Slip and Fall - Personal Injury Law Firm

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Slip and Fall Attorneys

Slip and fall describes personal injury cases in which a person slips or trips and falls, and is injured on someone else's property. These cases usually come under the broader category of premises liability claims. Dangerous conditions such as torn carpeting, changes in flooring, poor lighting, narrow stairs, or a wet floor inside a building can cause someone to slip and hurt him or herself. Other instances of slip and fall incidents can occur when people trip on broken or cracked public sidewalks or trip and fall on stairs. In addition, a slip and fall case might arise when someone slips or trips and falls because of rain, ice, snow, or a hidden hazard, such as leaves covering a pothole on a sidewalk.

Proving Fault in Slip and Fall Cases

There is no precise way to determine when someone else is legally responsible for your injuries if you slip or trip. Each case turns on whether the property owner acted carefully so that slipping or tripping was not likely to happen, and whether you were careless in not seeing or avoiding the condition that caused your fall.

In most cases, a person injured in a slip and fall on someone else's property must prove that a dangerous condition caused their injuries and that the owner or possessor of the property knew or should have known of the dangerous condition. To establish that a property owner or possessor knew of a dangerous condition one of the following must be demonstrated:

The owner/possessor created the condition
The owner/possessor knew the condition existed and negligently failed to correct it
The condition existed for long enough that the owner/possessor should have discovered and corrected it prior to the slip and fall incident.

A dangerous condition must present an unreasonable risk to a person on the property and it must have been a condition that the injured party should not have anticipated under the circumstances. This latter requirement implies that people must be aware of, and avoid, obvious dangers.

Occasionally, a plaintiff can prove negligence by showing that the property owner violated a relevant statute. For example, building codes often dictate when and where handrails and other similar features must be installed. If you fall on a stairway that lacked appropriate handrails and the lack of the handrail caused your injuries, you may have a valid claim against the building owner based on a building code violation.

Responsible Parties

To be financially compensated for a slip and fall injury sustained on another's property, there must be a responsible party whose negligence caused the injury. This sounds obvious, but many people do not realize that some injuries are simply accidents caused by their own carelessness. For instance, if you fall simply because of not looking where you were walking, you cannot recover against the property owner, no matter how serious the injury. When an injured person is only partially at fault for his/her own injury, he/she might still be able to recover from another, but the dollar amount of his recovery might be reduced.

Commercial Property

In slip and fall cases on commercial property, there are often a number of people or entities that may be held responsible for someone's injuries such as when a business rents space from a property owner. In this case, both the property owner and the tenant (the business) may be named as defendants by someone injured on the property. The tenant is known as a possessor of the property and has a duty to use reasonable care to prevent injury to those on the premises under its control. A possessor might also be a party who manages or maintains the property, such as a management company. In residential settings, landlords may be held liable to tenants or third parties for slip and fall injuries on rental property.

Government Property

When a slip and fall injury occurs on property owned by a local, state, or federal government entity, special rules apply. Specifically, there are very stringent notice requirements and broad immunity provisions that sometimes shield government entities from liability for injuries that occur on their property. Our attorneys are well-versed in liability of government parties.

Getting Help for Slip and Fall Injuries

If you have been injured by a fall which occurred on someone else's property and are considering a legal claim against those who were at fault, you should discuss your potential case with an experienced attorney as quickly as possible - especially because there are time limits in which injured persons may file a personal injury lawsuit.