served with the summons and complaint by someone over 18 who is not a party, usually a registered process server. Corporate defendants are served through their agent for service of process. A served defendant generally has 30 days to file an answer or a demurrer challenging the pleading. Once an answer is filed, the court sets a case management conference and issues a scheduling order.
What Happens After Filing
Discovery follows: form and special interrogatories, requests for production aimed at the inspection logs and video, requests for admission, and depositions of the store manager, the employee who cleaned the area, and a corporate representative. You will be deposed as well, and the defense will likely request a medical examination by a doctor of its choosing.
Expect a summary judgment motion in most premises cases, usually arguing no notice of the hazard or that the condition was open and obvious. Defeating it requires evidence, not argument, which is why the inspection log discovery matters so much. Courts also require a mandatory settlement conference before trial, and many cases resolve at mediation once the medical picture stabilizes. From filing to trial commonly runs 18 to 30 months.
Common Defenses and Comparative Fault
The three defenses you will see in nearly every case are lack of notice, the open and obvious doctrine, and comparative fault. Open and obvious means the hazard was so apparent that a reasonable person would have avoided it, though it does not automatically defeat a claim where the owner should have anticipated that people would encounter the hazard anyway, such as when it blocks the only entrance.
Comparative fault arguments focus on distraction by a phone, footwear, ignoring a warning cone, or walking in an area not intended for pedestrians. California follows pure comparative negligence, so a jury that assigns you 30 percent of the fault reduces a $100,000 award to $70,000 rather than denying recovery. Even substantial fault on your part leaves a claim intact, a point explained further in Can You Recover Compensation If You Were Partially at Fault for a Car Accident.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a slip and fall lawsuit in California?
Generally two years from the date of the fall for claims against private property owners. If a city, county, school district, or other public entity is responsible, you must present a written government claim within six months, and a much shorter deadline to file suit follows a written rejection.
What if the store says there was a warning sign?
A warning cone helps the defense but does not end the case. The questions become when the cone was placed, whether it was visible from your approach, and whether a warning was an adequate response to that particular hazard. Video and photographs taken at the scene usually resolve the dispute.
Do I have to go to court?
Most premises cases settle without a trial. You will likely attend a deposition and possibly a mediation, and your attorney handles court appearances. Only a small percentage of filed cases reach a jury, though preparing as though yours will is what produces a fair settlement.
How much does it cost to hire a slip and fall attorney?
Almost all California injury firms work on contingency, taking a percentage of the recovery, commonly around one third before a lawsuit is filed and higher if the case proceeds toward trial. Case costs such as filing fees, deposition transcripts, and expert fees are typically advanced by the firm. Get the fee agreement in writing and ask what happens to costs if the case does not succeed.
What if I fell at a friend home?
The claim is normally handled by the homeowner insurance liability coverage rather than paid personally, and the same duty of ordinary care applies. Renters insurance covers tenants in similar situations. Reporting the incident to the insurer is a routine step and does not require suing anyone personally.
The Bottom Line
Filing a slip and fall lawsuit in Clovis means proving notice, naming the right defendant, and beating the clock on evidence that disappears in weeks. Report the fall in writing, photograph everything, get medical care immediately, send a preservation demand for the video and inspection logs, and confirm whether a public entity is involved before the six month claim window closes.
