What Compensation Might I Be Eligible For In A Slip And Fall Lawsuit?
Thousands of people receive slip and fall injuries yearly. Many are mere accidents with minor injuries and no premise liability and are soon forgotten. However, large groups of victims suffer serious injuries in accidents on other people’s property. They may be entitled to compensation because the owner/possessor of the property can be charged with premise liability. That means they are liable for the accident that occurred on their premises or property. Every premise liability case is different, and many variables determine the amount of compensation, if any, that a slip and fall attorney can win for a premise liability client.
Grounds for Slip and Fall Lawsuits
When first deciding if you have grounds for a slip and fall lawsuit, determine if the accident was caused by negligence on the part of the owner/possessor of the property. If there was a dangerous condition, which caused the accident and could or should have been corrected by the owner, a slip and fall attorney can help you determine if that warrants a slip and fall lawsuit.
Dangerous conditions may leading to premise liability claims include torn carpeting, wet floors, slippery steps, a missing handrail, a cracked sidewalk, inadequate lighting, hidden hazards, and much more. If any of those conditions could have been corrected by the owner/possessor, could not have been avoided by the victim, and were in an area that was not marked as unsafe, you need a slip and fall attorney to help file a slip and fall lawsuit.
Before doing so, however, you must eliminate any possibility that you were careless, inattentive, or acting irresponsibly. In those cases, there may be no premise liability. Your slip and fall attorney will help you determine if there are grounds for a slip and fall lawsuit.
The Owner/Possessor’s Premise Liability
If you and yourslip and fall attorney do decide that there are grounds for a slip and fall lawsuit, you must next determine who has premise liability and why. In a slip and fall lawsuit, you will charge the person who own/possesses the property and is responsible to maintain it. In addition, your slip and fall attorney will need to show that the owner/possessor was negligent in maintaining the property. In today’s complex society, there can be multiple layers of owners, managers, renters, and possessors of property. Any of those parties may be charged with premise liability in a slip and fall lawsuit. The job of aslip and fall attorney is to establish who is responsible for that maintenance.
The next step for the slip and fall attorney is to determine if that owner/possessor carefully maintained the property in a safe manner for visitors, customers, or business associates. Determining premise liability in slip and fall lawsuits depends on three elements. The slip and fall attorney must determine if the owner/possessor caused a dangerous condition that caused the accident, leading to premise liability in the slip and fall lawsuit. If not, can the slip and fall attorney prove that the owner/possessor knew about the dangerous condition and failed to correct it, leading to premise liability in the slip and fall lawsuit. If neither of the first two conditions can be proven, the slip and fall attorney must demonstrate that the dangerous condition existed long enough that the owner/possessor should have discovered and corrected it exercising reasonable maintenance on the property. If so, the slip and fall attorney may have grounds to prove premise liability in the slip and fall lawsuit.
In some cases, a slip and fall attorney may find building codes were not maintained by the owner/possessor, leading to the slip and fall lawsuit. These are usually clear cut and additional grounds that the slip and fall attorney may file a favorable premise liability claim.
Slip and Fall Lawsuit Process
If any of those conditions exist, a slip and fall attorney may attempt to negotiate an out-of-court settlement in the slip and fall lawsuit. Theslip and fall attorney may find that both the owner/possessor and the victim shared premise liability in a slip and fall lawsuit. That is called comparative negligence, and can lead to shared premise liability and split compensation. If negotiations fail, the attorney may seek mediation in the lawsuit. If a settlement still cannot be reached, the attorney may take the slip and fall lawsuit to court. There, both attorneys will attempt to prove premise liability and win the slip and fall lawsuit outright. It is difficult to predict the amount of compensation any slip and fall attorney can win in a premise liability case, but they usually seek to cover medical bills, compensation for pain and suffering, lost income, and other damages resulting from the premise liability claim. Some have won thousands of dollars.