Premises Liability

Slip and fall injuries can be life changing. The Law Offices of Jeremy Flachs has represented many personal injury claimants who suffered fractures, head injuries, and neck, back and limb injuries after falling. Damages and compensation include reimbursement of medical bills and lost earnings, compensation for pain and anguish, and payment for future medical bills and permanent injuries. Slip and fall claims can be difficult. The law requires the plaintiff to establish exactly what the defendant did wrong to cause the fall. The law also requires that the evidence produced by the plaintiff establish that the defendant did or should have had time to fix the problem, such as cleaning up a spill. The act of slipping and falling, without more, will rarely be enough to establish liability. These claims are also vigorously defended, and therefor expensive to take to court. The negligence of the other party must have caused a serious personal injury with medical expenses and pain and suffering which can be documented. Such claims include slipping on a material which is deemed too dangerous for a walking surface, or falling in a poorly lit parking lot or stairwell, slipping on ice which formed from water leaking from a pipe or gutter, or from the failure to clean ice and snow from a sidewalk or parking lot after the storm has stopped. But many of these claims will require retaining one or more experts to establish how the defendant could and should have performed its responsibilities in a safe and prudent manner. Even a slip and fall on a grape or spilled liquid in a grocery store is fraught with landmines. There must be evidence of when the grape or substance ended up on the floor. That evidence, establishing the fault of the property owner, can be direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is finding someone who saw it happen, or an employee admitting the hazard was noticed and should have been cleaned up. The evidence can also be indirect or circumstantial, such as evidence the substance was partially dried out, allowing for the inference it had been on the floor for a long enough time to establish liability.