In order to prove that a person is liable for a slip and fall you have to show that they have broken one or more elements of the law. According to a personal injury lawyer with our friends at the Brandy Austin Law Firm, the four elements regarding slips and falls are: “The owner of the property must owe you a duty of care, the owner breached their duty by failing to maintain their premises in a safe condition, you were injured on that property due to that breach, your injuries were caused by the dangerous condition of the owner’s premises or else you would not have sustained that injury”.
Elements
To break each of these down we can explain each element and what it means. When it says that the owner of the property must owe you a duty of care, that means that the owner is legally accountable for keeping their property free of any hazards that could lead to the injury or death of a person. If a property owner is in “breach of duty”, that means that they have failed to uphold the responsibility of keeping visitors safe and failed to provide notice to visitors of the hazard. In order to prove that you were injured on that property due to that breach of duty you can collect things such as security camera footage, photos of the area that caused your injury, medical documents, and possibly witness statements to show that others have witnessed this hazard as well. Finally, you would need to prove that your injuries are from the hazard on the property and that if the hazard wasn’t there then you wouldn’t have fallen.
Common injuries
Some of the most common slip and fall injuries are broken or fractured bones which can range from a 4 week recovery time to a 20 week recovery time. If you are involved in a slip and fall lawsuit and the defendant is found guilty there are a few things they can pay for when it
comes to compensatory damages. If you do have a broken bone due to a slip and fall injury, the defendant can be responsible for paying for your x-rays and any other medical expense related to the broken bone.
Damages
If the defendant is found liable, they will have to pay you compensatory damages such as all medical expenses such as appointments as well as the cast or splint you might need if a bone is broken. Considering you’ve just sustained an injury you might not be able to return to work like normal. Because of this, the person or company held liable can pay for loss of wages due to your absence from work. Finally, they may have to pay what is called “punitive damages”, which are not commonly issued. Punitive damages are damages that the defendant has to pay on top of compensatory damages, the purpose is to seemingly punish the defendant for the wrongful action that caused the slip and fall.
Partial Fault
You can even be compensated for a slip and fall if you are partially at fault. Under some state modified comparative negligence law, you can recover damages if you are somewhat at fault as long as you’re not 50% or more at fault. An example of this would be if you were looking down at your phone texting in a grocery store and you slipped due to a slip that is not marked with a caution sign. Even though you are partially at fault, it is still the responsibility of the store to mark any dangerous hazards that could cause injury to shoppers.
Statute Of Limitations
An important thing to know is that in order to be compensated for your injury you must file a claim as soon as you can. The statute of limitations in some states for slip and fall lawsuits is 2 years after the accident occurs. If you are unable to organize all information pertaining to the
injury and file a lawsuit in under 2 years, you will not be able to receive any financial compensation.
This information is just the beginning of the work and time that goes into dealing with slip and fall lawsuits. There is a lot to uncover and consider if you choose to file a lawsuit but your legal counsel can help provide you with advice and representation throughout this tricky process and get you the compensation that you deserve from your injury caused by a negligent
party.