Although a slip and fall accident might not sound very serious, it can lead to severe injuries and significant damages for injured victims. A lawyer can help you hold the owner of the unsafe premises liable for their negligence.
Uncleaned spills, unsafe conditions, or damaged property are common culprits in slip and fall injury cases. The person who owns the property is often liable for the accident because they are responsible for maintaining the premises. A property owner has a legal obligation to make their property safe for guests, and they might be liable if a guest is injured because of hazardous conditions. Much important evidence might come from the premises where your slip and fall happened. Photos and witnesses from the scene are crucial to your case, as are your medical records. Your case may include damages for economic losses and non-economic injuries, both of which might be significant.
Slip and fall injuries are often far more devastating than people think, and injured victims deserve justice. Call our Tennessee slip and fall injury lawyers for help with your case. Call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357 for help.
How Slip and Fall Injuries Can Happen in Tennessee
It can be easy to shrug off a slip and fall accident as a result of one’s own clumsiness. In reality, many such accidents are caused by unsafe property conditions and the property owner’s failure to maintain the premises. One common reason for many slip and fall injuries is uncleaned spills or slick surfaces. For example, a plaintiff out to dinner might slip and fall in a spilled drink that restaurant staff did not clean up. Alternatively, a floor might be slick because it was cleaned, and nobody placed a wet floor sign warning people.
Many other injuries stem from hazards on the premises that have not been removed. For example, suppose a neighbor’s dog digs holes in the backyard that the neighbor does not bother to fill in. Next, suppose the neighbor invites guests over for a backyard barbeque, and one guest trips in one of the holes and breaks their ankle. In that case, the neighbor might be liable for their guest’s injury because they failed to make the backyard safe.
Other possible causes of slip and fall injuries include rickety stairs, uneven floors, mess or debris on the floor, and many other unsafe conditions. If you are unsure whether you have a strong case, talk to our Tennessee slip and fall injury lawyers about what happened.
Determining Who is Liable for Slip and Fall Injuries in Tennessee
In many slip and fall injury lawsuits, the owner of the property where the accident occurred is the liable party. Property owners can be held liable under premises liability laws. These laws impose a strict duty of care on property owners to maintain properties and ensure they are safe for others. Our Tennessee slip and fall injury attorneys can help you identify the owner of the property where your accident happened so you can get fair compensation.
Property owners owe a legal duty of care to guests to repair known damages and remove known hazards from their property. For example, before inviting guests over, a homeowner should make sure there are no hazards or defects that might cause someone to slip and fall. This means cleaning up spills, repairing defects, or warning guests to stay away from unsafe areas.
Property owners also must make reasonable inspections for unknown hazards or damages. An inspection need not be exhaustive but only reasonable. For example, routine inspections of things like plumbing and water system help property owners prevent leaks and spills that could cause guests to slip and fall. Our Tennessee slip and fall injury lawyers can check things like inspection records to determine if there was a failure to maintain the property.
Property owners owe this duty of care to invited and uninvited guests. Uninvited guests are covered if the property owner should reasonably expect them. For example, a mail carrier leaving a package on the front step is owed a duty of care even if the property owner does not explicitly invite them. Unknown trespassers are typically not owed any duty of care and cannot claim damages after an accident.
How to Find Evidence in a Tennessee Slip and Fall Case
Evidence is often very difficult to find if plaintiffs do not act quickly. Much evidence can be found at the scene of the accident, but property owners often clear away these scenes shortly after the accident. One way to preserve details from the accident scene is to take pictures immediately after your fall. Pictures help preserve details that might otherwise be lost when the area is cleaned up. In some cases, pictures from the accident are the only evidence that the unsafe conditions on the premises ever existed.
Witness testimony is also extremely important. Many slip and fall cases happen when other people are around. For example, if you slipped and fell at a party or in a busy store or restaurant, we can contact people who saw the accident and ask them to testify in court. Witness testimony can be very persuasive, especially if multiple witnesses back up your version of events. Our Tennessee slip and fall injury attorneys know how to find witnesses and ask them about what they saw.
We should also present your medical records as evidence of your injuries. People sometimes disregard slip and fall injuries, and a jury might have unfavorable assumptions about plaintiffs in these cases. Your medical records can help show a jury that your injuries were very real and very serious. If necessary, we can even have a doctor testify as an expert and explain the extent of your injuries.
Call Our Tennessee Slip and Fall Injury Lawyer for Help Now
Slip and fall accidents can happen almost anywhere, and any number of hazards or defects might cause someone to slip. Our Tennessee slip and fall injury lawyers are here to help you if you were injured because someone failed to maintain their property. For a free evaluation of your case, call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357 for help.
