A slip fall accident is where you have slipped or fallen on another person\’s personal or business property and they may then be liable for any injuries you\’ve suffered as a result of that accident. You might also hear people referring to this type of accident as a premises liability claim, tort claim and of course a personal injury claim – in effect they\’re all same thing. Regardless of the legal terminology used to refer to the accident it will ultimately involve an allegedly injured party pursuing a property or business owner for damages.
The main issue with slip/fall accidents is that they are notoriously difficult to prosecute successfully so most law firms tend to avoid them. This is based solely on the fact that proving liability in this type of personal injury claim can be almost impossible at times. Despite this there literally millions of premises liability claims brought forward each year, with the claimants hoping to achieve substantial financial compensation for their injuries.
Unfortunately the myth surrounding the \”simple\” nature of pursuing a claim like this is reinforced by the secondary myth that there is a minimum amount of compensation made for any slip/fall accident claim you pursue. In reality because liability is so hard to categorically prove the compensation paid out at the end of such a claim tends to be quite a bit less than the person expected. In addition to this many property owners can now use floor slip resistance testing to prove that the claimant couldn\’t possibly have slipped, or at least not done so without faking their fall in the first place.
Does Liability Exist?
If any of the following are true then there\’s a very strong chance that a case for a premises liability claim might exist:
- The property owner or one of their employees caused the spill in the first place
- The employee or business owner was aware of the dangerous surface but failed to remedy the issue or place warning signs around it
- If the property owner or employee is a demonstrably reasonable person they would have known that a danger existed
So for example if an employee drops a bottle of water on the floor and it spills causing a dangerous surface, then a person slipping on this immediately afterwards would not be eligible for compensation as a reasonable person would be capable of recognizing that water had been spilled and the surface was now dangerous. The flip side of this personal injury coin is that if there was a freezer leaking water onto the floor of a store for several weeks, and a number of customers had made a complaint, then it\’s highly probable that the store owner would be completely liable for damages in this situation.
If your legal team can successfully pursue a premises liability claim you can expect to received compensation covering the following:
- Medical bills
- Loss of earnings
- Pain and suffering
It is worth mentioning again that due to the minor nature of these accidents that compensation is proportionate to the severity of the slip or fall you might have experienced. Just ensure that you have received proper legal counsel in the event of any such accident.