Proving Negligence and Liability in Slip and Fall Cases

If you have suffered an injury as a result of an accident, your situation may have resulted from someone else’s actions — or failure to take action. In these scenarios, many injured parties seek out attorneys to help them file slip and fall cases.

One of the most challenging aspects of slip and fall cases is proving liability, which often means proving negligence on the part of the person responsible for maintaining the safety of the premises on which you were injured. In order to secure compensation from slip and fall cases, attorneys must prove that a liable party failed to act with reasonable prudence and responsibility and that their behavior led to your accident.

DETERMINING LIABILITY IN SLIP AND FALL CASES

Here are a few questions attorneys ask when determining liability in slip and fall cases:

• Did the condition or obstacle exist long enough that the property owner would have either noticed it or been alerted to its presence and taken action to remove the hazard?
• Did the owner of the property have a scheduled safety maintenance routine in and around their building? If so, are there logs from that scheduled maintenance, and do those records include any references to the hazard?
• Could the hazard have been minimized or eliminated with preventative measures such as warnings signs or redirected foot traffic?
• Did factors like poor lighting contribute to your accident?

DETERMINING YOUR ROLE IN YOUR ACCIDENT

Another key component of establishing liability in slip and fall cases is providing proof that your accident was not self-inflicted as part of an effort to claim compensation. This can be a time-consuming, complicated process.

One thing your attorney will work to establish is your attentiveness to your surroundings at the time of the accident. For example, if you were distracted by talking on your cell phone or disregarded preventative warning signs, you may be determined to be responsible for your own injury.

For a free consultation, contact Sloat & Nicholson at 1-800-873-3202.