Proving slip and fall accidents were the fault of a second party is something you may have to do in order to make a successful claim with your attorney. It’s not uncommon to see a person slip and fall on ice or snow, get hurt due to rising water or trip over dangerous pathways in yards, but the fact is that the person responsible for that walkway should have cleaned the path and made it safe for you.
Whether it’s ice, snow, water or other substances that you slip on or trip over, you can make a claim if you can prove there was negligence leading up to the accident. For instance, can you show that the property owner knew the area was dangerous but failed to act on those dangers? A good example may be if a walkway has been covered in ice or water for several days with multiple complaints. If you can prove, with either images or witnesses, that the path was dangerous and that the owner knew about it, then you may be able to make a successful claim.
It’s a property owner’s responsibility to maintain reasonably safe conditions on his or her property. If he or she fails to do this, then it opens him or her up for lawsuits if someone gets hurt. Of course, many different factors weigh into a claim. Were you meant to be there? Why were you on the property?
If you were invited onto the property or had been there legally due to delivering mail or other information to the homeowner, then the owner should have been prepared for you to come onto the property and should have made the conditions safe. If you weren’t meant to be there, you can still claim, but it may be harder to win your case.
Source: FindLaw, “Proving Fault in Slip and Fall Accidents,” accessed Jan. 27, 2016
