Two inches.
That is how wide the construction stanchion protruded onto the Newport Beach sidewalk. The photographs were clear. The light was low. My client was rollerblading at night. The defense had everything they needed: the photos, the expert, the narrative.
Every instinct in conventional legal thinking says: settle this case.
I do not practice conventional legal thinking.
After nearly 45 years as a civil trial attorney in Orange County and close to 200 jury trials, I have learned something that most lawyers either miss or refuse to believe: the evidence you fear most in discovery is often the evidence that wins the case at trial. You just have to know what questions to ask.
The following is drawn from an actual case. Details have been simplified for the story and to protect client confidentiality.
Can You Win a Personal Injury Case When the Hazard Was Only 2 Inches Wide?
Yes. And the defense’s own expert proved it.
My client was rollerblading on a Newport Beach sidewalk at night when his skate caught a stanchion for a construction sign that protruded 2 inches onto the public walkway. The photographs were unambiguous. The hazard was small. The lighting was poor. The insurer’s position was predictable: minimal intrusion, shared fault at best, take the discount and move on.
The injuries were not minimal. My client suffered a serious twisting fracture of the leg that, despite skilled surgical intervention, did not heal in perfect alignment. He deserved more than a discounted settlement. He deserved a trial.
We declined the offer. The photographs did not defeat us. They, and the defense’s own expert, became our case.
What Do You Do When a Defense Expert Has Already Explained Why You Lost?
Here is the conventional answer: bring a better expert and argue credentials.
Here is what actually works: listen to what their expert says and follow it to its logical conclusion.
The defense retained a polished safety engineer who testified with confidence. My client had been rollerblading in the dark. He could easily see the stanchion. He should have gone around it. The 2-inch protrusion onto the sidewalk resulted from construction work conducted within applicable safety standards. The fault, the expert concluded, was entirely my client’s.
Cross-examination of a defense expert is a discipline, not an improvisation. I asked the engineer about the photograph he had submitted into evidence.
“Does this photograph accurately represent the lighting conditions at the time of the accident?”
“It does.”
“Did you take light meter measurements at the time the accident occurred?”
“I did.”
“What did those measurements show?”
He provided a lumen figure.
“Can you explain to the jury what that level of light means in practical terms?”
“Yes. It is the level of light in a movie theater when the lights are off and the film is playing.”
I paused. Then I asked a question that had nothing to do with safety engineering.
“Have you ever stepped on someone’s foot while walking to your seat during a film?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I did not intend to. I simply could not see their feet in the dark.”
That was the concession that won the case.
What Actually Moves a California Jury in a Disputed Premises Liability Case?
Not the quantity of evidence. The quality of the story carries the day in front of a jury.
The conventional wisdom in California civil trial practice is that you win disputed liability cases by outgunning the defense: more experts, more exhibits, more data. That approach loses cases because it is based in the attorney’s fear. Jurors lose the thread. They stop trusting the lawyer who buries them in paper and start trusting the one who tells them the truth plainly, and shows them the proof.
In Orange County courts, jurors are perceptive. They do not need to be persuaded by volume. They need to be shown something real.
I kept the closing simple: one photograph and one question. Was it reasonable for this contractor to leave a protrusion across a public Newport Beach sidewalk in the same darkness that causes a professional safety expert to step on a stranger’s foot at the movies?
Then my closing line: “A rollerblader on a Newport Beach sidewalk is just as entitled to a safe sidewalk as someone walking, and much more in need of it.”
The jury deliberated for under two hours. A large verdict was for the plaintiff.
What This Newport Beach Sidewalk Case Teaches About California Premises Liability Law
California law imposes a duty on property owners and contractors to maintain safe conditions on public pathways. That duty does not disappear because the hazard looks small in a photograph. It does not disappear because the injured party was rollerblading. And it does not disappear because the insurer makes an early offer that sounds reasonable.
The cases that look like losers at the outset are often the cases that produce the most powerful verdicts. Discovery discipline, expert cross-examination, and the ability to reframe the defense’s strongest evidence as proof of liability: those are the skills that matter when it counts.
Most lawyers would have settled this case.
I tried it instead.
Seriously Injured in Orange County? Talk to a Trial Lawyer Before You Settle.
If you or someone you know has been injured in a trip-and-fall, slip-and-fall, or sidewalk accident in Orange County or anywhere in California, do not assume the case is too small or the liability too uncertain to fight. Call the Law Offices of Steven R. Young at (714) 673-6500 or visit juryattorney.com/contact-us/ to discuss what happened.
Nearly 45 years. Close to 200 civil jury trials. Board-certified civil trial advocate. We take the cases other lawyers walk away from, and we know how to win them.
