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The typical personal injury lawyer in San Diego, or most anywhere in the United States for that matter, deals in a variety of types of injury cases. Most commonly, personal injuries result from automobile accidents, motorcycle accidents, defective products, medical malpractice, or slip and fall situations.

The latter category, slip and falls (or trip and falls), can often be the most difficult type of case to establish negligence, or fault, on the part of the prospective defendant. In order to establish negligence on the part of the prospective defendant the law requires that the plaintiff show that the defendant knew or should have known of the problem which caused the fall. For example, a personal injury plaintiff slips and falls on liquid on the floor of a supermarket. The plaintiff must show that the store knew or should have known that the liquid was on the floor. Often businesses have "sweep sheets" to demonstrate that they survey the floor periodically and use these sweep sheets to demonstrate that although the liquid may have been on the floor they cannot be held responsible for knowing about it. In a landmark case over a slip and fall injury due to a banana peel the critical question posed by the judge was whether "the banana peel was yellow or brown"? In other words, if the banana peel was yellow then it had fallen shortly before the accident and the store cannot be expected to be watching all places at all times for the possible fallen banana peel. But, if the banana peel was brown then the implication is that it had been there for an extended period of time and the store, it could be argued, should have known about it and taken action to remove it.

Another problem for plaintiffs in establishing fault on the part of the prospective slip and fall defendant is that the victim, it may be argued, was not watching where they are walking and could have avoided the offending substance had they been more careful. This argument, if successfully argued, would make the plaintiff at fault either in whole or in part for their own accident.

Many plaintiff's law firms will shy away from slip and fall cases. My law firm has been representing slip and fall victims for well over 20 years. We understand that thorough case preparation is necessary in order to marshal all the evidence to have a meaningful chance of showing the defendant is at fault. While slip and fall cases demonstrate unique difficulties not presented in the typical personal injury case, they often can be won through meticulous case preparation and zealous representation.