California Premises Liability Legal Questions

I am sorry to hear about your mother's injuries. Premises liability typically deals with a business and their reasonable care towards certain individuals including guests. In order to determine what action to take it would be necessary to evaulate your case in more detail and see if there would be any liability to the business where your mom fell. In addition, you would need to determine the liability from the man who knocked her down. I would contact an attorney to discuss this in more detail.... Read More

This is a great question.  In today's marketing climate, lawyers are pushed just like other businesses to cultivate client reviews on their websites because reviews are one marker search engines use to push a business to top spot listings.  Many law firms are shameless self-promoters with hundreds of reviews; others (myself included) take a more cautious approach to online reviews, particularly from current clients due to concerns about confidentiality or attorney-client privilege.  To avoid these issues, I do not ask current clients to review me or my firm, and because my business is only 1 year old, I do not have reviews on my main website.  Nevertheless, I have successfully argued premises cases before numerous trial courts, the California Courts of Appeal, and the California Supreme Court.  If you have access to a local law library, you might want to go down and ask the law librarian to run a Westlaw or Lexis search on the attorney's name, and see if you get any hits for cases, verdicts, appeals, etc.  But, in my opinion, the most important factors in choosing an attorney are his/her experience in the particular type of case you have, "sticktoitiveness," your trust and comfort level, and the attorneys' commitment to ethical integrity, not whether they have 2, 10, 100, or 1000 reviews online.  I realize my 2 cents bucks current "marketing wisdom," but I don't necessarily think the same marketing rules apply to lawyers.  Good luck with your case.... Read More

These types of premises liability cases are extremely fact-intensive and usually hard-fought by the defense. It's vital that your friend has someone representing him who has experience with these types of premises liability cases. They are not the same as an ordinary slip and fall on a wet grocery store floor. The law that applies is more complex. I have substantial experience with bar injuries caused by assailants. I have successfully represented several plaintiffs injured in or outside of bars/taverns by others, both at the trial and appellate level. Most significant, I represented the plaintiff in a case called Delgado v. Trax Bar & Grill, which involved a man who was assaulted and seriously injured by a gang outside a bar. I fought the bar all the way to the California Supreme Court and won when no one thought the case stood a chance of prevailing. These are not easy cases. That said, I would be interested in learning more details about your friend's case and also where it occurred. My office is in Northern California, but I have represented clients all over the state. Have your friend contact me to set up a free evaluation of his case.... Read More