Who is Responsible for Sidewalk Maintenance in Pasadena?

Have You Been Injured on a Sidewalk in Pasadena?

If you are injured by tripping or slipping and falling on someone else’s property in Pasadena, or if you’re injured this way on a public sidewalk, schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your rights with a Pasadena premises liability attorney.

Who is responsible for sidewalk maintenance in Pasadena? What are your rights if you are injured because a property owner – or a municipal government – was negligent? What steps can you take to be compensated for your lost wages, medical expenses, and related damages?

If you’ll keep reading this short discussion of sidewalk-related injuries and your legal rights, you will learn the answers to these questions, but if you’re personally the injured victim of someone else’s negligence, you should also arrange at once to speak with a Pasadena premises liability lawyer.

What Should You Know About Sidewalks in Pasadena?

Slips, trips, and falls are a common way that people are injured. People slip or trip on uneven, broken sidewalks every day on both private and public property.

Sidewalk repairs on private property are the responsibility of the property owner. If you own a property in Pasadena with a sidewalk in need of repair, you can call the Pasadena Citizen Service Center at 626-744-7311 to have a temporary patch installed until permanent repairs are made.

If a California property owner knows about a hazardous condition on his or her premises, does not repair it, and you’re injured because of that property owner’s negligence, you may be entitled by law to compensation for your medical expenses and related damages.

What Can Happen if You Slip or Trip and Fall?

Every year in California, thousands are injured by tripping or slipping and falling in parking lots and on sidewalks, wet floors, dilapidated staircases, curled-up carpets and rugs, and in cluttered aisles, hallways, and walkways.

A cracked, uneven, or slippery sidewalk can cause serious injuries. As you may guess, the elderly sustain the greatest number of slip-and-fall injuries. Injuries that may be sustained in slip-and-fall incidents include but are not limited to broken bones and to back, leg, neck, and head injuries.

Sometimes, slip-and-fall incidents cause severe spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and/or permanent disability. Victims in these cases will need the maximum amount of compensation that’s available.

What if You Are Injured on a Public Sidewalk?

Public property – sidewalks, buildings, streets, and parks that are owned by the government – must be kept hazard-free. When a park or a public sidewalk is not properly maintained, and you’re injured due to that improper maintenance, what steps will you need to take?

If you’re injured in a slip-and-fall incident in Southern California on either a private or a public sidewalk, schedule a consultation immediately to speak with a Pasadena premises liability attorney.

Your attorney will help you identify the owner of the sidewalk – whether it’s an individual, a business, or a government entity – and will discuss the procedure for bringing a personal injury claim.

In California, the deadlines vary for suing government agencies. To bring a personal injury claim against some local government agencies, you only have thirty days from the date of your injury to start the process, so you should reach out to a premises liability attorney immediately.

How Do You Sue a Government Agency?

You can’t take the government directly to court. To recover compensation from a government agency in California after a slip-and-fall injury, your first step is sending a formal notification to the agency.

The notification you send must be complete and accurate, or your injury claim could be rejected, so ask your Pasadena premises liability lawyer to help you complete and send the notification. By submitting this notification, you provide the agency with:

1. an opportunity to resolve your injury claim before you file your lawsuit
2. an opportunity to investigate the incident and develop a defense strategy
3. a chance to repair the hazard and/or revise the practices that caused you to be injured

How Are Injury Claims Against the Government Resolved?

Before submitting your notification and while you’re waiting for a response, your premises liability attorney will begin compiling and reviewing the evidence in the case, speaking with witnesses, and developing the strongest possible premises liability claim.

After you notify the government agency that owns or maintains the sidewalk where you slipped or tripped and fell, the agency will reject your injury claim or offer a settlement. If it offers a settlement, discuss with your attorney whether or not to accept the offer, negotiate for a more generous settlement, or move forward with legal action.

Will There Be a Trial?

If your premises liability claim is rejected, and if negotiating out-of-court with the agency proves futile, your attorney will take your case to court, explain to jurors how your injury happened, and ask the jurors to find in your favor and order the government agency to compensate you.

Premises liability trials are rare, but every case is different, so you must have the right attorney advising you from the start. After you have been examined and treated by a medical provider, schedule a no-cost, no-obligation legal consultation with a premises liability lawyer in Pasadena.

What Can an Injured Victim of Negligence Expect to Recover?

The compensation you may recover with a premises liability claim against a government agency in California is similar to compensation that you may recover for medical bills and lost wages in other personal injury cases.

However, when you sue a government agency for a personal injury in California, you cannot recover compensation for personal pain and suffering. Government agencies also do not pay any punitive damages, even when reckless disregard for life or gross negligence was involved.

You will only recover compensation for the economic damages that you can document – medical expenses and lost earnings, for example – if you prevail with your claim against the government.

How Should You Choose a Premises Liability Attorney?

When you choose the legal team at Thon Beck Vanni Callahan & Powell, you’ll be working directly with an award-winning premises liability lawyer and a firm that has recovered millions of dollars in compensation for the injured victims of negligence.

Moreover, your first consultation is free, with no obligation, and you will pay no attorney’s fee until and unless Thon Beck Vanni Callahan & Powell recovers compensation on your behalf.

If you have been injured in a slip-and-fall accident on a public sidewalk, or if you’ve been injured in any accident scenario in Southern California because someone else was negligent, call Thon Beck Vanni Callahan & Powell now at 626-795-8333, and put the law to work for you.