Slip and Fall Overview

“Slip and fall” is the term used for a personal injury case in which an individual trips and falls and is injured on someone else's property. This probably the main issue covered in premise liability laws and statutes. Some conditions that may call slip and fall are torn carpets, irregularities in flooring, poor lighting, narrow stairs, or wet flooring.  Other trip and fall situations occur on broken sidewalks, or escalators. Ice, rain, snow or some other hidden hazard like a pot hole in the ground also fall into this category.

There is no standard or precise way to determine when and if a person can be held responsible for an accident on their property. These type cases usually revolve around whether or not the property owner acted carefully in attempting to prevent the accident. Some ways to determine culpability or fault can be decided by answering certain questions. In most cases a person who falls and is hurt must prove the accident was caused by a dangerous condition and that the owner knew it was a dangerous condition. The dangerous condition must also present unreasonable risk.

The person filing a personal injury suit must also establish that the property owner had knowledge of the dangerous condition, created the condition, and failed to correct it, and the condition existed for such a long period of time that the owner should have discovered it and corrected it prior to the slip and fall in question. In order for the courts to hold a property owner liable, there must be foreseeable negligence toward the danger at issue. For example, a can of paint falls off the top shelf and spills into the aisle. Neither the store owner nor staff cleans up the paint and it stays there for a day. One day later someone slips and falls in the paint. This is considered negligence.

Once in a great while an injured party can prove negligence by showing that the property owner violated a relevant statute, for example building codes. If, say for instance a stairway does not have proper handrails and someone falls, negligence occurs due to building code violation.

If you or someone you love has been a victim of this form of personal injury, please contact our Brooklyn, New York slip and fall accident lawyers today.