Whether you’re on a commercial property or a residential one, if you suffer a slip and fall and injure yourself, the person who owns the place could very well become liable for damages due to you.
Is An Attorney Really Necessary for a Slip and Fall Case?
Yes. Anytime there are apparent injuries that need to be investigated, the best thing you can do for yourself is to attain legal representation. The main reason is because of comparative negligence laws in California under Civil Code §1431.2.
Comparative negligence allocates damages when both parties are at least somewhat at fault, and blaming the victim is especially common in a slip and fall case.
For example, let’s say a drunk man walks into a restaurant, slips, falls, and hurts himself. No wet floor signs were up, but everyone saw that the man was intoxicated. So, both he and the restaurant might be at fault. However, just because an insurance company states you were partially to blame does not mean you were.
Your California slip and fall attorney is your best chance at showing in court that the individual or establishment that created the hazardous conditions that caused the fall was more at fault than you were – or that you did not contribute to your accident at all.
Types of Slip and Fall Accidents and Injuries
Here are some of the most common types of slip and fall accidents, along with the injuries that could result.
1. Leaks and Spills
These can happen in a number of situations, but more often occur in commercial properties like restaurants, stores, malls, etc. If, for example, a customer walks into a restaurant, slips on a freshly mopped floor, and injures himself, the restaurant could possibly end up liable if there were no wet floor signs up.
Injuries that could result from a slip and fall on a hard floor could be to the ankles and knees, or, depending on how a person falls, their back could twist, which would require prompt medical attention.
2. Irregular Flooring
Many times, an establishment will ignore small things about their building that need to be repaired. After a while, something such as an uneven part of the floor (a missing piece of tile, for example) can be overlooked and eventually forgotten about. That is until a customer or an employee suffers an injury from this tripping hazard.
A person’s knee and/or ankles could definitely get injured in this kind of falling incident. And, if they try to brace their fall, then their hands, wrists, elbows, and forearms could also get scraped, bruised, or possibly even broken.
3. Missing or Broken Safety Features
There have been cases where a person fell because safety features didn’t function correctly or weren’t in place at all. For example, if an elderly person leaned on a weak railing as they climbed or descended a set of stairs, the results could be disastrous. Another example would be if someone slipped and fell hard in a hotel shower where a hand grab bar should have been, or if they grabbed for a damaged one that broke off the wall as they went down.
Injuries such as these can only be intensified if the fall happens in bad environmental conditions, such as if there was glass or some other type of loose debris in the area of the accident, which could cause further lacerations, bruises, and/or other wounds.
After a bad slip and fall accident, the help of a reputable Orange County slip and fall attorney will be necessary for legal proceedings, including initial insurance claims.
