SLIP & FALL ACCIDENT INJURIES
What is a Slip-and-Fall Injury?
As a premise liability, a slip-and-fall injury occurs on another person’s commercial or residential property due to the other person’s negligence in properly maintaining or notifying people of potential trouble spots on the property. According to the law, a “slip and fall” refers to a personal injury case in which a person slips and falls as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else’s property. Inside a building, dangerous conditions such as torn carpeting, abrupt changes in flooring, poor lighting, narrow stairs or a wet floor can cause you to slip and hurt yourself. Outside a building, you may slip and fall because of rain, ice, snow or a hidden hazard, such as a gap or a hard to see pothole in the ground. Regardless of where they happen, all property or building owners have a certain level of responsibility, or duty of care, to make sure an environment is safe.
By not putting up signs to let people know they could slip on a floor that’s freshly mopped, not repairing an uneven walkway, and not replacing the dim light bulb lighting the stairs, for example, a property owner is showing carelessness and little regard for the safety of others. Anyone who suffers a slip-and-fall injury as a result of this carelessness can take legal action against the property owner and seek compensation for any personal injuries sustained.
The most common injuries that result from a slip and fall are:
- Back injuries
- Fractured or broken bones, including the hips, arms, ankles, and the tailbone
- Spinal injuries
- Bruising and soreness
Slip and fall injury claims are governed under the negligence law. To win a premises liability claim, an injured victim must prove:
- The defendant created the hazard that lead to the accident, or
- The defendant knew or should have known about the danger and had it removed or repaired.
Every visitor to a public place expects a certain level of safety. When the owners of a property fail to meet that expectation, serious personal injury can result.
Proving Fault in a Slip-and-Fall Case
There is no precise way to determine when someone else is legally responsible for a person’s injuries in a slip-and-fall case. Each case depends on whether the property owner acted carefully so that slipping or tripping was not likely to happen and whether the person who slipped or tripped was careless in not seeing or avoiding the condition that caused the fall.
In most cases, a person injured in a slip and fall on someone else’s property must prove that the cause of the accident was a “dangerous condition” and that the owner or possessor of the property knew of the dangerous condition. A dangerous condition must present an unreasonable risk to a person on the property and it must have been a condition that the injured party should not have anticipated under the circumstances. This latter requirement implies that people must be aware of, and avoid, obvious dangers.
In order to establish that a property owner or possessor knew of a dangerous condition, it must be shown that:
- The owner or possessor of the property created the condition;
- The owner or possessor of the property knew the condition existed and negligently failed to correct it; or
- The condition existed for such a length of time that the owner or possessor should have discovered and corrected it prior to the slip and fall incident in question.
For a property owner or possessor to be held liable, it must have been foreseeable that his negligence would create the danger at issue. For instance, if a can of paint falls to the ground and spills into an aisle in a hardware store and, one day later, the store has not noticed or cleaned up the spill, and someone slips in the paint and is injured, one might argue it was foreseeable that the store’s negligence in failing to inspect its aisles and clean up spills would result in someone slipping and injuring himself on a spilled item.
Occasionally, a plaintiff can prove negligence by showing that the property owner violated a relevant statute. For example, building codes often dictate when and where handrails and other similar features must be installed. If a person falls on a stairway that lacked appropriate handrails and the lack of the handrail caused the injuries, the person who fell may have a valid claim against the building owner based on his or her building code violation.
We Can Help
If you have suffered an injury caused by a slip and fall, The Personal Injury Help Center can help you find the help and resources you need. Our network of personal injury lawyers, experts and professionals strive for justice and fairness in the form of compensation for victims of slip and fall accidents.
We are dedicated to seeking justice and fair financial compensation for those who are facing a future that has been forever altered by the negligent act of another. When you are looking to file an injury claim, you need to know that you have the best working on your side.
Over the years, our team has been successful in recovering rightly-owed compensation in verdicts and settlements on behalf of our clients. This is a testimony to our ability to help our clients in some of the most complex injury litigation.
When filing a slip and fall injury claim, you only have one opportunity to secure a settlement; once you accept an offer, you cannot turn around to get more money if you realize that it will not cover the extent of the damages. To help you better understand what the settlement should cover, the team at The Personal Injury Help Center will help you:
Make sure your injury claim covers all of your medical expenses. This includes hospital bills, rehabilitation, future medical costs, costs of medication, future doctor visits, caretaker costs, and reconstructive surgery.
Make sure the settlement covers monetary damages. This includes property damage or car damage, lost earnings and wages, and future loss of earnings.
Make sure you are compensated for other miscellaneous damages. These include pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and out of pocket expenses.
To learn more about Slip and Fall Injury claims and find out how you can obtain compensation for the injuries that you have sustained in any type of accident, complete the Free Case Evaluation form.