Are slip and fall cases hard to win?
Each year, more than 1 million people are sent to emergency rooms because of slip and fall accidents.4 Yet, despite the frequency and severity of slip and fall accidents, these cases can be difficult to win.
As with all personal injury cases, a victim must prove that negligence played a role in his or her slip and fall accident. However, unlike car accidents where negligence is documented in a police report or captured by traffic cameras, slip and fall accidents often rely on first-hand accounts. In the absence of any security footage, which is highly common for residential properties, your attorney will have to rely solely on your version of the incident and the opposing attorney will try to discredit your perception.
To win a slip and fall case in Florida, you must be able to prove that the property owner or manager not only acted negligently by having unsafe conditions on his or her premises but knew about said conditions and did not take reasonable steps to eliminate the hazard. For example, if you are injured in a slip and fall accident, your attorney will investigate whether or not the dangerous conditions existed long enough for a sensible individual to fix them, whether or not there were protocols in place to prevent accidents such as yours, and whether or not your actions were involved in causing the accident.
Sometimes, the property owner or manager is not the only liable party for a slip and fall accident. Multiple parties can be held accountable for a slip and fall accident, including yourself, and this makes proving negligence even more difficult. Under Florida law, the concept of comparative negligence means that you may only receive part of your compensation for an injury claim because you were partially responsible for the accident.
Opposing attorneys and insurance companies will try to prove that your actions partially (or fully) contributed to the slip and fall accident. Hiring an experienced slip and fall attorney will help protect your rights.
