Your brother tripped over a mop left discarded in a supermarket aisle. A friend tumbled over a big crack in the sidewalk outside her neighbor’s house. A coworker stepped into a hole in the ground covered over with leaves. All of these are examples of what is more commonly known as “trip and fall” accidents. When you have a trip and fall accident on someone else’s property, who is responsible? In the legal world, these are known as premises liability cases.
While a slip or stumble may sound simple, there’s a real chance of serious injury occurring. Did you know that slip and fall accidents are the single leading cause of emergency room visits? The National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) cites that over 20 percent of all ER visits are the result of slip and fall accidents! This number amounts to eight million people every year. Hip displacements, sprains, broken bones or even concussions are all common results of slip and falls; for the elderly, injuries like these can be exceptionally dangerous.
Owner Responsibility for Your Slip and Fall Accident
By law, property owners and their extensions (like managers or tenants) have a duty of care to be responsible for the persons who are on their property. The level of responsibility they have depends on the type of relationship they have to the person on their grounds. Persons entering the property of another can be divided up into three classifications – invitees, licensees and trespassers. The team at Green Law Firm can help you understand the relationship between the duty of care and premises liability! (Internal link to premises liability page)
Green Law Firm has a long history of helping injured persons to recover damages for medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering after a slip and fall accident! We understand the subtle nuances of a premises liability case and will work tirelessly to represent your rights.
Examples of Premises Liability Accidents
There are endless possible scenarios and situations that might cause a slip and fall accident to occur. Many times, these accidents are completely preventable! Here are just a few examples of the endless scenarios that characterize a slip and fall accident.
Tripping
If an item in your path has ever caused you to lose your footing, you have “tripped” before. What happens if the trip occurs on someone else’s property? For example, a metal garden rake that lays abandoned in your neighbor’s backyard laying in the path you sometimes take as a shortcut while jogging. Or perhaps you trip over some bricks left over from construction outside your local Department of Motor Vehicles? Who is responsible for an accident like that? Can you sue the city or state?
As a specific example, we can focus on the abandoned rake in a neighbor’s garden. The strength of your claim will hinge on some nuanced details. Did the homeowner or a gardener leave the rake in the yard? Were you invited onto this property or was your presence trespassing? Were there signs posted warning of a potential hazard? When an injury occurs due to the negligence of another, there are grounds for liability. However, the situation specifics determine the strength of the case and who the involved parties are.
Stumbling
When you stumble, you fall over something that is impeding your path. For example, while shopping at the mall, a loose floor tile causes you to stumble and fall. Another example is, while walking to your child’s school, you stumble, after walking over a patch of uneven carpet, causing you to take a nasty spill. Property owners have an obligation to keep spaces hazard free.
Stepping
Of all the ways to experience a slip and fall accident, stepping seems like the most mundane. How many steps does a person take in a single day? Except, you have probably never considered what would happen if you were climbing a staircase at work and your foot went directly through the wood? Or if you fell into a hole in your path while walking outside? Property owners and managers have a duty of care to keep persons safe and out of danger.
Slipping
We’ve all been places and seen a “caution, wet floor” sign! But what happens if you are somewhere with a patch of wet floor that doesn’t have a sign? If you slip on a wet floor without any proper warning and injure yourself, you may have a case of premises liability negligence! At a mechanic’s, you fail to notice a drip of grease which causes you to lose your footing and fall. Can you sue them for your sustained injuries? Green Law Firm understands the essential role that timeliness will play in a case like this. For example, how long was the grease on the ground? Was the grease in a place where one might not expect to find it? Was a property owner (or representative) alerted to the danger in advance? All of these are essential details in determining who is responsible in a slip and fall case.
Common Places for Trip and Fall Accidents to Occur
Although a slip and fall accident can occur anywhere at any time, here are a few locations where statistics show accidents are more probable:
- Big box stores
- Resorts and hotels
- Private homes, rental homes and apartments
- Public spaces, parks, buildings and sidewalks
- Construction sites
- Steps, stairs and porches
- Parking lots
Green Law Firm Can Help Your Slip and Fall Settlement
While the idea behind premises liability is simple (a landowner creating an environment where an injury is likely is deemed negligence), the nuances are far from it. This is why it’s essential to have an experienced legal team working to protect your rights!
Green Law Firm can help determine who is liable for your accident by
- investigating the accident itself,
- interviewing any witnesses and collecting statements,
- looking into insurance coverage and
- analyzing all facts.
We move fast and swift to assure that evidence does not disappear, witnesses do not forget what they have seen and that all necessary deadlines are met!
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, call us today at 843-747-2455 for a risk-free review of your case! We’ve helped countless people, just like you, to get the compensation needed to resume their normal pace of life after an injury has occurred.