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Preventing Slip and Fall Personal Injury
December 2, 2008 |
Personal Injury Attorneys handle a lot of slip and fall cases every year. This kind of injury may sound simple and hardly anything to be fearful of, but in reality, the potential harm that you may incur in slip and fall cases may be as simple as a bump or scratch, and as serious as fatal head injuries.
In a nutshell, the job of personal injury attorneys involves proving that a party has been negligent, causing someone or some people to get hurt in the process. If you have been injured by slipping or falling, consider the reality as part of normal day-to-day living; as is normal for the ground to be uneven in some places, and for liquids to be spilled on the ground.
It is also a matter of necessity to put some fixtures on the floor, like drainage holes or grates. However, it is the job of the owners and administrators of the property to make sure that everything in their power had been done to ensure the safety of people who are passing through or walking around in their property.
For personal injury attorneys to determine whether a party is legally liable for a slip and fall case, some conditions about the incident need to be met.
• Did the owner of the property or any of his/her employees cause the spot to be dangerous? Did they spill the liquid on the surface? Did they cause the spot to be worn or torn? Did they cause the ground to be uneven? Did they place anything in an area that caused people to trip?
• Did the owner of the property or any of his/her employees know about the hazardous condition in the property and failed to do anything about it?
• Would any reasonable person have discovered the hazardous condition within the property?
Most of the time, determining liability may be a matter of common sense. The term “reasonable” in the third bullet point means that you need to ask yourself a few questions related to a slip and fall accident to verify if you can make a claim.
• If you had tripped on a protrusion or a hazardous area on the floor (like a bulging area of a carpet, slippery floor, etc), was the protrusion or hazard there long enough so that the owner or any of his/her employees should have noticed it and done something to repair it?
• Does the owner do a routine checking and maintenance around the property? Does he use specific procedures in inspecting and maintaining the facilities? Does the owner have proof that he/she performs this maintenance on a regular basis?
• If you tripped over something on the floor, did the object have a good reason to be there in the first place?
• Let’s say that the object did have a good reason to be there, does the reason still exist at the point when somebody tripped over it? Could it have been removed to make the area safe?
• Could barriers or early warning signs have been placed around the object so that people will not trip over it?
• Did insufficient lighting contribute to the danger the object presented to passersby?
These are only some of the questions you may ask when considering filing a personal injury case against a property owner. For more qualified advice, it is best to consult with personal injury attorneys about the matter.
Our expert Los Angeles personal injury lawyers handle accident issues such as premise liability claim. For consultation, visit our website and avail of our free case analysis.
Article Source: Preventing Slip and Fall Personal Injury
