A slip and fall is an accident where you slip, trip, or fall on a property, resulting in an injury. The type of personal injury cases these accidents cause is commonly referred to as slip and fall cases.
These types of injuries are common and under the broader law of premises liability, a property owner is expected to provide a reasonable level of care and warn potential visitors of any hazardous situations or potential danger.
When you’ve been injured due to a slip and fall accident, hiring a slip and fall law firm is an important step in the process.
Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents
A slip and fall can be caused by several types of hazards or dangers. These dangers can include wet floors, uneven floors, torn carpets, narrow stairs, poor lighting, cracked sidewalks, and holes in parking lots.
Weather can also be a hazard due to snow or ice that was not properly removed or pooling water due to a design flaw. Oftentimes, these safety issues are caused by a lack of care and regular maintenance.
Proving Fault
Proving liability in your slip and fall case depends on several factors. One of the key factors in establishing liability is proving the property owner was aware of a dangerous condition on their property and did not properly warm visitors.
Also, the dangerous condition must be one that would cause unreasonable risk and that a visitor would not be able to prepare for or anticipate without prior warning.
When establishing liability, the owner of a property must be aware there is a dangerous condition, take no steps to correct it, and that the issue has been known long enough that some type of action should have been taken. The negligence of the property owner must have created the danger, and it would have been foreseeable that this would happen without warning or repair.
Different Properties: An Overview
- Residential Properties: liability for residential properties falls on the homeowner if they fail to address or take reasonable steps to warn others about it. However, this situation can differ in the case of rentals. As maintenance and repairs are the responsibility of the homeowner, they can be liable for injuries if they did not make a reasonable repair, if the injury was a foreseeable outcome, if no action was taken, and if reasonable steps were not taken.
- Governmental Property: if you are injured on property owned by the state, federal, or local government such as the city or county, special rules apply. These rules include stringent notice requirements and immunity provisos that can shield government entities from liability depending on the circumstances.
- Commercial Property: when injured due to a slip and fall on a commercial property to claim liability, the owner or store runner must be responsible for the spill or dangerous surface, have been aware of the issue and done nothing to correct it, and should have known this was an issue as a reasonable person would have done so if they were aware. If you are injured on a commercial property, several people or third parties may be responsible in some way.
If you’ve been injured in a slip-and-fall accident due to another’s negligence, you should contact a law firm today. You deserve compensation for your injuries and for the losses you have incurred due to the negligence of another.
