According to the National Safety Council, slip and fall injuries occur millions of times a year, in the United States. A substantial proportion of these accidents can be traced to the wrongful conduct of someone other than the victim (a shop owner, for instance). If this has happened to you, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses from the responsible party. Actually enforcing your rights, however, can be a lot more difficult than simply asserting them.
According to Thomas Dolina, partner with Dolina Hobbs Law in Hagerstown, MD: “We aggressively represent clients with slip and fall injuries because we know how devastating such injuries can be for the victims and their families.”
Common Causes
A high percentage of slip and fall accidents are caused by the same conditions or events, including:
- Slippery floors
- Inadequate lighting in stairwells
- Collapsing stairway railings
- Inadequately supervised children
- Uneven or debris-strewn surfaces
- Potholes
- Inclement weather (icy outdoor surfaces, for example)
In many (but not all) cases, the owner of a public establishment can mitigate or entirely eliminate his liability by placing conspicuous signage warning of known dangers (“Wet Floor”, for example).
Typical Injuries
Although slip and fall accidents can cause a variety of different injuries, some injuries are far more common than others. Some of the most common injuries are:
- Ankle/knee sprains
- Dislocated shoulders
- Broken bones (especially broken hips in the elderly)
- Concussions and traumatic brain injuries
- Spinal cord injuries (sometimes resulting in lifelong paralysis)
- Death
Establishing Liability
Two types of claims are particularly common in slip and fall cases – personal injury claims and product liability claims.
Personal injury claims: Most personal injury slip and fall claims arise when the victim is injured while a customer in a public establishment. The owner (and sometimes even a subcontractor for a property management company or the maintenance/repair company) has a duty to maintain the premises in reasonably safe condition for the benefit of guests. This duty includes a duty to inspect for non-obvious dangers. If you can prove that the owner failed to properly perform this duty and that this failure caused your injury, you have a good chance of winning your slip and fall case.
The danger must have been unreasonable, and the defendant’s conduct (through act or omission) must have been unreasonable as well. Failure to mop a floor within 30 seconds of a spill, for example, might not trigger liability even if it did cause an accident.
Product liability: Product liability kicks in when your slip and fall accident is caused by a defective product (such as an exercise treadmill). To win your case, you must prove that the product contained a design or manufacturing defect (or that its warning of unavoidable dangers was inadequate), that the danger caused by the defect was unreasonable, and that the defect caused your accident.
For both of the foregoing claims you must prove that you were physically injured, and you will be awarded only the amount of damages you can prove.
Comparative Fault/Contributory Negligence
Contributory negligence or comparative negligence come into play if the slip and fall accident was partially your fault — if you were injured as a customer in a shop while intoxicated or while present in an area that was off-limits to customers, for example). In some states, your recovery will be reduced by the exact percentage of comparative fault that the court attributes to you (30 percent, for example). Other states will deny you any recovery at all if the accident was mostly your fault. Some states apply an even harsher “contributory negligence” rule – in Maryland, for example, you can be denied any recovery at all if the accident was even one percent your fault. This state of affairs virtually guarantees that a defendant in a contributory negligence state will work overtime to find something that you did wrong.
Wrongful Death Liability
If the accident resulted in a death, close relatives of the victim may recover for both the victim’s damages and their own damages (such a grief) arising from the accident.
Prevailing in a slip and fall claim can be difficult, and the difficulty typically multiplies as the amount of the claim increases. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you navigate the inevitable twists and turns involved in enforcing a slip and fall claim.
To learn more about the Hagerstown, Maryland accident attorneys at Dolina Hobbs Law, please visit this page: http://accidentattorneys.org/attorneys-listings/dolina-hobbs-llc/
