The first question in a sidewalk case is not how badly you were hurt. It is who owns the ground that hurt you, because that one answer changes the defendant, the law that applies, and most urgently the deadline, which can shrink from two years to a six-month government claim. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $22.6 Million jury verdict against the City of Los Angeles, and sidewalk cases reward the lawyer who moves first and measures everything.
The Short Answer
Two people trip on identical two-inch uplifts a block apart. One fell on a city sidewalk. The other fell on a walkway inside a private plaza. They have different defendants, different legal standards, and deadlines that differ by a factor of four. Neither of them can tell which case they have by looking at the concrete, and that is the point of this page. This page is part of our complete guide: Pasadena premises liability lawyer.
So the work starts with ownership: parcel maps, city right-of-way records, maintenance history, and photographs of exactly where you fell. Everything else in the case is built on that answer. Get it wrong, or get it late, and you can spend the only six months that mattered negotiating with the wrong entity.
Public Sidewalks
If a city, county, or other public entity owns the sidewalk, your case is a dangerous condition of public property claim under Government Code section 835. In plain English, that statute requires proof that the property was in a dangerous condition, that the condition created a foreseeable risk of exactly this kind of injury, and that the entity either created the condition or had notice of it long enough before your fall to fix it or warn about it. It is a demanding statute with its own traps, and it is our signature arena: our page on dangerous condition of public property walks through every element, and it is where your reading should go next if a government sidewalk hurt you.
Here is the part that cannot wait for more reading: before you may sue a public entity, a written government claim generally must be presented within six months of the injury under Government Code section 911.2. Not a lawsuit, a claim, on the entity's own form, with the facts stated correctly. Miss the six months and the routes back are limited and uncertain. This deadline is the single most common way good sidewalk cases die.
We know this arena because we have tried it: the firm won a $22.6 Million jury verdict against the City of Los Angeles for a pedestrian struck on the head by a falling municipal light-pole cap, a fourteen-day jury trial against a public entity. Cities defend sidewalk cases hard. They respect firms that have beaten them in front of a jury.
Example: Maria trips on a lifted sidewalk slab outside a public park in Pasadena and fractures her hip. The city's claims office tells her adult son the matter is "under investigation" and asks the family to be patient while it reviews the file. Seven months after the fall, the family calls a lawyer to ask why nothing has happened.
Conclusion: Nothing the claims office said paused Government Code section 911.2. If no written claim was presented within six months, the family is now outside the deadline and limited to relief that is narrow and uncertain. Had the claim been filed in month one, the investigation could have taken as long as it liked. After any fall involving public property, the claim gets filed first and the patience comes after.
Private Walkways
Walkways inside shopping centers, office plazas, apartment complexes, and HOA communities are private property, and a fall there is an ordinary premises liability case. The owner owes reasonable care: inspect the walkways, repair the defects, and warn about the ones not yet repaired. The case turns on notice, and notice is proven with the owner's own records: inspection logs, maintenance requests, prior complaints, work orders, and camera footage that starts overwriting the week you fall.
The deadline is different too: generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Longer than six months, but the evidence does not honor either deadline. Concrete gets patched, footage gets overwritten, and witnesses scatter, usually within weeks.
Example: David catches his toe on a raised seam between two walkway slabs in a shopping plaza off Colorado Boulevard and tears his rotator cuff breaking the fall. The plaza's management company produces a maintenance log in discovery showing two prior complaints about that seam, one of them nine months old, with a work order marked "deferred."
Conclusion: This is a private premises case under ordinary negligence principles, and the log is the case. The owner had actual notice of the specific defect and chose to defer it. The fight will be about injuries and percentages, not liability, and the two-year deadline of Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 applies rather than the government claim rules.
Not sure who owns the spot where you fell? That is our job, not yours.
Free Case ReviewThe Wrinkles
Sidewalk ownership is messiest exactly where people walk most: the strips in front of homes and businesses. Three wrinkles come up constantly.
The parkway. The planted strip between sidewalk and street is usually public right-of-way, but the tree roots doing the damage may belong to a tree an adjacent owner planted and maintains. Responsibility can follow that care.
The storefront frontage. Plazas and storefronts often look private and turn out to be city right-of-way, or the reverse. Some businesses treat the public frontage as their own, furnish it, and maintain it, which can pull them into responsibility for it.
