Claiming Treatment and Damages After a Fall in a Store

Attorney Answer

Falling in a store does not by itself entitle you to anything — you have to be able to show the store failed to use ordinary care, and that the failure is what hurt you. That is not a discouraging answer; it is the shape of the work. Most of it turns on facts you can still capture: what you slipped or tripped on, how long it had been there, and whether the store's own records show anyone looked.

The rule comes from Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a): "Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself." A store that opens its floor to customers is managing property, and it owes customers ordinary care in keeping that floor reasonably safe.

What the statute does not spell out is the point a store will fight over: a business is generally answerable for a hazard it created, knew about, or should have found through reasonable inspection — not for every accident that happens on its premises. That is why sweep logs, inspection records and surveillance video usually decide these claims, and why getting them preserved early matters more than anything else you can do this week.

On the two things you asked for. Money is measured by Cal. Civ. Code § 3333, which sets tort damages as the amount that will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused, whether or not it could have been anticipated — medical costs, lost earnings, and the other harm you can prove. Treatment is different. A store's insurer generally does not pay your medical bills as you go, and no page can tell you what your claim is worth. How care gets paid for while a claim is open is a practical question a local attorney answers in the first phone call.

If the store says you were not watching where you were going, that argument reduces a claim rather than ending it. California uses pure comparative fault: your share cuts the recovery in proportion and never bars it, even if your share is the larger one. The California Supreme Court applied and reaffirmed that system in Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978).

What you can do

1. Get examined and treated, and keep every record and receipt. Tell the provider it was a fall in a store, so the cause is in the chart.

2. Ask the store in writing, as soon as possible, to preserve its surveillance video of the area for the period before and after your fall, along with its inspection or sweep records for that day. Video is routinely recorded over.

3. Report the fall to the store if you have not already, and ask for a copy of the incident report.

4. Note down, while it is fresh, what you fell on, where exactly it was, who you spoke to, and whether anyone saw it.

5. Keep receipts for anything the fall has cost you.

6. Ask a local attorney about how your treatment gets paid for while the claim is open, and before you give any recorded statement to the store's insurer or sign anything it sends.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. An injury claim in California runs on Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1: "Within two years: An action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another." That is the outside limit, not a planning target — the evidence that proves a store fall disappears within weeks. When the period started depends on your facts, so have a local attorney check the date now.