To win a slip and fall case, you need to be able to prove liability. This means proving duty, negligence and damages. You’ll need to demonstrate that the owner or occupier of a property had a duty of care, breached it by not using reasonable care, and that damages occurred as a result.

When you have a strong personal injury lawyer, proving liability shouldn’t be an issue. Here are some factors to consider when trying to prove liability in a slip and fall case.

Duty of Care

Owners and occupiers of property owe individuals a duty of care when those individuals enter their property. This duty of care means they’re obligated to fix dangers or warn visitors about dangers. They also need to use reasonable care to find dangers which might not be obvious immediately.

To establish liability in a slip and fall case, you must prove that somebody owed you a duty of care. For example, if you shop at a store, the shop owner owes you a duty of care because you are an invitee – the shop owner is inviting you to shop on their property. Because of this invitation, the shop owner is responsible for repairing/maintaining their premises so invitees such as yourself don’t get hurt.

Negligence

In order to establish liability in a slip and fall case, you have to demonstrate the owner or occupier of a property breached their duty of care by being negligent. This usually involves demonstrating a property owner or occupier knew or should have known about a danger but didn’t take reasonable steps in order to address it.

Negligence must be proven to establish liability in a slip and fall case.

Causation and Damages

You need to be able to prove that the breach of duty by a property owner or occupier led to you suffering damages. These can be economic damages, such as medical bills stemming from an injury. These can also be non-economic damages, such as physical pain and mental suffering.

It is important to seek medical attention for any injuries in a slip and fall accident as quickly as possible. The longer you wait to seek medical attention, the more difficult it is to prove that your slip and fall accident caused your injuries.

Foreseeable Harm

Foreseeability means a property owner’s or occupier’s anticipation that some acts could reasonably lead to some consequences. This helps to determine if a property owner or occupier can be found liable for an injury suffered by a visitor.

When dangers on properties aren’t foreseeable, owners can’t be expected to prevent them.

Risks’ foreseeability depend on numerous factors. Typically, the following examples could be considered foreseeable:

Visitors slipping and falling because liquid was spilled and not cleaned up in a reasonably prompt manner
Visitors getting electrocuted by exposed electrical wiring
Visitors falling through manholes which aren’t properly closed
Visitors falling because of long-standing issues with staircases

Property owners and occupiers have a responsibility to make sure visitors have a safe environment and to protect visitors from foreseeable harm.

Examples of things which may not be foreseeable include

Natural disasters
Third parties’ criminal acts
Other visitors’ behavior

Proving Liability

You need evidence to prove liability in a slip and fall case. This evidence can include:

Medical records
Witness statements
Maintenance records
Videos or photographs
Expert testimony
Inspection reports

When your evidence is properly documented, it makes your case that much easier to win.

Slip and falls also happen fairly often and will definitely cause some pretty nasty injuries in a span of mere seconds. When slip and fall injuries do happen as a result of hazardous conditions on another person’s property, however, the victim can expect to be fairly compensated. The victims and slip and fall attorneys will then be required to prove negligence so at least this would be something which can be proved. Negligence is the basis of a majority of claims for personal injuries, including slip and fall. Proving negligence essentially wins or loses a lawsuit.

What Is Negligence in a Slip and Fall Case?

Negligence is a lack or inability on the part of the owner, occupier, or the property manager to use reasonable efforts to make the environment safe. Negligence in slip and fall occurs when the owner of the property or the liable party fails to remove hazardous conditions on the property or is unable to react with a reasonable or timely fashion.

Legally, for the victim to succeed in slip and fall action, he or she should establish that the defendant (property owner or occupier) was negligent and also that his negligence caused the harm. The foundation in establishing negligence is establishing the four requisites that is duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

1. Duty of Care

The first to be established is that there was an obligation of the occupier or the owner of the building to the plaintiff. The positive obligation is to see to it that the building is secure so that the guest or visitor is not harmed.

