Slip and Fall Cases – The Most Misunderstood Cases

Slip and Fall (Trip and Fall) cases are some of the most misunderstood cases in the world of personal injury law. People often think that if you fall on someone’s property that the property owner is immediately responsible. Such is definitely not the case. For any property owner or property maintenance company to be responsible, you have to be able to prove that they were negligent in causing the tripping or slipping hazard. Very often a client will call our firm and say “I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my ankle and needed surgery.” So you have damages. The next question we ask is “What caused you to slip?” If someone says “I don’t know”, there will be no case.

If you have something like this happen and have the misfortune of slipping and becoming injured, you have to find out what you slipped on. Oftentimes security cameras will have caught the event. It makes sense to request that they safeguard any surveillance video that could show the incident. But, if you read this article and can maintain the presence of mind despite being injured, you will know to ask whoever you are with to go back and look immediately after the event to see what, if anything, is there.

Very often slip and fall accidents occur in supermarkets. It would really make or break a case to know what you slipped on. It could be something as small as a grape or something as large as a quart of milk that spilled on the floor. In any event, determining what caused you to trip or slip will always be central to the viability of the case. Conversely, if there was nothing identifiable that caused you to slip or trip, no case exists.

The law firm of Colucci, Colucci & Marcus, P.C. has been recognized by Newsweek.com as one of the Top 10 Best Law Firms for Personal Injury in the Country. Attorney Darin Colucci has also been recognized by Newsweek.com for 3 consecutive years as one of the Top 10 Best Personal Injury Attorneys in the Country.