When you enter public premises such as a restaurant, grocery store, hotel, or another business, you are owed a duty of care. The owner of the building has a legal duty to take precautions to ensure you and other guests are safe. If the owner fails to clean puddles or other slippery surfaces, or fails to repair holes or uneven surfaces and a visitor falls, the accident victim may have a claim against the owner of the property.
In many slip and fall accident cases, the case hinges on whether or not the property owner knew or should have known of the dangerous condition on the property. Owners of property open to the public have a duty to keep their visitors safe, but they also are not absolute insurers of their visitors’ safety.
In many cases the liability hinges on whether the property owner acted reasonably. If, for example, a guest on the property slips and falls in a spill that had been on the floor for two hours, the property owner is most likely liable for failing to clean it up. However, if one customer spilled a substance and another slipped two minutes later, the property owner may not have been liable, since such a short time elapsed between the time of the spill and the fall. Slip and fall cases can be very fact-dependent.
In most slip and fall cases, the accident victim should have an attorney, particularly if there are significant medical expenses. An attorney can help prove your case by obtaining surveillance videos, speaking with eyewitnesses, negotiating with insurance companies, and more. If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident in a public business, call me, Conal Doyle, Los Angeles personal injury attorney at 310-385-0567. We can help. Call to schedule your free consultation.