While elderly adults and young children are especially susceptible to getting seriously hurt in sudden falls, anyone of any age can end up sustaining an injury that interferes with their personal and professional life. Even worse, holding a property owner legally liable for not addressing the tripping hazard can be a lot more complicated in practice than you might expect.
As is the case with most other accident claims, having a seasoned personal injury attorney on your side can be crucial to achieving a favorable result from a slip and fall case. You need someone to determine exactly how your accident happened and demand comprehensive compensation for all your losses. A dedicated Missouri City slip and fall lawyer could provide the customized support you will need, from start to finish of your legal proceedings.
While property owners and managers in Texas are not automatically liable in legal terms for every accident and illness which happens on their property, they do have a “duty of care” requiring them to take reasonable precautions to stop preventable accidents from happening.
The exact nature of this duty changes somewhat depending on why a person is visiting their land. In general, landowners are expected to warn lawful visitors of all known hazardous conditions, correct those hazards reasonably quickly after discovering them, and inspect their property regularly in order to discover as-yet unknown hazards. That is especially true for retail property owners.
What all this means for someone injured in a slip or trip and fall is that recovering civil compensation for their injuries will usually require them to prove (1) a landowner knew or reasonably should have known about a particular hazard, (2) neither corrected that hazard nor warned visitors about it, and (3) directly allowed the slip and fall accident to occur through their negligence. Building a strong civil claim with this theory of negligence in mind is one of many things a Missouri City slip and fall attorney could assist with.
Both economic and non-economic damages can be recovered through a successful lawsuit or settlement demand against a landowner who negligently allowed a slip and fall accident to occur. These damages refer to objective financial losses and the more subjective personal losses.
On the economic side of things, medical expenses typically make up the bulk of recoverable damages, but it is also important to account for both short-term and long-term wage loss if an injury prevents someone from working, as well as lost or damaged personal property.
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, generally center around physical “pain and suffering” but can also include emotional anguish, psychological trauma, and lost overall quality of life due to a long-term disability. Once again, a skilled lawyer could identify all compensable losses after a trip and fall in Missouri City and obtain fair restitution for all of them.
Slips and trips cause many more serious injuries in Texas each year than most people would guess, and they often stem primarily from the misconduct of a landowner. That said, holding a negligent landowner liable for this misconduct can be next to impossible without assistance from a legal professional who has gotten good results from similar cases in the past.
A Missouri City slip and fall lawyer could discuss your legal options and offer preliminary advice about next steps during a confidential consultation. Call today to schedule yours.
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