Assessing Legal Responsibility for a Slip and Fall Accident
If your Tampa slip and fall accident lawyer established in court, by a preponderance of evidence” that the owner of a property or their representative or staff was neglectful then it is possible to recuperate monetary reimbursement from the owner of the property. Therefore, you along with your trip and fall attorney must demonstrate a couple of things:
- the responsibility of the owner of the property
- a disregard of that responsibility of the owner of the property or by the owner’s staff:
- causation between the carelessness and personal injuries,
- your damages
Some of the things that are relevant in the above are :
“A Preponderance of Evidence”
In a slip and fall case, the courts look to a preponderance of evidence. That can be hard for a “non-attorney” to wrap their heads around. A preponderance of evidence means that a decision should be based on whoever has the more convincing evidence, and who is more credible or more accurate in the presentation of the evidence, not the sheer volume or amount of evidence. A preponderance of evidence is a less difficult standard to meet than “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
The responsibility of the owner of the property
This questions asks, did the owner of the property have a responsibility in the case. Perhaps you got hit as a pedestrian by a car in a parking lot, and there were no defects at all in the design of the parking lot – the fault was clearly the driver not paying attention. In this scenario, it would be reasonable for the courts to question if the owner of the property had responsibility for this accident. On the other hand, if the parking lot was poorly designed, had bad visibility, and flooded excessively at the smallest rain shower, and because or those reasons, there was an injury when another vehicle hit you, the responsibility of the owner of the property would be more clear-cut.
A disregard of that responsibility of the owner of the property or by the owner’s staff
While it is one thing to establish that there was a “responsibility” of the owner to take reasonable precautions to prevent slip and fall type injury, can it be proven that the owner (or their employees) disregarded that responsibility, thereby causing, or at least contributing, to the accident? For instance, there is a responsibility to warn you that tile floors are wet after they have been cleaned. Did the owner put up a “wet floor” warning sign, or did they leave you to figure it out, while you were crashing to the floor?
A causation between the carelessness and personal injuries
This ties the bow around the argument. First, establish that the owner has a responsibility, then they ignored their responsibility, finally did the fact that they ignored their responsibility to create a safe environment actually cause your injuries?
Your Damages
If the above three can be presented with a preponderance of the evidence, the next issue is “what are your damages”. Are they that you missed work, do your injuries prevent you from doing the work that you used to do, was there pain and suffering, was there an impact on your relationship with your loved ones? Without knowledge of your damages, a court cannot place a value the award for your case.
When discussing your slip and fall accident with our personal injury attorneys, be prepared to answer these basic questions, was the owner responsible, did they ignore their responsibility, and did that lead to your injuries? Finally, what are your real damages? Feel free to call our Personal Injury attorneys to discuss your case.
