If you are seeking slip and fall injury lawyers, consider a Texas personal injury attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates. Our personal injury and premises liability lawyers in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Channelview offices are experts with fall-down claims and premises liability cases.

The term "slip and fall" is used when one person, having taking reasonable care, falls on another person's property due to negligence of care on the part of the property owner or resident. These also are referred to as "trip and fall" or "fall down" claims.

A slip and fall injury can occur when a floor or walkway is wet or slick from being polished. It also can happen when carpeting is not tacked down correctly, or when floorboards are loose or warped and cause an uneven surface. Slip and fall also applies to a situation where a box or other misplaced item in a store intrudes into the walkway.

In other instances, missing handrails along steps or stairs, poor visibility due to inadequate lighting and unidentified changes in floor height can be causes for trip and fall accidents.

Injuries sustained from such accidents range from a twisted ankle to broken bones or, in some cases, permanent disabilities.

Slip and Fall

A "slip and fall" or "trip and fall" is the generic term for an injury which occurs when someone slips, trips or falls as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else's property. It includes falls as a result of water, ice or snow, as well as abrupt changes in flooring, poor lighting or a hidden hazard, such as a gap or hard to see hole in the ground. If you are on someone else's property and injure yourself as a result of a dangerous condition on the property, the land owner or business proprietor may be liable for your injuries. If you are a property owner and someone injures himself or herself on your land, you may find yourself legally responsible for his or her injuries

Slip and Fall Injury and Premises Liability

Slip and falls, a sticky area of personal injury, causes thousands of injuries a year, some of which are quite serious. One misstep on a slippery floor or broken step can land an unassuming victim in a wheelchair, while a stumble over a manhole cover can cause anything from a broken leg to a permanent spinal cord injury. While many agree that these and similar slip and fall accidents are perilous, the line gets fuzzy when determining who is at fault. If you slip and fall on someone else's property, is that person automatically liable for your injuries, even if you were forewarned of potential dangers? Read on to find out.

First, understand that premises liability is the law that governs slip and fall accidents and determines who is at fault for them. Premises liability laws vary from state to state and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Next, realize that there is no cut-and-dry way to determine fault in a slip and fall accident . Every premises liability case is evaluated on an individual basis and considers whether or not the property owner took precautions to make the area safe, as well as whether or not the owner - or the victim - were careless, thereby contributing to the slip and fall accident. For example, a restaurateur is not necessarily liable should you fall on a wet floor in the restroom if the area was clearly marked with a yellow "caution" sign. Below, you'll find out more about the general rules surrounding slip and fall personal injury accidents.

Is the Property Owner Liable for Your Slip and Fall Accident?

That depends. A victim would have to prove the following in order to hold the property owner responsible and have a premises liability case:

That the property owner caused the unsafe condition and the subsequent slip and fall accident (by spilling something and not cleaning it up, by digging a hard-to-spot hole in a heavily trafficked area, etc.)
That the property owner knew about the condition but did not try to correct it (by not posting a sign on uneven ground, etc.)
That the property owner should have known about the danger, because a "reasonable" person would have found the problem and taken steps to prevent injuries caused by the slip and fall accident (This is the most common situation, as it is not clearly defined and is determined based on common sense)

Jim S. Adler & Associates - Defining the "Reasonable" Person

When determining if a property owner's actions were, in fact, reasonable, the court must consider how long the unsafe condition that contributed to the slip and fall accident existed and whether the owner had time to discover and ultimately fix the problem. It also must consider whether the steps taken were appropriate or reasonable and whether the carelessness of the victim contributed to the slip and fall injury.

Be aware, though, that the reasonable person standard applies not only to the property owner, but also to the victim. If the victim was somewhere he or she should not have been or was engaged in an inappropriate activity, the property owner may be absolved of any responsibility/premises liability. (For example, if you wander off marked paths or skateboard down stairs, you may bear responsibility for your own slip and fall accidents.) Likewise, if a reasonable person would have seen a spill, hole or other problem and been able to avoid it, the victim's own carelessness and not the property owner's negligence may be at fault.

Questions to Ask Yourself in Determining Fault in a Slip and Fall Accident

To help determine who is to blame for your slip and fall injury, try asking yourself the following questions:

If you slipped on a spill in a mall, had it been there long enough that the property owner should have been aware of it?
Has the property owner instated a standard cleaning/maintenance schedule for the premises and, if so, can he offer proof?
If you tripped over a stack of boxes beside a shelf in a grocery store, was there a good reason for them to have been there? Could they have been safely and conveniently placed elsewhere?
Is there a safe place that the boxes could have been placed, or could the slip and fall accident have been prevented had there been a proper barrier or warning sign?
Was the slip and fall accident caused, at least in part, by poor or dim lighting?
Did you have a valid excuse for being at the site of the slip and fall accident?
Were you paying full attention at the time of the slip and fall accident?
Was the area properly labeled?
Would a reasonable person have been able to avoid the slip and fall accident?

Of course, only a qualified personal injury lawyer who specializes in premises liability can truly help you determine if you have a case.

Special Situations

There are some exceptions to general slip and fall and premises liability cases. They include:

Trespassers

Property owners are not necessarily subject to premises liability laws when it comes to injuries incurred by trespassers on their property. This is also true of burglars and other uninvited guests.

Children

Children are an exception to the trespassing rule because the law acknowledges that children often do not perceive danger as well as adults. A property owner must take steps to ensure the safety of children who play in the area, even if they are not supposed to be there.

Jim S. Adler & Associates - Workplace Accidents

Currently, there are workers' compensation laws in place that hold employers strictly liable for most on-the-job injuries that their employees suffer, including those resulting from slip and fall accidents. However, the amount of damages that the injured can collect is limited.

Government property

In cases of government property, such as public parks, the federal or state government may bear legal responsibility for personal injuries incurred on the premises . Slip and fall/premises liability cases against the government are covered by either the Federal Tort Claims Act or similar state tort claims acts. Cases must be brought within a certain time limit.

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