Knowing who is reliable on your Slip and Fall Accidents
These guidelines will help you find out who is responsible if you slip or trip and fall on someone elses property.
In a survey, approximately thousands of people are injured each year; some are injured very badly when they slip or trip and fall on a dangerous floor, a flight of stairs or a rough patch of ground. If you or you have someone you know that have been injured in this kind of circumstances, first we must consider that it is a normal part of living for things to fall or to drip on a floor or the ground. For this reason, someone who owns or occupies property cannot always be held responsible. Nor it is the property owner who is always responsible if an accident happens within his vicinity.
When someone else is legally responsible for something on which you slip or trip, there is no precise way to determine the scene. Here are some general rules to help you decide whether someone else was at fault for your slip or trip and fall injury.
To be legally responsible for the injuries you suffered from slipping or tripping and falling on someone else's property, the owner of the premises or the owner's employee - first, must have caused the spill, worn or torn spot, or other slippery or dangerous surface or item, to be underfoot. Secondly, must have known of the dangerous surface but did nothing about it; and lastly, should have known of the dangerous surface because a reasonable person taking care of the property would have discovered and removed or repaired it.
The third situation is the most common, but is also less clear-cut than the first two because of those pesky words "should have known." Liability in these cases is decided by common sense. The law determines whether the owner or occupier of property was careful by deciding if the steps the owner or occupier took to keep the property safe were reasonable.
In determining a property owners reasonableness, the law concentrates on whether the owner makes regular and thorough efforts to keep the property safe and clean. In almost every slip or trip and fall case, you must decide whether your carelessness contributed to the accident. The rules of "comparative negligence" help measure your own reasonableness in going where you did, in the way you did, just before the accident happened. You dont have to "prove" to an insurance adjuster that you were careful. But think about what you were doing, and describe it clearly so that an insurance adjuster will understand that you were not careless.
