Slip and Fall Accidents (or Trip and Fall Accidents) are terms for two related types of personal injury claims that arise from a fall that was caused due to a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else’s property. Many accidents occur due to the presence of water or some other slippery foreign substance that was spilled upon the floor prior to the time that the injured person had been walking through the area. Other causes of falls include torn carpeting, raised thresholds or doormats, poor lighting, non-standard steps and defective or absent rails.
Under California law the property owner has liability for the injuries you sustained in a slip and fall or trip and fall accident if the owner either created the hazard or unreasonably allowed the condition to persist once they discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the dangerous condition. Recently the courts have also ruled that a property owner must make reasonable inspections in order to discover and correct any hazardous conditions.
In slip and fall cases the property owner’s insurance adjuster or defense attorney always attempts to pin a major portion of the blame upon the injured person pursuant to the doctrine of contributory fault. In order to defeat their efforts to minimize or deny liability for his client’s injuries, slip and fall attorney Christopher Landis takes every measure to establish that because his client was exercising reasonable care for his or her own safety at the time of the accident the doctrine of contributory fault simply does not apply. By taking such an approach slip and fall victims can often receive 100% of the compensation that their injuries would warrant.
The Landis Law Firm represents clients in Santa Cruz, California, and nearby communities, including Watsonville, Scotts Valley, Aptos, Soquel, Capitola, San Jose, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Campbell, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Gatos, and Saratoga.
For a free initial consultation, email the Landis Law Firm at landis@landislawfirm.com. No legal fees are due until the client is paid a settlement or a jury award.