The term “slip and fall” is a personal injury term in cases where a person slips or trips and gets injured on someone else’s property. Such cases usually fall under the “premise liability” claims.
Slips and fall accidents usually happen on a property owned by someone else, and the owner may be held legally responsible.
Plenty of dangerous conditions can cause someone to fall, and be injured, like:
- Torn carpeting
- Changes in flooring
- Poor lighting
- Narrow stairs
- Wet, icy, or waxed floors
- No posted warning signs
The same goes if a person trips on a cracked public sidewalk, falls on a flight of stairs, slips outdoors because of rain, ice, snow, or a hidden hazard, such as a pothole in the ground.
Whichever the case, the victim must at least have an injury to file for a slip and fall claim.
How to Proof Fault in Slip and Fall Cases
Determining whether a property owner is legally responsible for your injuries if you slip or trip takes some work.
However, it all stems down to two factors:
- Whether the owner was careful so that slipping or tripping was not likely to happen
- Whether you were careless in not seeing or avoiding the condition that caused the fall.
Some general rules to help you know if someone else was at fault for your slip or trip and fall injury are:
- You must prove that the cause of the accident was a dangerous condition and the property owner knew the existence of the dangerous condition.
- The dangerous condition must present an unreasonable risk to a person on the property. It must have been a condition that the injured party should not have anticipated under the circumstances.
The second requirement implies that people must be aware of and avoid obvious danger. For you to establish that a property owner knew of a dangerous condition, you must show that:
- The owner created the condition
- The owner knew the condition existed and failed to correct it
- The condition existed long enough for the owner to discover and correct before the slip and fall incident in question.
In other words, it must be foreseeable that the property owner’s negligence created the danger at issue.
Responsible Parties in a Slip and Fall
There must be a responsible party whose negligence caused the injury for you to recover from a slip and injury claim. It sounds obvious, but many don’t realize that some injuries are simply accidents caused by their carelessness.
Commercial Properties
To be legally responsible for the injuries someone suffered from slipping and falling on someone else’s property, the owner of commercial property like a store, restaurant, or other business (or an employee of the business) must have:
- Caused the spill, worn or torn spot, or other dangerous surface or item to be underfoot
- Known of the dangerous surface but did nothing about it—a “reasonable” person taking care of the property would have discovered, repaired, or removed it
In slip and fall cases on commercial property, several entities may be responsible for someone’s injuries.
On the other hand, the landlord may be held liable to tenants or third parties for slip and fall in a residential property.
If a slip and fall injury occurs on government property, special rules apply. There are notice requirements and broad immunity provisions that shield government property from liability for injuries.
Get Professional Legal Help Filing a Slip and Fall Claim
If you’re considering a legal claim for injuries you sustained on a slip and fall on someone else’s property–an experienced attorney might come in handy. You should file the claim so quickly because there are time limits in a personal injury lawsuit.
Call 833-6-Win-Big (833-694-6244) to talk to a qualified personal injury lawyer to help protect your rights.
