The Center of Disease Control (CDC) has estimated that about 39.4 million emergency room visits take place every year due to injuries, many of which likely occur due to slip and fall accidents. A slip and fall accident can only be defined as such if it results in injury and occurs on a property that is not your own.
When a slip and fall injury occurs, many victims wonder what their options are. Medical treatment should be the first thing sought out. After that is taken care of, finding a personal injury lawyer to help you through the case should follow. In order to prove fault and win a slip and fall injury case, the following need to be assessed.
What Caused the Dangerous Conditions?
In a slip and fall case, the origin of the conditions need to be determined. The owner of the property would need to be found at fault for causing the hazardous surroundings that led to the victim’s fall and injury. This can be proven if the property owner, for example, knowingly left an obstacle in a walking path.
Was the Property Owner Displaying Negligence?
Once it is proven that the property owner was responsible for the hazardous conditions, it needs to be assessed whether or not negligence occurred. This simply means that the owner knew that the dangerous conditions existed and did nothing to correct it. According to All Law, the property owner “must have failed to act as a reasonably prudent person would have acted under circumstances similar to those leading up to the accident.”
Were You Acting As a Reasonable Person?
What this factor is mostly getting at is that the victim did not themselves “cause” the slip and fall injury. This means that the person who fell was not acting any differently than any “normal” person would. If a wet floor sign is present and the victim walked right through the wet area without caution and fell, then there may not be a case.
Slip and fall cases are never fun. Make sure that you take the proper precautions after a fall. Go to the hospital, then call a lawyer. If you are in need of any legal assistance, contact us today.