Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer in San Mateo

Slip and fall accidents are common, and while some people might not think that slipping and falling are particularly dangerous, these types of accidents can cause serious injuries or deaths. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, falls are the leading reason that people are seen in the emergency department each year with more than 8 million annual visits. Slip and fall accidents result in 50% of all accidental deaths in the home. If you suffer a serious injury from a fall on the property of someone else, you may have legal rights to recovery when your accident was caused by a hazardous condition on the property. A slip and fall lawyer San Mateo from the San Jose Personal Injury Attorneys can evaluate your claim and explain whether you might have valid grounds to file a lawsuit.

What is a slip and fall accident?

A slip and fall accident is a legal phrase that is used within the personal injury law. It describes a situation in which someone slips, trips, and falls while they are on the property of another person or an entity. Slip and fall accidents generally fall within the category of tort law called premises liability claims. Slip and fall accidents happen on the property that is owned or operated by someone else. Depending on the circumstances, the property’s owner or operator may be liable to pay damages to the victim.

For liability to attach, the fall must have been caused by a dangerous condition that existed on the property. The property’s owner or operator must have known or reasonably should have known about the existence of the condition but failed to correct it or to warn visitors about its presence. Some examples of dangerous conditions that might lead to slip and fall accidents include the following:

• Uneven flooring
• Torn carpeting
• Holes
• Missing tiles
• Broken handrails
• Poor lighting
• Broken asphalt in parking lots or sidewalks
• Debris left on the floor
• Spills

To recover damages, the victim must have been injured and have suffered financial losses as a result of slipping and falling as a result of the hazardous condition.

Liability in a slip and fall accident

Many people have some misconceptions about who is responsible when a slip and fall accident happens. Simply slipping and falling on the property of another is not enough to establish the liability of the property’s owner or operator. If the property owner or operator did not know about the condition and did not have reason to know of its existence, he or she will not be liable to pay damages for any resulting injuries.

For example, if a child spills his or her drink in a grocery store aisle, leading to the person directly behind the child to slip and fall, the store will be unlikely to be liable. This is because the store would not have had enough time to discover the hazard and to take corrective actions to remedy it.

People who are responsible for their falls will also not be likely to recover damages. For example, if someone sees that a worker left a step stool in a grocery store aisle but does nothing to avoid tripping because of it, he or she will be unlikely to recover compensation.

There isn’t a precise way to figure out when someone might be liable to pay damages when you are injured in a slip and fall accident. Each case will depend on the knowledge of the property owner and whether or not he or she exercised care to try to prevent dangerous conditions from existing on the property. It will also depend on whether the person was careless in failing to avoid the condition that caused the accident.

To prove that the property owner knew or should have known about the existence of the dangerous condition, you must be able to show the following:

• The property owner created or caused the condition;
• The property owner knew that the condition existed; or
• The dangerous condition existed for a long enough period that the property owner reasonably should have known about it and fixed it; and
• The injury that resulted because of the dangerous condition must have been reasonably foreseeable.

A San Mateo slip and fall lawyer can evaluate a potential claim and explain whether you might be able to prevail.

Get help from an experienced slip and fall lawyer San Mateo

Proving liability in a slip and fall accident can be difficult. An experienced San Mateo slip and fall lawyer might be able to find evidence that helps to prove the liability of the property’s owner or operator so that you can recover compensation to pay for your losses. Contact the San Jose Personal Injury Attorneys to schedule a consultation by calling us at (408) 217-1778.