As a personal injury attorney, I am often asked to help clients that have been injured due to falling on a defective condition of someone else's property. These accidents, referred to as "slip and fall" and/or "trip and fall" cases commonly occur on sidewalks, in common areas outside the home, and at places that do retail business. A slip and fall case is a general name for a class of cases known as premises liability cases.
Not everyone who is injured by falling on another person's property has a case and in fact, these cases can be very difficult to prove. There are specific legal requirements must be proven in order for you to recover compensation due to a defective condition of a floor or walkway. This is why it is critically important to speak with an experienced attorney without delay if you are injured in a slip and fall accident.
If you do fall and injure yourself on someone else's property, you should make sure that receiving medical attention is your first priority. If the owner is present, ask them to call an ambulance for you if necessary. After any necessary emergency treatment is rendered there are several steps that you need to take so to preserve your claim and increase the likelihood of succeeding in litigation.
1. Examine the area where you fell. Maybe there was water on the floor or a broken sidewalk that caused you to fall. In order to recover damages for your injury you will need to show that there was a defective condition of the property. Accordingly, it is important for you to know why you fell.
2. Report the incident to the owner or manager of the property as soon as possible. Tell them that you fell and were injured on their property. Get a copy of the incident report. However, it is important not to give a recorded statement about the facts and circumstances of the accident before consulting a lawyer. If a person gives a recorded statement to an adjuster without consulting a lawyer first, then the person will likely say something which will prevent any recovery. An experienced personal injury attorney can help advise you of the legal elements and defenses at issue and show you how to use this information to your advantage.
3. Take pictures of the accident scene / defective condition. It is important to document what the scene looked like at the time you fell. It is likely that after you report the incident, the property owner will try to fix the condition and at the same time wipe out evidence of the circumstances that caused you to fall.
4. If there are witnesses, get their contact information. Keep this information in a safe place where it won't be accidentally thrown away. If you slip due to water or an object on the floor, ask employees or witnesses if they know how it got there. In Pennsylvania, it is not enough to prove that you fell on something on the floor; you will also need to prove that the property owner had notice of this condition and failed to fix it in a reasonable time.
If you're hurt and have questions, give me a call. Consultations are free and I am happy to speak with you about the circumstances of your specific case and advise you on the best course of action.
