Fall Down Cases Can Hurt
Posted by
Ken MargolinJanuary 09, 2007 8:40 PMPeople falling down has provided generations of comedians, from the Three Stooges to Chevy Chase, with material. In real life, there is nothing funny about falling down and being injured because of someone else's carelessness. These cases are typically known as "slip and fall cases." Fellow InjuryBoard lawyer, Benjamin Glass, of Northern Virginia, has written an excellent blog describing some categories of slip and fall cases. Tripping, slipping, and falling do sometimes cause severe injuries ranging from broken bones to brain or spinal cord injury.
Many lawyers don't like slip and fall cases because there are often barriers to successfully pursing them. In Massachusetts, for example, it is difficult to viably pursue a fall down case if the fall occurred on a city sidewalk due to the municipality's negligence. A statute limits recovery in such cases to $5,000.00, making it financially unfeasible for an attorney to pursue. A fall due to ice or snow will not support liability unless the ice got there by an "unnatural accumulation." It is not enough to show that the snow or ice was simply on the premises because the property owner failed to remove it. A common example of an unnatural accumulation is a poorly located drainpipe that spills water which then freezes, onto an area over which people must walk. Liability may be successfully proved in such a case, especially if the ice is hidden by snow or cannot be seen due to poor lighting. In fact, inadequate lighting, especially on commercial premises, is another potentially fruitful type of liability.
One reason that lawyers often dislike slip and fall cases is the notion held consciously or subconsciously by many potential jurors, that people need to look where they are going. Such a juror may not be sympathetic to the person who is injured due to a fall and who brings a lawsuit. Jurors are likely to be skeptical of a plaintiff who brings a fall down case and claims to have suffered only subjective soft tissue types of injury. I have accepted slip and fall cases, but am cautious in doing so. The first necessary element is provable fault on the part of the property owner or person or entity responsible for the defect that caused the fall. The theory of liability needs to be strong. A strong theory of liability might involve a hazard that the defendant knew or should have known to have caused falls and injuries, that the defendant failed to correct. Another favorable type of theory would include a defect caused by the cost-cutting or stinginess of a large commercial enterprise - an example would be a fall caused by a rough and poorly maintained surface and/or poor lighting in a commercial parking lot. The last important element in my view are injuries serious enough to justify the time and expense of litigation. When a person falls and suffers serious injury due to the provable negligence of another, slip and fall cases can be well worth pursuing.
