Why is The Store Responsible For a Slip & Fall Accident?
According to U.S. law, invitees (think customers) are owed a level of responsibility by the business when it comes to ensuring that the premises are not hazardous. The business benefits from having customers on their property, and because of this, they have a duty to keep that person safe from preventable injuries caused by premises defects and unsafe conditions. It’s important to understand that there are many factors which come into play in a slip and fall case, and just because it happened on someone’s property does NOT automatically make them responsible.
One such example is a slip and fall accident caused by a wet floor. If you were injured in this manner, you may be able to collect compensation as damages. However, it’s not that simple of a case because there are other factors that you need to consider.
Slip and Fall Liability, Explaind
Slip and fall cases can only be valid if there are certain variables:
- The owner of the premises owes you a certain duty of care. This simply means that they are required to keep the floor clean and dry as well as put up signs in areas where construction or repairs are going on so that the public can avoid these hot spots.
- The owner of the premises acted in a way that breached this duty of care. This could be due to actions such as not mopping up spills within a reasonable time frame or not putting up signs or cordoning off areas that may present some kind of danger to the public.
- The breach directly caused the slip and fall incident.
- Damage or injuries resulted from the slip and fall.
Laws regarding duty of care may require the premises owner to carry out regular inspections to make sure that there are no hazardous situations that may lead to accidents. In addition, non-customers (those on property for business, trespassers) are owed an entirely different duty of care. Premises liability law can be quite complex, which is why you still absolutely need an attorney when dealing with a slip and fall injury claim.
Proving Causation
Proving causation and damages is another somewhat complex issue when it comes to a slip and fall accident. The property owner’s actions (or inaction) must be shown to cause the damage or injuries you incurred. Proving causation might involve things like taking pictures of the area where the injury happened, issuing the owner with a court order to provide you with CCTV footage of the event, obtaining information from witnesses at the scene, looking to see whether the owner knew about the hazardous circumstance but failed to mitigate it, looking back into the company’s records to see if there were other similar events in the past, etc, etc.
More information
Want more information on slip and fall accidents, premises liability, and how it all works? Visit my law firm’s page on slip and fall accidents.
Category: In Depth
