It’s not unheard of to have a slip and fall accident on someone else’s property which can result in injuries for you. If your slip and fall accident was caused by the property owner’s carelessness or negligence, you may be able to win a settlement. However, this will occur only if you can prove that it was the other party’s negligence and carelessness that caused your accident and injuries.
There are some liability questions that you and your personal injury lawyer in Spruce Grove will have to ask and answer:
1. Who is potentially at fault for the accident?
2. Were the responsible parties also negligent?
You also have to prove that you were in no way responsible for your accident because of negligence or carelessness on your part.
Different theories
You’re going to have to prove the following if you want a settlement from whoever it was who caused your slip and fall accident:
● The responsible party didn’t notice a potentially dangerous condition on the property because of carelessness or negligence and this is what caused your accident. You’ll also have to prove that a reasonable person in the same situation and under the same circumstances would have been more observant and diligent. Note, this may be hard to do.
● Your slip and fall accident were caused by something that the responsible party did. A good example would be failing to dry a wet and slippery floor.
● Did poor lighting play any role in your slip and fall accident?
Prove that you weren’t responsible
Keep in mind that the defendant will try to get out of paying you a settlement by using the comparative fault rule. This rule states that your final settlement will be reduced by the percentage of your fault.
You won’t get a settlement at all if you live in a state with a contributory fault rule and you’re even 1% at fault for your own slip and fall accident.
You need to think about certain things to make sure that you were in no way responsible for your own slip and fall accident:
● Did you slip and fall because you were acting negligently and failed to see the dangerous condition? Good examples of this would be texting and talking on the phone.
● Were you trespassing on the property when the slip and fall accident occurred?
● Did you fail to observe any obvious safety or other signs posted that clearly indicated that the hazardous condition existed?
Your personal injury lawyer will tell you that you essentially have no case if you can answer “yes” to any of the above questions.