If you or someone you know has been injured in a slip and fall case, establishing responsibility can be tricky. An experienced Indiana injury lawyer can help you understand who can be held liable, which is crucial to building your case and getting the compensation you deserve.
Along with the initial steps of seeking medical attention and gathering evidence, the question of who is responsible is one of the primary things a slip and fall victim needs to figure out. This blog serves as a brief guide to determining liability in a slip and fall case.
The Legal Responsibilities of Managers and Property Owners
To hold a business or property owner responsible for your slip and fall injury, you need to establish that they owed you a duty of care. In the State of Indiana, property owners are legally obligated to maintain a safe environment for visitors.
Owners and managers owe the highest duty of care to invitees. These are people who are actively encouraged to be on someone else’s property, especially for the owner’s benefit.
Where an owner is inviting others onto their property, the owner is obliged to keep up with the following:
- Regular inspections: Someone needs to be on the lookout for potential physical hazards, like wet floors, slippery surfaces, and broken stairs.
- Warning signs: When the owner or manager becomes aware of a danger on the property, they are required to alert visitors—especially invitees—to the problem area.
- Timely repairs: It’s not enough to note that a hazard exists; there’s also an obligation to promptly address the situation.
- Clean and safe environment: Owners or managers are expected to maintain a clean environment, free of debris.
When Property Owners Fall Short
Once you’ve established that you had a right to be where you were and the property owner owed you a duty of care, you need to show that they failed in their duty to keep you safe. Here are some of the ways that property owners can breach their duty of care:
- Neglecting regular inspections: The owner or manager can’t claim ignorance of an issue if they never bothered to look.
- Failure to warn: The owner or manager who knows about a hazard can’t keep it a secret.
- Putting off repairs: Knowing about a safety hazard and declining to fix it is also a violation of the duty of care.
- Lack of cleanliness: A property that isn’t well-maintained is at an increased risk for various types of personal injury incidents.
Establishing a Direct Causal Link to Your Injuries
For a property owner to be held liable, your injuries must have been a foreseeable consequence of their negligence. In order to build a solid case, you need to prove that their actions or inactions directly caused the injury.
For example, let’s say a refrigerator leak results in a wet spot on the floor. If the owner or manager doesn’t do anything about it, and you slip and fall in the puddle, that’s a direct causal link between negligence and injury.
If, on the other hand, the refrigerator leak is on the west side of the building, and you fall down way over on the east side of the building, that’s probably not a direct causal connection—or at least, it will be a lot harder to prove.
Demonstrating the Severity of the Injury and Its Impact on Your Life
The final element of a slip and fall case is damages. This means you’re asking the court to order that specific actions be taken to compensate you and make you whole. In personal injury cases, damages almost always come down to a dollar amount and can include:
- medical expenses;
- lost wages;
- pain and suffering; and
- emotional distress.
The amount of damages you can claim often depends on the severity of your injuries. A broken bone requires more extensive medical treatment than a deep bruise. Higher medical bills tend to lead to greater damages awards. The best way to create evidence of what damages are owed to you is to seek treatment, follow the doctor’s advice, and keep track of your medical bills.
Regardless of the specific details, any personal injury claim that’s based in someone else’s negligence is required to prove:
- duty;
- breach;
- causation; and
- damages.
Make the Right Call
If you or someone you know has been involved in a slip and fall, it’s crucial to contact an experienced Indiana injury lawyer. Understanding your rights and responsibilities is the initial step towards seeking justice in slip and fall cases.
The experienced Indiana injury attorneys at the Marc Lopez Law Firm love a good challenge. If you’ve suffered a slip and fall injury in Indiana, give us a call at 317-632-3642 for a free consultation. Let us turn your frustration into compensation.
