Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer
If you have recently slipped, fallen, and sustained injury on someone else’s property, you may – very understandably – be concerned about the costs you’re incurring as a result of that incident. If you’ve broken bones, been diagnosed with head trauma, or have been otherwise injured in ways that will require follow-up care, you may be worried about mounting medical bills. If you have had to miss income opportunities due to healing-related restrictions and/or a need to rest, you may be concerned about how this loss will affect your family’s finances.
It is important to understand that you may not have to shoulder these financial burdens yourself. If the property owner – whether that owner is an individual, a company, a local government, etc. – in question failed to take certain steps to maintain their property so that it was reasonably safe for guests and visitors, you may be able to hold them legally and financially liable for the harm you have sustained.
Pursuing Compensation
As an experienced slip and fall accident lawyer – including those who practice at Blitz Law Group, LLP – can confirm, it isn’t always easy to know whether property owners were “negligent” per the standards set by state law. This is one of the reasons why it’s a good idea to speak with an attorney who not only practices personal injury law about your situation, you’ll want to find a personal injury lawyer who practices a subspecialty known as “premises liability law.”
Premises liability is the area of personal injury law concerned with situations involving physical harm that has occurred due to the recklessness, negligence, or intentionally harmful actions or inactions of a property owner and/or manager. By speaking with an attorney about the nuances of your unique situation, you’ll benefit from personalized professional guidance that cannot be acquired in any other way.
An attorney will be able to both explain the general legal standards applicable to your case and clarify whether your situation specifically meets these standards in ways that are supportable enough that you’re likely to succeed if you file an action in civil court.
What Does the Law Say?
Every state’s laws concerning the responsibilities of property owners and the rights of victims are a little different. Nuances in legal language can make it tougher or easier to pursue slip and fall compensation in one state or another.
For example, in New York, property owners have a “duty to use reasonable care to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition.” As a result, slip and fall victims must prove that the property where they were hurt was not reasonably safe and that the property owner was negligent in their duty of maintaining reasonably safe property conditions. In every state, it must be proven that a property owner’s failure substantially contributed to the direct cause of a victim’s harm.
Due to the variations in each state’s approach, it isn’t wise to simply assume that your case isn’t strong enough to be viably actionable. Asking an attorney about the intersection of the law and the details of your case will provide you with the ability to make informed decisions about your next steps.
