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Frequently Asked Questions: Slip and Fall Accidents
Frequently Asked Questions: Personal Injury
Article: Slip and Fall Accidents
The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control estimates that in 2004 alone, more than eight million people were injured in slip-and-fall accidents. » More …
A "slip-and-fall" or "trip-and-fall" accident occurs when someone slips, trips or falls as the result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else’s property -- residential or commercial, public or private, indoors or outdoors.
The condition that causes the slip-and-fall accident can be anything from ice or snow to darkness, from an obstruction to poor floor conditions. Property owners are responsible for injuries that occur on their property as the result of dangerous or hazardous conditions that they knew about, or should have reasonably known about. For a property owner to be liable, it must have been foreseeable that his negligence would create the risk or danger at issue.
The hazard may be obvious (like broken sidewalk) or not (a water spill on a floor or a partially covered hole); it can be somewhat permanent (like a pothole) or temporary (like a grocery store spill). Generally, property owners are expected to know about and be responsible for permanent conditions. For temporary conditions, like floor spills, the owner’s liability will depend greatly on how long the condition was there before the accident happened.
Property owners defending against slip-and-fall lawsuits may claim that the condition was temporary and so new that they could not have known about it or prevented the injury. They may also claim that the victim herself was negligent, intoxicated or otherwise failed to pay reasonable attention to care for her own safety – people are generally expected to be aware of and avoid obvious dangers.
If you are injured on someone else's property, the property owner and/or tenant may be liable for your injuries – you should consult with an experienced injury attorney to assess your legal rights and options.
Sometimes slip-and-fall victims are uncomfortable with making a damages claim against the property owner because he is a friend or acquaintance. But damages for slip-and-fall accidents are almost always paid by the property owner’s or tenant’s insurance company under their homeowners insurance policy or other property insurance coverage.
Victims involved in slip-and-fall accidents need to be especially careful when dealing directly with an insurance company. Do not give any recorded statements to the insurance company without first consulting an attorney. Do not admit any possibility of fault on your part (such as saying, “Well, I am really clumsy.”). Do not sign any document that an insurance company gives you without first reviewing it with an attorney – by signing it, you could be waiving any right you have to seek future compensation should your injury prove more serious than you think.
The damages available to slip-and-fall victims vary tremendously depending on the facts and circumstances of the accident, the seriousness of the injury, and many other factors. At trial, many of the damages available are up to the subjective opinion of a jury, so they can vary greatly depending on the facts, the victim, the defendant, the lawyers, and the jury itself. There are sometimes legal limits on the amount of some types of damages victims can get, and insurance companies will generally pay no higher than their policy limits.
Damages that may be available to a victim include the following:
- Lost past and future wages
- Pain and suffering
- Medical expenses and hospital bills
- Lost opportunities (like the loss of a promotion that the victim would have gotten if he had not been injured)
- Future medical expenses, such as the cost of rehabilitation or home care
- The cost of accommodating your injury (such as making your home wheelchair accessible)
- In cases of an egregious, known problem that should have and could have been corrected prior to the injury, punitive damages may also be available.
The state workers’ compensation system covers most workplace injuries resulting from slip-and-fall accidents on the job. Those systems generally prevent you from suing your employer for mere negligence outside of the workers’ compensation system. However, if your slip-and-fall occurred due to the acts of a third party, such as a delivery company, you may have a claim against that third party. You should consult with a slip-and-fall attorney to review your potential claim.
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The persons appearing in photos on this website are models used only for dramatization purposes and are not actual clients.
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