Slip and fall, or premises injury cases, can be a very difficult area of law. Whenever a slip and fall injury occurs, the establishment will usually go on the defensive. They will seek to point the finger at the injured party. There are several complications that can arise in such a case: the main ones being liability and injury.
First, before a company will accept that you were injured, we will need to make sure they are taking responsibility for how you were injured. Many people will immediately assume that there is constant video surveillance footage and that their injury must have been caught on tape. This is not always the case. Until you have actually filed a lawsuit, you have no legal right to that footage. Additionally, unless you put the company on notice that they cannot destroy that footage, it may not be available at a later date. If there is no video footage of your fall, there are other things we can look for such as store sweep logs and reports of water leaks. We can make sure that the proper steps are taken so that your evidence is preserved.
We will need to determine who is responsible for the cause of your slip and fall. If another patron spilled a drink it can still be the duty of the establishment to make sure their floors are clean. An establishment can also be held responsible for failing to notify you of an issue by placing signs when they are aware of a problem, or have recently cleaned the floors.
It is a fact of life that those most likely to lose their balance, slip and fall, are those that already predisposed to those types of injuries. As a result, most slip and fall cases result in the opposing counsel digging into your past history and attempting to relate even the most minuscule problem as a prior condition. We want to fight to make sure your injuries are given fair consideration.