When you slip and fall, suffering an injury on someone else’s property, you may have a valid personal injury claim.
However, as the claimant, you must provide evidence supporting your argument that the property owner is at fault for your accident and resulting injuries.
When do you have a slip and fall claim?
The concept of premises liability states that a property owner must maintain their space in reasonably safe conditions for visitors. If you are lawfully present and slip on a hazard the owner should reasonably know is there, you likely have a claim.
What are the elements of slip and fall liability?
To hold someone responsible for damages, you must prove one of the following to be true of the property owner:
- A reasonable person would have known about the hazard and removed it, so the same is true of the property owner.
- They caused the hazard and left it in place.
- They knew about the hazard and failed to take reasonable steps to remedy it.
The first scenario is the most common.
How does the court measure reasonableness?
Every judge has some level of discretion. However, they generally determine negligence based on the property owner’s efforts to maintain safe conditions. For example, if you tripped over a broken tile in a restaurant that was there for months, the court may agree that the owner had sufficient time to remedy that problem.
Slip-and-fall cases typically involve a common sense resolution based on the facts presented and the court’s discretion.
