Imagine you are walking through a grocery store doing your weekly shopping. As you are heading down the aisle for some eggs, your feet slip out from underneath you and fall hard on the ground. You realize right away that you’re hurt and a medical exam reveals that you have broken your wrist and seriously injured your back.
In this situation, many people might jump to the conclusion that it is just an unfortunate accident; the result of being a little clumsy. However, if this sounds like something you have recently experienced, you should know that you may have grounds to pursue a legal claim to cover the cost of damages you have suffered.
There are a number of critical aspects of a slip-and-fall claim that must be established in order for a case to be successful.
To begin with, you must be able to show that the party responsible for maintaining safe premises caused, had knowledge of or should have known about a potential hazard like a slippery floor. For instance, if a freezer case in the aisle next to your eggs had been leaking for a few days and water was pooling in the area, it could be reasonable to assume employees and employers should have been aware of the resulting slippery floor.
It must also be shown that there were no steps or inadequate steps taken to fix the situation or warn others. This could mean that workers or a property owner was negligent and let the water pool without cleaning it up or placing a sign in the area alerting shoppers to the slippery floor.
If these factors are in place and you have suffered damages as a result, you may be able to pursue compensation. However, there are several other factors that can affect if and how much money you could collect so it can be crucial that you discuss the details of a slip-and-fall accident with an attorney.