People can slip and fall in their own homes or while out for a jog. They can also fall and sustain injuries while running errands at a business. Slip-and-fall incidents can lead to minor bruises and scrapes in some cases.
Other times, they can lead to broken bones, soft tissue injuries or even brain injuries. Many people who fall while out in public assume that they are personally responsible for any losses they sustain in a slip-and-fall incident. However, sometimes the business where they fell may have a degree of liability.
It is sometimes possible for those injured in a slip-and-fall incident to file a premises liability lawsuit. They may be able to recover medical expenses, property damage losses and lost wages sustained because of their injuries. When is a business potentially liable for a customer’s slip-and-fall injuries?
Negligence can lead to company liability
Rules about personal injury lawsuits make them an option in one of two scenarios. People harmed by the misconduct or illegal behavior of others may have grounds to take legal action against the party who broke the law. Otherwise, negligence is usually necessary for a person or business to have financial responsibility for the injuries or property damage losses sustained by others.
There are many different ways for a business to be negligent, and many of them relate to facility maintenance. For someone hurt in a slip-and-fall to take legal action, other reasonable people have to agree that the business did something unsafe or failed to do what was necessary for safety.
Leaving soaking wet rugs at the entrance could be the reason that someone slips and falls. Running an exposed power cord through an aisle in the store might mean that someone trips and then falls. Delaying maintenance to the roof or refrigeration units might lead to puddling.
Understaffing might mean that customers spills sit for a long time and put others at risk. Provided that there is a direct connection between negligence on the part of the company and the cause of the slip-and-fall, the person hurt at the business may have grounds for a premises liability lawsuit.
Reviewing what happened before a slip-and-fall incident and the consequences that it generated could help the injured person explore their options. Those hurt in a serious slip-and-fall may have grounds to take legal action in certain scenarios.