By: Darrell Castle
The owner could’ve prevented your slip and fall.
At least that’s the mindset you should have if you’re injured in a slip and fall accident on someone else’s property.
Is that always true? No, of course not. But you should be looking to prove that it is by contacting an attorney and getting a case evaluation.
That mindset is also important because the first thing you should do when you’re injured in a slip and fall on someone’s property is report the incident to the owner. He or she needs to know what happened. This is simple protocol.
In that regard, what you should NOT do is make ANY recorded statement without an attorney present. That has overwhelming potential to ruin any case you may bring forth against the store owner for your injury.
How do you go about proving the owner was at fault for your accident?
I’ll answer that question with a case we had in our office a while back ago.
A lady – we’ll call her Jennifer for the sake of confidentiality – was at a restaurant (and we’ll withhold the restaurant name as well) at lunch time and the lobby area trashcan was overflowing with trash.
With it being lunch time and the staff dealing with the rush, no one took the time to empty the trashcan. This posed a problem when syrup leaked out onto the floor from one of the soda containers in the trashcan.
Jennifer then slipped and fell on the mess, resulting in a pretty serious injury.
She came to us and we took the case.
When the restaurant denied they were at fault, claiming the incident happened during the busy lunch rush hour and customers were overflowing the trashcan, we sued and acquired their records of maintenance.
And what did we find?
The restaraunt’s standard of procedures demands employees to empty the trashcans EVERY HOUR. They had not followed through on that requirement – their own requirement I remind you – at the time of Jennifer’s slip and fall.
In the end, we won the case and Jennifer received the compensation she deserved to help her with the medical bills, lost wages from time off work as well as pain and suffering.
Whether you’re in a grocery store, a bank, the mall or a gas station, what these cases boil down to is – did the owner or manager have a reasonable amount of time to clean the mess up?
If you’re walking in the fruit section of Kroger and the shopper in front of you drops a grape, then you slip on it 5 seconds later. Did the store owner have a reasonable amount of time to clean that up? No. The store owner probably wouldn’t be at fault.
But if a shopper dropped that grape an HOUR prior to you slipping and falling on it, then did the store owner have proper time to clean it up? Perhaps so.
If you find yourself in this situation, you need to contact an experienced attorney. You need someone who knows the law and knows how to investigate these cases. You need someone with a history of success in slip and fall accidents – someone you can trust.
Darrell Castle & Associates has handled slip and fall cases of all shapes and sizes and we’ve gotten pretty good at them. We’ve received multiple Client Distinction Awards from Martindale-Hubbel for client satisfaction along the way, so I guarantee you that you’re in good hands here.
Call (901) 327-1212 today for a FREE case evaluation. Or, you can fill out one of the contact forms on this page (there’s one on the right and bottom) and someone from our office will contact YOU!
If you’re not at fault for your injuries, you shouldn’t be held liable for your medical bills and lost wages from time off work. Let us help you get compensation from the folks who hold the liability. Don’t worry, they have insurance for it.