Slip & Fall
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Premises Liability – Slip and Fall Accidents
Premises Liability is an area of law that holds property owners legally responsible for accidents that occur on their property due to unsafe conditions. Premises Liability laws are complex, so if you have been injured while on someone else’s property, you are encouraged to speak to a lawyer who can help you understand and protect your legal rights.
Slip and fall accidents are among the most common causes of Premises Liability injuries, but there are many other common causes of Premises Liability claims, including animal attacks, assault (such as in a shopping center parking lot), defective or dangerous equipment and accidental drowning.
In the practice of personal injury law, a slip and fall is a generic term used to describe an injury that occurs when someone slips, trips, or falls as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else’s property. Of course, in real terms, a slip is not the same as a trip and results from a lack of sufficient friction between the foot and floor surface, causing one or both feet to slip. A trip usually results from one’s foot getting caught or hitting against an object or obstruction on a floor or a stairway.
Slip and fall cases can involve a variety of surfaces including tile or wood floors, concrete sidewalks, asphalt pavement and steps. The falls and resulting injuries are commonly the result of a liquid or other “foreign substance” on floors, abrupt changes in floor levels, poor lighting, a hidden hazard such a hole in the ground covered with grass, or improperly constructed or maintained stairs, porches, or railings. People can fall for numerous reasons, including the interaction of the walking surface with shoes; the environment, along with its distractions; and the physical and mental limitations of the victim.
Property owners or occupiers, especially those that invite the public to shop or conduct business on their premises, have a responsibility to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe manner. The owners, or those in control of the premises, are responsible for injuries that occur as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on their property, of which they knew or should have known.
A slip and fall case may involve litigation against the property owner, property manager, landscape company, contractors, architects, owners association and other potentially liable parties that possessed, controlled, designed, managed, maintained, or created the hazard.
The extent of the seriousness and costs arising from slip and fall injuries are borne out by many government and privately funded studies and surveys, i.e.: Every year there are more than 12 million slip-and-fall accidents in the U.S., resulting in more than 100,000 disabling injuries annually (National Safety Council); slips, trips and falls are the leading cause of occupational accidents and result in more than 300,000 disabling injuries each year (National Safety Council); the Department of Labor reported that 15 percent of incidental workplace deaths are caused by slips, trips and falls; more than 2.2 million emergency room visits for falls on stairs, ramps and floors was reported in 2006 (Consumer Product Safety Review, Summer, 2006, Vol. 11, No. 1); the average restaurant has 3-9 slip/fall accidents each year (NSC); 9 out of 10 slip-and-fall incidents occur on wet surfaces (Professional Retail Store Maintenance); slips, trips and falls account for 15 to 20% of all workers compensation costs (Professional Retail Store Maintenance).
Slip and fall cases may seem like straightforward personal injury lawsuits, but the underlying case is often more complex than may meet the eye. Handling a slip and fall case often can involve several different areas of common law and statutory law, including landlord and tenant law, indemnity, Workers’ Compensation law, S. C. Tort Claims Act, S. C. Accessibility Act, etc.
If asked what is most important in deciding whether to accept a slip and fall case, most attorneys would probably say conducting a thorough client interview and investigating the facts surrounding the accident, including the conditions of the premises that involved the hazard. This may be correct, however, the lawyer must have a thorough understanding of Premises Liability law as applied to slip and fall cases. Without first having a working knowledge of the law in this field, the attorney will not know what kinds of questions to ask and will possibly make mistakes in judging whether the facts, if proven, will survive a motion for summary judgment or directed verdict.
Dan Denton is a personal injury and premises liability lawyer that probably has more experience and success in litigating Premises Liability cases than most attorneys in Beaufort County SC. He has a thorough understanding of South Carolina Premises Liability law and the litigation techniques and strategies that have resulted in significant verdicts and settlements. For summaries of some of the cases, see Case Results, which includes a case where he was co-counsel in a law suit that resulted in a multi-million dollar jury verdict that was the highest verdict ever awarded in a slip and fall case in Beaufort County SC and, possibly, in the State of South Carolina. In 1998, Dan Denton and co-counsel, David Berry, obtained the first jury verdict (albeit a low amount) in the United States against Wal-Mart for negligent failure to maintain a safe parking lot, where a customer was attacked and robbed by a criminal gang trolling the parking lot.
For additional information about Premises Liability and Slip & Fall cases, go to PersonlInjuryLawyer.com. Also, extensive sources of information about premises liability and other types of personal injury cases may be found on this Website’s Resources page.
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