There is a saying that accidents just happen sometimes, and the reason people call them accidents is that no one person had control over the situation. However, many scenarios that people refer to as accidents are actually the result of either negligence or misconduct.
Your right to bring a personal injury claim or request compensation from an insurance company depends on establishing that someone else was negligent or engaged in wrongful behavior prior to your injury or loss. When it comes to a slip-and-fall situation, it is typically negligence that will give you the right to bring a claim against a business or property owner.
How do you prove negligence was the reason that you fell on someone else’s property?
When the facilities are unsafe or unclean
There are reasonable standards of cleanliness that every property owner should adhere to if they want to avoid premises liability claims. For example, keeping the floors clean and dry inside a store is of the utmost importance for reducing slip-and-fall risk.
Additionally, landlords maintaining multi-story apartment buildings and businesses in second-story spaces need to pay close attention to stair maintenance. From lighting and handrails to flooring, there are many aspects of stair maintenance that could contribute to someone getting severely hurt.
To bring a premises liability claim because you slipped on someone else’s property and then fell, you typically need to show that the average adult would recognize that the situation was unsafe. Most people understand that crumpled rugs and standing spills are slipping or tripping hazards that could lead to serious injury. Provided that such obvious issues contributed to your injury, you may have grounds to pursue a premises liability claim in civil court.
You can document the negligence yourself
If you report a slip and fall at a store, the first thing staff members do is clean up the spill that led to your injury. You can use your mobile phone to gather evidence of unsafe conditions that led to you getting hurt before it disappears. That evidence can play a very important role in a premises liability insurance claim or civil lawsuit later.
After you capture footage with your phone of the scene of your injury, you will then want to report the matter to the business so that there are official records of your injury. Evaluating your situation for whether or not you can take legal action can help you seek justice after a slip-and-fall injury in a public place.