Businesses and Slip-and-Fall Accidents: Are the Owners Liable?

People have plenty to think about in today’s modern world. From geopolitical strife to inflation that seems to be neverending and is eating into everyone’s actual earnings, it can often seem that the more we move forward as a society, the more complex and convoluted things become. This holds true in almost all walks of life, particularly regarding the law. Due to its labyrinth nature, getting a handle on who is liable for what when things go awry can appear almost insurmountable. 

While most of you won’t ever have to deal with the criminal side of the law, you may find yourself involved in a civil case. This is due to the fact that accidents can and do happen every day and, in most cases, are entirely out of your control. This is especially true if you slip or trip on a business property and suffer an injury as a result. Unfortunately, these cases are frequently fairly clear-cut (unless the business owner has demonstrated negligence and that negligence directly contributed to the incident). Nevertheless, just because you have slipped and fallen doesn’t automatically entitle you to compensation. This article will look at the parties’ respective legal responsibilities as well as what you should think about if you ever find yourself in this predicament.

Owners Of Businesses Bear A Certain Level Of Legal Responsibility

If you are lucky enough to live in a liberal nation where the rule of law reigns supreme, such as the USA, businesses that serve the public will often be compelled to invest in various insurance ranging from protecting their employees to ensuring their customers are safe. This usually manifests as business premises liability and requires owners to ensure a safe environment for all individuals who enter the premises, including customers and employees. Under liability laws, business owners are obligated to exercise reasonable care in maintaining and upkeeping their property. This includes (but certainly isn’t limited to) conducting regular inspections to identify potential hazards and taking appropriate measures to address any that they may discover. Some examples of avoidable risks include:

• Wet floors
• Uneven surfaces
• Obstacles in a walkway
• Inadequate warning signage

However, if the establishment has sufficient warnings in place—such as a visible wet floor sign that complies with state and federal laws—and you slip, you might find that they are not responsible for paying you damages. This leads nicely to the following point, which discusses the principles of negligence and responsibility.

The Principle Of Comparative Negligence And Responsibility

The principle of comparative negligence refers to how responsibility is allocated between multiple parties when both the plaintiff and defendant contribute to the plaintiff’s injury. Under this doctrine, your compensation is reduced based on your percentage of fault rather than barred altogether. Comparative negligence aims to be more equitable and account for real-world complexities. Factors like awareness of foreseeable risks and failure to take due precautions determine degrees of negligence. By apportioning responsibility, comparative negligence provides fair compensation aligned with each party’s blameworthiness. Why mention this little snippet of tort law at all? Well, understanding this nuanced principle is key to achieving just outcomes in personal injury cases involving mutual fault. It indicates that even if the business owner must recompense you for injuries r loss of income etc., you might not get the outcome you expected, especially if you have also been deemed by the court to bear some responsibility.

Factors Affecting Liability Determination

Liability determination frequently involves sorting through the details and usually involves a few crucial elements, including:

1. Duty of care: The existence of a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff is essential in establishing liability. The obligation arises from the relationship and roles, such as a doctor and their patient, or in the case of this post, between a business owner and those who enter their premises (even in the case of illegal entry in some cases).
2. Breach of duty: If you slipped on commercial property and were injured, you must prove the business owner did not fulfill their duty of care via some kind of negligence or a failure to act reasonably under a specific set of circumstances. If you aim to succeed in your case, you will need clear evidence of a breach of this duty which can prove you were not to blame.
3. Causation: In order to gain any meaningful compensation, you need to prove the connection between the violation and the harm it caused. Therefore, if you slipped and broke a bone due to improper signage or incorrectly maintained plumbing and can prove the connection, you should receive compensation to cover your medical expenses, loss of earnings, and any other costs related to your injury.
4. Plaintiffs liability: As per the principle of comparative negligence mentioned earlier, you could also be found to have contributed to your injuries by your own negligence. For example, if there are “no running” signs at a public pool, but you fail to heed them and are consequently injured, you may even relinquish your right to compensation (although a quality lawyer should be able to get you something).

Reasons You Should Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer To Fight On Your Behalf

When it comes to anything involving complicated legal issues, the best course of action is typically to seek out a reputable attorney with experience in your particular problem. In this case, it would be a personal injury lawyer specializing in slips, trips, and falls. Look for a firm offering a free initial assessment to ascertain whether your case has legs or isn’t worth pursuing. Once you get past this stage and the lawyer has indicated that you have a good chance of success based on your provided information, they should inform you of what to expect and how the case will proceed. In most cases regarding personal injury, this will involve negotiating with the business’s insurance company and trying to arrange an out-of-court settlement which is often the best-case scenario. Nonetheless, if the insurance company or business owner sticks to their guns and insists they are in the right, your lawyer may need to schedule an appearance in court for a judge to hear the case and decide on the matter.

As with everything in life, things aren’t quite as clear-cut as one might first imagine. It’s easy to assume a business owner will be responsible for an accident on their premises, but as you have read, this isn’t always the case. Nonetheless, this post has hopefully demonstrated the need for a qualified attorney capable of acting for your rights and who is able to navigate the tricky waters of civil law.