Each year, more than 800,000 people are hospitalized because of a fall, most often for head injuries or hip fractures. In fact, falling is the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries.
While people often picture falling from a significant height when they think about falls, the reality is that most falls happen at ground level. There can be multiple contributing factors, but in many cases, people fall because they slipped or tripped.
Unfortunately, these accidents can cause serious injuries. Besides head injuries or a fractured hip, you could experience additional broken bones, internal injuries, lacerations, and soft tissue injuries.
Many people experience long recoveries and chronic pain while also dealing with medical bills and lost income from missing work. If you’ve suffered a fall, you may be wondering if there are options to recover compensation for your injuries.
Can a Kennesaw Slip and Fall Accident Attorney Help?
If your fall was the result of another party’s negligence, we may be able to secure compensation from the liable party. In most of these cases, the fall took place on the other party’s property – either a private residence, like a neighbor’s home, or a business, such as a store.
When you experience a fall on someone else’s property, it’s always a good idea to consult an attorney and learn if negligence caused your accident.
What Is Negligence in a Slip and Fall Case?
How do you know if a property owner negligently caused your injury or if you simply had an unfortunate accident? First, let’s look at the basic elements of any negligence claim:
- The defendant (the negligent party) had a duty of care. In general, everyone is expected to take reasonable steps to avoid injuring others. In slip and fall cases, we have to consider the property owner’s duty. For example, a business owner who opens to the public has a duty to maintain a reasonably safe environment for guests. That means fixing or removing any hazards in the store – such as a spilled drink – as soon as they come to the attention of the owner or manager. Or, if the hazard can’t be removed, the store should take steps to warn customers, such as putting out a Wet Floor sign.
- The defendant failed in their duty of care. In our store example, we might gather evidence to show that the store failed to address a hazard in a timely manner. For instance, no one cleaned up the spilled drink, and then you slipped and fell. It’s important to remember that the standard is “reasonable care,” so if you slipped and fell two minutes after a customer spilled a drink, the store probably wasn’t negligent. It’s unreasonable to expect that a store employee would notice the spill and be able to clean it up in such a short time frame. But if the puddle had been on the floor for two hours when you slipped and fell, it’s reasonable to think the store manager was negligent in taking care of the hazard.
- The failed duty of care led to your injuries. For example, you slipped on the spilled drink puddle and fell, causing your head to hit a nearby shelf, and as a result, you suffered a concussion. This is one reason why it’s essential to always seek medical treatment after a slip-and-fall injury, even if it seems minor – your medical records will allow us to connect your injury with the fall in a time frame that makes sense. If you wait until your head has been hurting for several days, the store’s lawyer might argue that something else caused your head injury in the meantime.
- You suffered damages due to your injuries. Damages include medical expenses, lost income or earning potential (including PTO you used), permanent disability or disfigurement, pain and suffering, and more. We will use medical records, pay stubs, and other documentation to show these damages.
What Are Some Common Causes of Negligence in Slip and Fall Cases?
Puddles and spilled drinks aren’t the only hazards that can cause a slip-and-fall accident. Here are some other everyday situations we see in these cases:
Loose Debris on the Floor
This is the solid equivalent of puddles and spilled drinks.
Any solid object left lying on the floor can cause a person to trip. This includes lawns and other outdoor areas, where the owner might leave gardening tools, hoses, or other items on the ground.
For instance, if you trip on a shovel on your neighbor’s walkway, they might have been negligent in leaving the shovel there. Exposed wires or power cords are also common tripping hazards.
Torn or Frayed Carpeting
Carpet defects can be even more insidious than spilled drinks or garden tools because they may be very hard to see. Even a small tear in a carpet can catch your foot and cause you to trip, and unless you’re staring directly at it, you’re unlikely to see the small tear.
Strings from a frayed carpet or rug might also trip you up. Throw rugs or entryway mats can be hazardous if they aren’t lying flat – for instance, if the rug gets flipped back or has a crease, that could also cause you to fall.
Again, a torn carpet isn’t negligence on its own, but if the property owner knowingly fails to warn people about the tear until they can have it repaired, they might be negligent.
Uneven or Damaged Flooring
Hardwood or tile floors can be dangerous if a tile is missing, loose, or damaged. Until the floor can be repaired, the owner should take steps to keep people away from the damaged area, such as roping it off or placing a warning sign.
In some buildings, the floor may also be slightly uneven, which can be hazardous when you’re expecting the floor to be flat (as floors usually are). The property owner may address the problem by putting up an “Uneven Flooring – Watch Your Step” sign.
Potholes, Cracks, or Uneven Walkways/Sidewalks
Think of this category as flooring hazards moved outside.
A property owner has a duty to maintain a safe parking lot, sidewalk, and walkway in front of their building. If there is a large enough crack or pothole to pose a tripping hazard, and the owner doesn’t take steps to address it, they could be negligent.
Poor Lighting
Sometimes, the floor itself isn’t the problem, but poor visibility in a particular area is. For instance, there might not be anything wrong with the staircase at your local mall, but if several of the overhead lights are burned out, and you can’t see where you’re going, you might miss the bottom step and fall.
Hospital or Nursing Home Injuries
We also see a significant number of cases involving patients who fell at a hospital or nursing home. In these situations, there may be an external hazard like a puddle that causes the patient to slip and fall, but there are additional considerations.
Many patients in these facilities are deemed “fall risks” due to a medical condition, disability, or medication side effects.
When a medical facility has a patient who is a fall risk, staff are required to take certain measures to protect the patient. These can vary depending on why the patient is a fall risk, but if the particular steps to protect the patient aren’t followed, the hospital or nursing home might have been negligent.
Ice or Snow
Although Georgia often enjoys mild southern winters, we still have winter weather from time to time. What happens if you slip and fall on ice in a parking lot or on a sidewalk outside a business?
While the owner has a responsibility to deal with parking lot hazards, these cases can be complicated. The owner might argue that the winter precipitation wasn’t limited to their parking lot, and the injured person should have already known the parking lot would probably be icy.
However, if there are “unnatural accumulations” of ice in some areas – such as a sloped wheelchair ramp or an area where a pile of snow melted – the property owner has a responsibility to warn guests or address the hazards.
In any of these situations, it’s helpful to take pictures of the area where you slipped and fell so you can show what the hazardous condition was at the time of your accident. If you can, try to get the name and contact info of anyone who saw your accident.
After seeing a healthcare professional about your injuries, we recommend seeking legal advice to learn more about your options.
How Can You Get Help From a Kennesaw Slip and Fall Accident Law Firm?
If you or a loved one have been hurt in a slip-and-fall accident, you may have questions about your damages and the possibilities for securing compensation. Please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation.
We’ll review the details of your accident, answer your questions, and explain the options.
Attorney Ali Awad founded the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm only a few short years ago and has since transformed it into one of the fastest-growing personal injury law firms in the country. At the same time, he has recovered millions of dollars in compensation for injured people and their families.
When he’s not negotiating with insurance companies or arguing a case in court, you can find him dispensing no-nonsense legal advice for more than a million followers on social media. Call his expert legal team at (470) 323-8779.
