Slip-and-Fall Injury Attorneys in Gillette
Resolving Gillette Slip & Fall Cases
Slip-and-fall cases are claims that a property owner's negligence led to an unnecessary accident that injured someone else. In these types of cases, "property owner negligence" is a term used to describe an owner's decision to allow dangerous conditions to exist on their premises that they should have resolved or been aware of. Proving their negligence led to your harm can win you compensation for your medical costs, lost wages, and more.
If you slipped or fell inside a retail store, business, home, or even your workplace and were seriously injured, our Gillette personal injury attorney at Steven Titus & Associates, P.C., is here to provide sound legal advice and guidance in your time of need. Regardless of the scope or difficulty of your case, our seasoned legal team will work tirelessly to make sure your voice is heard.
What Are Different Types of Falls?
Slip-and-falls can occur in many different ways, including:
- Flat surfaces: Falls on flat surfaces can be caused by slippery conditions or trip hazards, like cracked sidewalks or leftover debris.
- Down the stairs: Falls down stairs are more dangerous. Not only is there height involved, but the corners of the steps present a serious danger of severe injury to the head.
- From height: Falling from the roof of a building or other height almost always results in injury. The greater the height, the more severe the injury is likely to be; falls from extreme heights can be fatal.
- Off ladders and scaffolding: Ladders and scaffolds are used by construction workers and similar professionals. Falls from these can be very dangerous, while objects falling from a scaffold present a danger to others below.
Which Places Do Slip-and-Falls Occur?
Although a slip-and-fall can occur just about anywhere, certain locations are more dangerous. These include:
- Stairs: Stairs may seem harmless, but more than 1,000 people die every year in the U.S. due to accidents on stairs. When stairs are located outside, and poor weather like rain, snow, or ice comes into play, they become even more dangerous. Property owners must maintain and repair stairs and ensure they are well-lit to keep people safe.
- Construction sites: Falls on construction sites kill the largest number of construction workers every year. This includes trips and falls on level ground, as well as falls from ladders and scaffolds, and falls from the ground down into trenches and holes.
- Swimming pools: Wet conditions make a slip-and-fall much more likely, which is why the deck around a swimming pool can be so dangerous. Slip-resistant surfaces and materials can be used to help reduce the chances of a fall around a swimming pool, but these are often ignored in favor of more attractive materials like tile.
- Entryways: Entryways in businesses and office buildings are often treacherous. When weather outside is bad, water finds its way into a building on people's shoes. This makes an already-slippery floor more dangerous.
- Crowded aisles: Stores, especially smaller shops, do not always have room for all their products. This can result in products being left on the ground, or aisles in the store not being wide enough for people to easily walk through them. Tripping hazards can build up in these conditions, and when these stores become crowded, the chances of a slip-and-fall increase.
- Sidewalks: Outdoor walkways and sidewalks can become hazardous when not maintained, especially in poor weather. Cracks and uneven alignment between sidewalk slabs make it easy for pedestrians to trip and fall. Rain, snow, and ice make sidewalks more dangerous.
- Public events: Fairs, amusement parks, and other public events can become hazardous for walking patrons. Large crowds in small spaces can jostle and trip each other, and electrical cables, wires, and similar lines need to be covered to prevent people from tripping on them.
What Damages May Be Available From Wyoming Slip-and-Fall Accidents?
Slip-and-falls, like other forms of personal injury, usually involve two primary types of damages, though each of them can be broken down into more specific forms of compensation. These are economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages cover compensation that includes actual amounts caused by the fall and related injuries. These are specific numbers provided to the court based on bills and other information. Economic damages include things like:
- Medical bills
- Funeral costs
- Lost wages due to missed time at work
- Future lost wages due to additional time from work
- Future lost earnings due to missed career opportunities
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, include things that cannot so easily be quantified. It is very important to have an experienced Gillette premises liabilty lawyer to represent you, so that you do not miss out on compensation that you might not think of on your own. Non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Disability or disfigurement
- Emotional distress or trauma
- Loss of companionship
- Reduction of quality of life
How to Determine Liability
The first step in understanding your situation is to determine whether the other party was actually liable for your incident. If your accident occurred due to loose wiring, snowy walkways, wet floors, defective stairs, or any other hazard that you could have avoided if the property owner had addressed it, then you may be able to take legal action. When a property owner fails to act in a reasonable way, it is considered negligence, which is vital to proving that someone is liable for what happened to you.
To prove liability, one must often prove that:
- The unsafe area was caused by the owner of the property or an employee.
- The responsible party knew about the unsafe area and did not create warnings to make others aware of the risks.
- The owner of the premises should have known of the unsafe area and taken actions to make sure said surface was removed or repaired.
Liability also requires that someone's negligence directly contributed to or caused the accident that injured you. For example, in a slip-and-fall case, if you can show that stairs were broken, and the owner knew about it and failed to repair them, and the broken stairs caused you to fall and be break a bone or suffer other injuries, then the property owner could be held liable. On the other hand, if you fell because someone else pushed you, the building owner is not likely to be held liable, since the fall was caused by someone else's negligence.
However your Campbell County slip-and-fall happened, our team of trial lawyers at Steven Titus & Associates, P.C., is here to help. Please call us at (307) 257-7800 for a free consultation about your unique premises liability situation.
Additional Information
- The Most Frequent Causes of Falls on Construction Sites
- How To Receive Compensation After A Fall
- Fall in Wyoming Brings More Slips…and Falls
- Understanding the Factors of Slip, Trip and Fall Injuries - EHS Today
- Slip & Fall Quick Facts - NFSI
Your FREE Case Strategy Session
On All Injury and Criminal Cases
Contact our office right now to speak to
someone who wants to help you.