Slip and Fall Accident

Proving liability in a slip and fall claim can be challenging and time consuming. A personal injury lawyer gathers evidence and interviews key witnesses to build a case. They handle pre-trial litigation and go to trial if necessary. In most cases, hiring an injury attorney will yield better results, even for seemingly minor claims. The best part is that personal injury lawyers in WA State work on a contingency fee basis, which means that you pay a percentage of your settlement and no out-of-pocket costs.

There are no upfront costs or fees paid by our clients to pursue a medical malpractice claim as we provide representation on a contingency fee basis for personal injury cases. While you will not incur any attorney fees if you do not win your case, Washington law requires clients to reimburse the law firm for out-of-pocket expenses.

Our firm advances out-of-pocket costs for our injury clients and does not require our clients to pay any of these costs up front. When cases are concluded with a monetary recovery, our firm is repaid for the out-of-pocket costs we have advanced with a percentage of the settlement.

Like in other personal injury cases, slip and fall injury damages include pain and suffering, lost wages, emotional trauma, medical expenses, rehabilitation and other economic and non-economic damages, depending on the circumstances.

Social host liability allows social guests to recover damages from their hosts depending on how the injuries occurred. A homeowner or social host has a duty to repair any unsafe situations on their property or to warn guests about dangerous conditions. In cases where the danger was blatantly obvious or there was a fence or sign trying to keep guests out, it could be extremely difficult for a plaintiff to recover.

Like with social hosts, organizations or businesses have an obligation to keep their spaces free of hazards, fix hazards in a timely manner and to warn patrons about hazards before they are fixed. For example, if a person slips and falls on a wet floor that had no “wet floor” sign present then they may be able to bring a slip and fall claim to recover damages.

Note that business owners are not generally required by law to remove snow or ice that has accumulated outside of their building but if they choose to do so they must handle the task with reasonable care.

While the city does have a duty to keep their roads and walkways in reasonable repair, it can be tricky to sue a government entity for personal injury. Often there are strict deadlines and requirements; it is best to seek the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer who understands the slip and fall laws in your city and state.

To succeed in a slip and fall claim, an injured person generally must establish that the property owner or another responsible party failed to exercise reasonable care and that this failure caused the injury. This may involve proving that the property owner knew or should have known about a dangerous condition and failed to reasonably correct it or warn visitors about it. For example, if an employee tells a business owner about a spill and the owner fails to have it cleaned up or warn customers, that may support a claim for negligence.

In some cases, evidence that a property owner violated a building code, safety regulation, or other applicable law may also help establish negligence. For example, if a required deck railing is too short and its failure contributes to a person’s fall, the violation may be relevant to determining whether the property owner was negligent. Ultimately, the specific facts and evidence in each case determine whether the legal requirements for a successful slip and fall claim have been met.

In most cases the law will say a property owner “should have known” about a dangerous condition when it existed for a certain amount of time; it says that a reasonably careful person, under similar circumstances, would have discovered it. For example, if a floor tile has been loose and protruding for months and a person slips and falls on that loose tile then a case could be made that a reasonable business owner or employee would have discovered and fixed the hazard in that amount of time.

Depending on the circumstances, several different individuals or organizations may potentially be held liable for a slip and fall injury, including:

• Homeowner or property owner
• Business owner or tenant
• Building owner
• Property manager or property management company
• Landlord
• Contractor or maintenance company
• Government entity or public agency