Slip & fall Attorney New York - New Jersey
NY & NJ Slip and Fall Lawyer Consultaton via Email or phone:(877) 965-3237The term "Slip and fall" refers to a personal injury lawsuit which arises out of an accident whereby a person slips or trips and falls, and is injured on someone else's property. These lawsuits fall under the larger category of lawsuits which attorneys referred to as "premises liability" claims. The reason for this, we will see below. Namely, because slip and fall accidents very often happen on somebody else's property (or "premises"). The defendant in the lawsuit is the owner of the property, because the owner is responsible to maintain his property safe way to minimize the risk of injury.
Often times, dangerous conditions can take the form of a wet floor, loose carpeting, uneven steps, poor lighting, broken steps… All of these dangerous conditions can cause a person to slip and fall and hurt themselves. Sometimes the slip and falls caused by failure to maintain the property by cleaning snow or ice court rubbish off of the premises.
There is no exact legal formula to determine whether someone else is legally responsible for slip and fall injury. Every case depends on a general theory of reasonableness. Namely: did the property owner act reasonable and careful so that to prevent an accident from happening often times your recovery can be offset by your own negligence. For example granted that the property owner did not do anything to remove the ice from the walkway, but the fact that you are running and talking on your cell phone at the same time would also be a factor causing the injury and with us deduct from your recovery.
In general a person who is injured as a result of slip and fall and on someone else's property, must establish that there existed on the property a dangerous condition which caused the accident and, that the owner or possessor of the property knew of the dangerous condition and did not do anything about it, or acted insufficiently in regards to fixing the problem. Of course, property owners are not liable for all accidents on the property. If for example a person acts recklessly on somebody else's property and he hurts himself as a result of his reckless behavior, then the property owner would not be liable. For example, somebody foolishly decides to go down the stairwell three steps at a time; or, a person trespasses on a property in the property owner doesn't know about it, in such a case his recovery may also be reduced or totally eliminated.
In order to win a case of slip and fall, usually the attorney has to show that the owner or the possessor of the property created a dangerous condition that caused the accident, and that the owner or possessor of the property knew about the condition and negligently failed to correct it, or that the condition existed long enough for the owner or possessor to a reasonably been able to discover and correct the dangerous condition which causes slip and fall in New York and New Jersey. In addition, for the property owner or possessor to be liable in court, the finder of fact whether the jury or judge must find that the negligent behavior of the property owner or possessor was likely or foreseeably possible to cause the injury. For example, if an ice cream store owner notices spilled ice cream on the linoleum, and he does not clean it up, then his negligence could foreseeably cause somebody to slip and fall and thus, you would most likely be liable for injuries caused by slipping on the melted ice cream in New York and New Jersey.
Sometimes, the injured party this fall accident can establish the negligence of the property owner or possessor by showing that they violated safety law. For example if there is a building code in place which mandates the placement of non-slip tape on the edges of steps or handrail going up a ramp, and the fact that the property owner or possessor failed to follow the local state or federal statute regarding the safety precautions required, that would establish that the owner or possessor (landlord) was not exercising a dual level of care and maintaining of the property.
Obviously, in order to recover money first of all accidents which causes injury, the lawyer must establish who was responsible for the negligent behavior which caused the accident. As we mentioned above, if the person using the property is acting in that irresponsible manner, then they may not recover any money in New York in New Jersey courts.
Special rules often applied on commercial properties. For example, to be legally obligated for somebody's injuries, the restaurant owner or store owner etc. must've either caused dangerous condition such as the wet floor, or known about. Often times there are many layers of ownership and responsibility over a property. For example there is a property owner, there is the building possessor, and possibly the tenant, all of whom could be liable in a slip and fall case in New York and New Jersey.
With regards to residential property , landlords may be held liable to legal tenants or guests were visiting those tenants who are injured on rental properties. In general, in order to hold landlord responsible for an injury on the premises, a tenant must show that the landlord in question had in fact control over the thing that cause the slip and fall of accident, that repairing the dangerous condition would not have been unduly expensive or difficult, and that it was foreseeable that a serious injury could be cause by not fixing the danger, and that the landlord's failure to act reasonably to avoid the tenants injury was the actual cause of the slip and fall injury.
With regards to an accident on government owned property, special rules also apply. For example, there are very strict notice requirements and filing requirements; in other words action must be taken right away to preserve rights because statutes often limit the time that the plaintiff has and filing a suit against the state local or federal body.
NY & NJ Slip and Fall Lawyer Consultaton via Email or phone:(877) 965-3237