Who Is Liable For Slip And Fall Injuries?
If you have slipped or tripped and fallen on either public property or private property that you don’t own and you’ve suffered injuries as a result of your fall, you may be in a strong position to file a premises liability lawsuit. Premises liability is the subsection of personal injury law concerned with harm sustained while visiting – or even trespassing – on another’s property.
Premises liability lawsuits unfold in ways that are a little different from standard personal injury lawsuit processes. During a standard personal injury lawsuit, you would be asked to prove that the defendant named in your case owed you a duty of care under the law, breached that duty by behaving negligently, recklessly, or with intention to harm you, and that your injuries resulted directly from that breach. By contrast, state laws vary in: the requirements one must meet for a successful premises liability lawsuit under various circumstances. This is one reason why it is important to speak with an attorney in your area as soon as you can after suffering harm on another’s property.
General Legal Requirements
As an experienced slip and fall accident lawyer – including those who practice at The Law Offices of Cliff Enten – can confirm, most slip and fall or trip and fall lawsuits must successfully prove two primary legal elements. First, the victim must prove that a dangerous condition on the defendant’s property directly caused the victim’s injuries. Second, the victim must prove that the property owner or manager either knew or should have known about the condition and failed to take proper steps to mitigate the risk of harm.
Essentially, this means that there can be circumstances under which someone suffers injury on another’s property but the owner can’t be held liable because they both didn’t know and should not have reasonably known about that dangerous condition. However, most of the time, property owners are held to a fairly high standard in re: what they should know about their own property.
If Your Fall Was Work-Related
Note that if you are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, you may have an additional – or alternative – means of pursuing financial recourse for your injuries. If you fell while engaged in work-related activities, whether you were on your employer’s property at the time or not, you are likely entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits as a result of your harm. If this is the case, you’ll want to act quickly because the workers’ compensation benefits claims process is uniquely time-sensitive.