1 – Obtain Visual Evidence

Common causes of slip and fall accidents include broken and defective walkways, collisions with shopping carts, ice and snow, loose cords and wires, spills of liquids, including water and uneven surfaces. No matter how your slip and fall accident occurred, it is absolutely critical to keep any evidence about how the accident happened. If it is safe and possible to do so, you should also take photographs or video of the location where the accident occurred. A picture is worth a thousand words and can be worth many thousands of dollars.

2 – Notify The Owner or Manager

A retail store might be found to have breached its duty to maintain a safe condition when the store creates a hazard or fails to correct an existing hazard. Conversely, a store might fail to remedy a hazard if another party spills a liquid and creates a risk of a slip and fall accident. To document the failure, you should make sure that the store logs a report that the accident occurred. Request a copy, or have a witness or nearby friend secure a copy. The store owner or manager may decline and unfortunately there is little recourse. This is were having a Slip and Fall injury lawyer is helpful as we can utilize powers of the court to obtain documents through Discovery.

3 – Protect Your Claim

Tennessee Code 28-3-104 states that a personal injury accident, like a slip and fall claim, must be filed within one year. This means that if a person waits longer than one year to file a claim after a slip and fall accident, they will be barred from doing so. Do not wait until the last minute to file a personal injury claim. In many cases where injured parties completely heal prior to this one year mark settlement can be your best method of recovery. Obtaining evidence and proving damages takes time. The sooner the better when it comes to retaining a slip and fall lawyer.

4 – Retain the Help of an Experienced Injury Attorney

To hold a store liable for the injuries caused by a slip and fall accident, an accident victim often must establish several critical elements, which include that a dangerous condition existed in the store, that the store was aware or should have known of the condition’s existence, that the store failed to remedy the condition within a reasonable period of time, and that the condition was the direct cause of the accident victim’s injuries. This is not easy or simple.

The most difficult of these elements to establish are that a store had knowledge of a condition as well as that an unreasonable amount of time elapsed before the store performed actions to clean up the spill. To make certain that each of these elements is successfully established, it is often a wise idea to obtain the assistance of an experienced accident attorney.

If you live in Tennessee and are harmed in a slip and fall accident call George Angelopoulos at 615-422-7171. He has substantial experience helping people harmed because of the negligence of others. We hold them accountable. Consultations are free and no fee unless we win. Our office is located in Franklin, TN and we accept slip and fall injury cases in Nashville and surrounding Middle Tennessee cities.

The post How to Win a Slip and Fall Case appeared first on 615 Lawyer.

Invitees

‘Invitees’ are visitors entering a property for a business purpose, such as customers in a grocery store or guests in a restaurant. Visitors who have a purpose to benefit the landowner are owed the highest duty of care. People or entities opening their property for business purposes must keep their premises free from dangers and make regular inspections for hazardous conditions. They also must warn invitees of any dangerous conditions. Not to be discussed further in this article, but Invitees can transform into trespassers if the business guest enters restricted areas of the establishment. Further, the landowner has to either cause the dangerous condition or be aware of the situation for liability to attach.

Licensees

‘Licensees’ are often defined as social guests and are owed a slightly lower degree of care than invitees. This makes sense because the visitor is not there solely for the benefit of the property owner. However, the landowner must warn licensees of any dangers on the premises and as in all personal injury cases the harm must be foreseeable. This would include warning guests of broken chairs, irregular flooring or missing safety devices who sustain a personal injury.

Trespassers

‘Trespasser’ means a person who enters or remains on the real property of another without actual or implied permission, or a person who engages in conduct that constitutes a criminal trespass offense (T.C.A. 29-34-208) Generally a possessor of real property owes no duty of care to a trespasser except to refrain from willfully, with negligence so gross as to amount to willfully, intentionally, or wantonly causing injury. Tennessee is one of many states that impose a very high threshold for trespassers to recover compensation for injuries sustained on the property. Some are surprised that any liability can occur by someone who is not authorized to visit the property. Basically a land owner would need to intentionally inflict injury or be so grossly reckless that the conduct is deemed intentional in nature.

Premises liability cases can arise from the failure to provide proper security measures. If a property owner’s negligence results in a third-party attack on a visitor, they can be held responsible. This commonly occurs in apartment buildings, where broken doors and windows may allow criminals to gain access or in high crime areas after minimal, if any, security measures have been implemented to protect visitors.

Franklin Slip and Fall Attorney George Angelopoulos takes pride in holding property owners accountable for their action or inaction. Recovering financial compensation and obtaining medical care needed to heal personal injuries are the priorities.

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