SLIP, TRIP AND FALL

With Spring right around the corner, people are getting back into their fitness routines, enjoying the outdoors more, and with surfaces often slick and wet from spring precipitation, slipping and falling more. "Slip and fall" is a term used for a personal injury case in which a person slips or trips and is injured on someone else's property. These cases usually fall under the broader category of cases known as "premises liability" claims. By far the most common cause of slip and fall accidents globally is due to wet and uneven surfaces. In this country, they account for 55% of all of these types of accidents.

Places where falls are likely include:

Slippery floors due to wetness from spills or tracked in rain, mud, snow, sleet, etc., or naturally slick surfaces like stone or glass

SLIP AND FALL INJURIES

Falls account for over 8 million hospital emergency room visits, representing the leading cause of visits (21.3%). Slips and falls account for over 1 million visits, or 12% of total falls. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), floors and flooring materials contribute directly to more than 2 million fall injuries each year. Fractures are the most serious consequences of falls and occur in 5% of all people who fall.

Slip and fall accidents cause many types of injuries including:

LIABILITY IN SLIP AND FALL CASES

Proving liability in slip, trip and fall cases involves first and foremost determining the legal status of the claimant when they entered the property on which they were injured. There are three legal statuses—invitee, licensee, and trespasser—and a different duty of care is owed by the property owner or manager based on the status of the person. Generally, a property owner has a duty to exercise ordinary care of his premises towards invitees—people on the property for the benefit of the owner, such as customers at a business. The duty of care owed to licensees is somewhat less, but a property owner is still required to avoid conditions on his property that would cause harm. An example of a licensee is a friend or family member visiting your home, and therefore invited onto the property but there for their own benefit. With respect to trespassers, a property owner simply owes a duty of care to not negligently or recklessly cause them harm; trespassers do not have permission to be on the property and therefore the duty of care owed is minimal.

Georgia has a modified comparative negligence system; i.e. a claimant can only recover damages if he/she was less than 50% at fault for their injury. A property owner must have actual or constructive knowledge of the hazardous condition on the property, and the condition cannot be in plain sight such that a reasonable person would have seen the hazard (the plain view doctrine).

WHAT TO DO IF INJURED IN A SLIP AND FALL ACCIDENT

Five steps to take if in a slip, trip and fall accident: