Some falls result in nothing more than a bump, a bruise, and maybe a wounded ego depending upon how you land, but others are no laughing matter.
Though the term “slip and fall” may seem like a small thing, accidents involving falls can be extremely serious: some even lead to death. If you’ve fallen while on another person’s property and it resulted in real damage, that property owner can be held legally responsible if they failed to act responsibly to prevent the fall injury from happening. This is the area of law called premises liability.
When a person suffers a fall injury and it can be proven than the property owner (or person responsible for the property) has failed in their duty to exercise reasonable care to protect visitors, a premises liability lawsuit can be filed. Winning this type of suit provides compensation to the person who has been injured, providing them with the monies needed to cover their past and future medical expenses, as well as to provide for any lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Not every fall injury is determined to be the property owner’s responsibility. There are certain elements that need to be proven for them to be considered liable. You need to show who the person is that is in control of the property and you need to show that they failed in their responsibility to keep it safe. This is true whether the property is a home or business.
What constitutes negligence? Examples can include broken or loose flooring, debris carelessly left in the way, wet or slippery flooring, inadequate lighting and loose handrails on stairways. But these circumstances aren’t enough. You also need to be able to show that the property owner was either aware of the danger and failed to address it, or that they should have been aware of it. Property owners have a duty to either address a dangerous situation in a reasonable period of time or to warn people of its existence. An unreasonable failure to do either or both of these things can result in a fall injury.
Determining whether a property owner is reasonable for your fall injury is dependent upon many different elements, including how long the danger existed, whether you can prove that the owner knew, and what your own role was in avoiding your own injury. The best way to determine whether you are eligible to pursue damages for your fall injury is to speak with an experienced premises liability attorney.