For instance, shop owners have a duty to care for customers, and home owners have a duty to care for home visitors. In most situations, the duty of care is conferred based on the status of the visiting individual and the owner of the property. There are typically three types of visitors in most situations

Invitees: They are visitors who come onto the land for business reasons, e.g., customers to a shop. Landowners owe them the highest duty of care.

Licensees: They are people who come onto the land for social reasons, e.g., guests to a house. Landowners owe them less, usually to warn them of hidden risks.

Trespassers: The trespassers owe the least to the owners, and they owe them only a general duty not to actively harm them.

Whether the victim who was injured was an invitee or a licensee, the owner of the property did owe a duty of maintaining their property in good repair. Evidence of this duty of care is the first link to establish to establish negligence.

2. Breach of Duty

After establishing duty of care, the second element is proofing that the owner of the property breached the duty of care. The breach of duty is demonstrating that the occupier or owner was unreasonable when trying to remove the cause of the risk leading to the fall.

Breach in duty of care may also be in other ways, including:

Failing to clear a spill
Failing to maintain fixed steps or passageways
Lack of care on the part of inadequate lighting or below-standard lighting
Lack of proper warning signs in the work or repair areas

Slip and fall attorneys will prove a violation by presenting evidence of inaction on the part of the owner. That may include photographs of the location, maintenance records, and deposition of witnesses. Expert witness testimony will be required in order to prove reasonable standards of maintenance and safety standards.

3. Causation

The third to prove in a slip and fall lawsuit is causation. This is to connect the hazardous condition in direct proportion to the fall and ensuing injury. The violation of duty (i.e., slippery floor or cracked sidewalk) should be proven to directly result in the injury. This is so that otherwise the property owner will be able to argue that the injury was due to some other cause despite the condition of the premises.

For instance, if the owner fails to fix a broken handrail on a staircase and the victim trips and falls over it, tripping would amount to causation of the owner’s negligence directly. If causation of injury was an independent medical condition (i.e., having a heart attack), the claim would be rejected on the basis of causation not applying.

Slip and fall lawyers will be provided with the medical records, reports of accidents, and witness statements in order to determine causation. They will also visit the site to determine whether they can establish contributory causes that will achieve the nexus between the risk and the injury.

4. Damages

The final element of proving negligence is proving that the fall resulted in damages. The plaintiff must have suffered actual harm, i.e., bodily injury, mental distress, or economic loss. A slip and fall case cannot succeed without damages.

Damages in a slip and fall case can be:

Medical bills: Charges paid on the treatment of injury, i.e., consultation, surgery, and therapy.
Lost wages: Grant for earnings the victim did not earn because he could not work while recovering.
Pain and suffering: Grant for bodily pain, emotional pain, and diminished quality of life due to injury.
Damage to property: If personal belongings, such as a phone or glasses, are damaged in the fall, repair or replacement cost can be added.

Slip and fall attorneys will then proceed and collect evidence of damages such as statements of physicians or therapists, pay stubs, and medical records.

How Slip and Fall Attorneys Can Assist

The skill of proving the negligence aspect in a slip and fall personal injury case is a combination of possessing the right knowledge of law and the capacity to collect and present evidence. Slip and fall attorneys assist the victims to a great extent by strengthening their case. The attorneys will visit the site of the accident, collect evidence related to the case, take witness statements, and consult experts to ensure that the owner’s negligence caused the injury.

Lawyers also inform victims of their legal rights and legal options. Lawyers navigate clients through the labyrinth of the justice system, negotiate insurance companies, and settle cases whenever possible. Lawyers will take the case to court in most of their slip and fall cases as a way to ensure that their client receives what they are owed.

Negligence in the case of slip and fall is not easily proved but needs to be proven in case the damages are awarded. Proving duty of care by the owner of the property, breach of duty, proximate causation of the injury leading to ascertainable damages grant authority to the victims to be put back into their pre-accident state.

Category: Slip and Fall Injury Case

Proving Liability in a Slip and Fall Case – Guest Post