If You Slip & Fall, Should You Go To Court?
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
Accidents are just a part of life, and while no one enjoys them, we shouldn’t let them stop us from living our life to the fullest. Similarly, small accidents are easy to forgive, and no one should be taken to task too severely for them. For example, a child spilling a drink in a food court should not be sued by the shopping mall, and in the same way, if you accidentally bump into an employee at a store, there’s nothing there to get angry over.However, some accidents have a way of growing much more serious and having long lasting consequences. A slip and a fall in a public space or other place of work or business is one of those incidents that can develop in a number of ways. If you simply slipped a little, but recovered, and there was no injury, it’s probably not something to make too much of a fuss over, except perhaps to complain to management. On the other hand, if an accident involving an elderly person causes them to slip, fall and break bones, causing them to be hospitalized with severe injuries, this is a far more serious affair, and might just be grounds for a case in court.
So how do you know when a slip and fall incident is something that should be overlooked or taken to court?
Negligence Must Be A Factor
When it comes to public spaces such as shopping malls, offices and other locales, the owners of the establishment have a basic legal responsibility to ensure people within the space are safe. When owners ignore this responsibility that is called negligence, and a slip and fall cases absolutely requires a charge of negligence in order to move forward. If you, as private individual, decide to perform a handstand in a public space where are there are plenty of warnings to not do so, and you miscalculate your attempt, and injure yourself as a result of that, there is simply no way that the proprietors of an establishment are financially responsible for your injury or subsequent suffering.
On the other hand, imagine someone left a banana peel sitting unattended on the floor, and the lights were out in that area, creating poor visibility conditions. If you were to slip, fall and injure yourself on that banana peel, the combination of no one removing the banana peel and the poor lighting that should have been repaired would put the owners of the establishment at fault, not you.
What this means is that there must be a basic failure on the part of proprietors of an establishment to maintain that space in such a way as to ensure the safety of the public. A car or truck crashing through the wall and injuring people cannot be blamed on the owners, nor can natural catastrophes such as earthquakes or floods that are endangering other buildings and people. The blame must rest on the proprietors.
Discernible Cause
If you receive an injury in someone’s establishment, there must be a reason for it that can be documented. In the above example the banana peel and the broken lighting would be clear causes that can be traced back to the management. On the other hand, simply shouting, “I’m hurt and it’s your fault,” out of the blue, with witnesses standing around not seeing anything simply would not hold up in court. If you have a cause for your injury that can be documented—or better yet—actually recorded and preserved somehow, such as appearing on surveillance footage, this is what you need to move forward with a case.
Persistent Negligence
have easily been avoided, but was allowed to persist. A pool of grease left to linger in a garage with no one to clean it up for hours until someone slips is a good example of this. On the other hand, if we return to our example above, it is not such an easy case to carry if you were walking across the floor when the lights suddenly went out, and someone in front of you happened to be carrying a banana which then dropped to the floor. In such a case, clearly, no proprietor—or human being—could react fast enough to prevent the accident.
On the other hand, if the light had been out for some time, and the banana peel had been sitting there ignored, rather than having a clean-up crew address the problem until you slipped on it, this is a clear cut case of negligence that you should take up with an experienced personal injury lawyer.
Some slips and falls are just minor inconveniences. But if you experience one that severely injures you, and you know someone else was at fault, you should consult with a lawyer at thestpetelawyer.com to see what we can do for your case and your deserved financial compensation.