When you don’t feel like standing up after a slip and fall

A slip and fall injury is one of the most tricky cases of personal injury. As it is governed by the premises liability law, it is oftentimes difficult to pin any fault on the owner of the premises where the accident occurred.

This is the reason why if you slipped and fall in someone else’s property and in the process got injured, it is best to always consult an attorney on the possible claims you may have against the owner. In Los Angeles, there are many law firms specializing in personal injury claims. It is just a matter of choosing the right one.

In slip and fall injuries, the main question really revolves around the effective cause of the slip: is it yours or is it the owner’s? A third reason is that it may be purely an accident and no one can be faulted for it. There is really no hard-and-fast rule in determining who the guilty party is; it always depends on the facts of each case. So far, no formula has been introduced that would apply to a random case.

For example, while walking inside a restaurant you slipped and fell on a wet spot thereby causing injury to your hips. Who is at fault in this case and can you file an action for personal injury? Well, it depends.

If you slipped in an area where there is obviously a sign or warning of some sort that the floor is wet, no fault can be attributed to the owner. If there was none, then you may have a case. However, if the owner can prove that he was unaware of the damp floor and it was just so for a matter of minutes, then you don’t have a case. Because in that situation, the circumstances would not have allowed a reasonable owner to timely discover the problem and fix it at the same time. The operative word in this case is “reasonable.”

It is not always the premise owner’s fault if a slip and fall injury occurs within his property. The aggrieved party would have to ultimately prove that the owner knew the unsafe condition of his premises and did nothing to fix it, and therefore liable for his negligent behavior. Could the owner have prevented the accident but did nothing to stop it?

Another issue here is the fault attributable to the victim, whether or not the accident was his or her own doing. Bungee jumping from a building without the permission of the owner or if the act was not commissioned by him, and the cord suddenly snapped, the jumper cannot really take refuge under the premises liability law.

This is the reason why every case of a slip and fall injury must be evaluated by a competent attorney. Sometimes it is very difficult to draw the line between liability and immunity from fault.