The homeowner. The default rule is that the city, not the homeowner, answers for the public sidewalk in front of a house. But a homeowner who planted the parkway tree, irrigates it, or maintains the strip can share responsibility for the uplift it causes. That doctrine has its own body of law and deserves its own page, so we give it one. The practical rule is simple: after a serious sidewalk fall, the claim gets investigated against every owner and every maintainer, public and private, before the deadlines choose for you.
Falls on concrete are unforgiving: fractured hips and wrists, torn shoulders, and head strikes. If your family says you have not been the same since the fall, take that observation seriously; it is evidence, and we explain why on our page for traumatic brain injury.
The Defense
Every sidewalk defendant, public or private, reaches for the same defense: the defect was trivial. A minor imperfection, the kind every sidewalk in America has, the kind the law does not punish. Sometimes that argument wins. Whether it wins in your case depends on evidence gathered in the first weeks.
The size of the uplift is only the beginning of the analysis. What made it dangerous is the rest: the lighting at the hour you fell, shadows that flattened the edge into invisibility, an abrupt or jagged lip rather than a gradual slope, leaves or debris concealing it, foot traffic that forced your eyes elsewhere, and the location's history of complaints and prior falls. A defect that photographs small at noon can be a tripwire at dusk.
That is why measurement is not optional. The photographs that decide these cases are taken before the repair crew arrives: straight-down shots with a ruler or a coin for scale, approach shots from walking height in the direction you traveled, and wide shots that capture lighting, trees, and landmarks. Defendants patch quietly and fast. The photos outlive the patch.
The First Week
In order, starting at the scene if you are able:
The nearest street address, the cross streets, and a photo that includes a landmark. "A sidewalk in Pasadena" cannot be investigated. "The frontage of the third house north of the corner" can.
Straight down with a ruler, a coin, or your phone beside the uplift, then from walking height in the direction you were going, then wide. Capture the parkway, any tree and roots, sprinklers, and the lighting.
Names and phone numbers, including neighbors or shopkeepers who can testify how long the defect has been there. Longevity is notice, and locals know.
A report to the city or the property manager creates a dated record. State facts only. Do not speculate about fault, and do not minimize your injuries.
Unwashed and unaltered. The footwear argument is coming; the actual shoes answer it.
Falls onto concrete injure more than the point of impact. Report every symptom, including headaches, dizziness, and memory trouble.
Until ownership is confirmed, assume a government claim deadline is running. We confirm ownership fast and file the claim that preserves everything.
Send us the photos and the cross streets. We will find the owner and the deadline.
Free Case ReviewIf we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
It depends on who owns and controls the ground where you fell. A city sidewalk means a claim against the public entity under Government Code section 835, with a written government claim generally due within six months under Government Code section 911.2. A walkway in a shopping plaza, an office park, or an apartment complex means an ordinary premises liability case against the private owner. Sometimes both, and sometimes an adjacent owner shares responsibility. Ownership is a records question, and answering it is the first thing we do.
Very. If a public entity owns the sidewalk, a written government claim is generally due within six months of the injury under Government Code section 911.2, long before the ordinary lawsuit deadline. Miss it and the relief available is limited and uncertain. Because ownership is often unclear at the scene, the safe assumption after any sidewalk fall is that the six-month clock is running until proven otherwise.
No. Defendants argue that small defects are trivial, but the size of an uplift is only the start of the analysis. Courts also look at the circumstances: lighting and shadows, jagged or abrupt edges, debris or foliage concealing the defect, and the history of the location. An uplift that measures small can still be dangerous in the dark. This is a fight about evidence, which is why photographs with scale, taken before repairs, matter so much.
Sometimes. Ownership and control do not always match the way the ground looks. Storefront walkways, plaza frontages, and parking strips can be private property, city property, or city property an adjacent owner has taken control of through use or maintenance. The answer comes from parcel records, maintenance history, and photographs, not from assumptions. Name the wrong defendant and the deadline may run against the right one, so this gets sorted early.
The defect with something for scale, a ruler, a coin, or a phone, from straight above and from the direction you walked. The whole scene: the parkway, any tree and its roots, sprinklers, lighting, and the nearest address and cross street. Your shoes and the injury. Then do it fast. Sidewalk defects that injure people have a way of being ground down or patched within weeks, and the photos outlive the repair.
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