What are slip and fall injuries?

Every year, personal injury law firms see thousands of different clients, with a variety of types of cases in turn. Oftentimes, personal injury claims are associated with car accidents, as well as medical malpractice. But the reality is that these are not the only common types of personal injury claims that people need to be aware of. And indeed, Americans should be aware of their rights to pursue personal injury claims in court and receive compensation for injuries that were not their fault.

Slip and fall injuries are also surprisingly common, with thousands of them occurring each year. Many people are not aware of their rights regarding slip and fall injuries the way that they are with other injuries. With that being said, we’re exploring below what slip and fall injuries are, and what exactly people can do to pursue personal injury claims when they happen.

What Are Slip and Fall Injuries?

The term “slip and fall” is really used to act as a kind of umbrella over a certain type of personal injury claim. People do not literally need to slip and fall in order for the claim to be counted as a slip and fall claim by personal injury law firms. Typically, a person will need to fall and injure themselves, often by tripping or slipping, on someone else’s property in order for it to be examined as a slip and fall claim. The broader category that this type of injury falls under is known as the premises liability category. Although the property may not always be maintained by the property owner themselves, the owner could still be held legally responsible for the injury.

There are a number of different conditions that could lead to an individual falling and becoming injured. This could include a wet floor, of course; but torn carpeting, narrow stairs, poor lighting, changes in flooring, and more could be connected to a fall. Cracked sidewalks or pavement or slippery stairs could also be connected to slip and fall injuries. The point is that the injury can be connected to negligence on the part of the property owner or the person maintaining the property by owner’s command. In order for a plaintiff to be able to collect any kind of settlement, they must have sustained some kind of injury. These injuries are usually fairly serious; 22% of them resulted in over 31 days away from work.

How Can Fault Be Proven In Slip and Fall Cases?

There is a reason why it’s so important for those pursuing slip and fall claims to work with qualified personal injury law firms. These claims are not always easy to prove, even if you feel like it’s fairly obvious that you were a victim. There is not a single precise procedure to follow in order to prove that someone was responsible when you were injured. The question is really whether or not the owner of the property acted in order to prevent the fall to the best of their knowledge. Additionally, the owner’s legal representatives may argue that the real problem was you being too careless to notice the conditions in question; if they are able to prove this, your entire claim could be jeopardized.

The issue for personal injury law firms is proving that there were dangerous conditions present when you were injured. A dangerous condition represents unreasonable risk. There is such a thing as reasonable risk to consider. It is impossible for property owners to completely prevent any risky issues from occurring on their properties. But when those risks are unreasonable, there is a much better chance of a personal injury claim being successful.

What lawyers need to establish is that the owner of the property essentially created the dangerous condition, knew about the condition and failed to prevent accidents, or overlooked the condition for such a long period of time that the owner of the property should have become aware of it.

Though it can be difficult to prove that a slip and fall injury happened, it’s not impossible. These injuries must be taken seriously, and you deserve compensation if one happened to you.