Slip and fall accidents can occur on someone else’s property, and these accidents can result in unfortunate injuries. When an injury is sustained on another person’s property, it can be confusing trying to determine if the property owner was liable or if it was your own fault. However, there are some key ways that you and your personal injury attorney can determine fault for your slip and fall accident.
How Can I Find Who Is Responsible for My Slip and Fall Injury?
Many people are injured every year from slipping and falling on wet floors, defective staircases or rough areas of ground. Property owners have a duty to maintain their property. To determine fault in a difficult slip and fall case, questions will be aimed at whether the property owner acted carefully so that slipping or tripping was less likely to occur, and whether the victim was careless or not in avoiding the hazard. One of the following must be true for a property owner to be liable for your injury:
- The property owner caused the spill, worn pavement/surface or other dangerous surface or item to be underfoot
- The owner or an employee of the property must have known about the hazard and did nothing about it
- The owner or property employee should have known of the hazard because a “reasonable” person in charge of the property would have discovered and repaired or removed it
Phrases such as “should have known” and “reasonable” are hard to legally define and can make personal injury cases like these hard to solve. Determining the defendant’s “reasonableness” will depend on the specific circumstances of the hazard that caused the injury, and it will depend on the details of the property and the property owner’s employment duties.
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, you should contact a Fairfield personal injury attorney today to fight for your right to compensation.
