What Happens if There is a Wet Floor Sign Around a Slip and Fall Injury
Walking quickly without looking is something we have all done at one time or the other. If you’re in a hurry, you are likely to walk without looking in any direction or engrossed in your phone. The possibility of slipping on a wet floor or a slick surface is therefore pretty common. A slip and fall injury may result in severe injuries including broken bones and profuse bleeding causing you immense pain and requiring medical intervention.
Is it possible for you to sue the owner of the building or the store for falling then? Well, opinions are as varied as the circumstances of the incident. While tripping on the sidewalk of the storefront cannot make the owner of the premises liable directly, you may have a case when you take a fall by slipping on a wet floor within its premises.
The severity of the injury may leave you bedridden for months while your medical bills pile up. You should definitely get in touch with a personal injury lawyer to find out whether you have a case. The legal professional would certainly be able to assess your situation and apprise you of the facts.
Remember that the position is of utmost importance here. If you incur back injuries, you also risk injuring your spine as well as slip a disc. This is severe indeed and could sometimes cause permanent disability, or even wrongful death. So are head injuries where you tend to risk injuring your skull and could have extensive blood loss as well as risk injuring your brain.
Knee injuries, on the other hand, may allow you to get away with a few broken bones initially. However, it may also limit your mobility severely if your kneecap bears the brunt of the fall.
It is not always easy to prove the liability of the business owner when a slip and fall injury occurs. Most states consider evaluating it under the purview of general negligence and will take your chosen attorney a considerable amount of effort to have it proved otherwise. The state regulations will only permit you to sue the property owner if the concerned property had been kept in a dangerous condition. A personal law attorney committed to your cause would be able to frame the charges on the property owner if your case has merit.
Here are a few guidelines for you to check if you have a valid case of slip and fall injury:
- The dangerous condition of the premises or floor of the building can be proved conclusively if you can discover that the owner bypassed the building code during construction.
- You would surely be able to sue if the floor did not have a ‘wet floor’ sign displayed when it had indeed been slippery and wet during the accident. While putting up such a sign is not required by the law, it makes the defendant negligent of customer safety. You can be sure of being awarded a substantial amount of compensation.
- However, the possibility becomes remote when the defendant claims that he had been getting out the ‘wet floor’ sign for displaying it prominently when tragedy struck. The jury would then have a lot of questions regarding this scenario.
- How much time was taken for popping in and getting the sign?
- What was the reason for leaving the area insecure without posting an employee to warn the customers who entered the building unaware of the fact?
- It is important to inform the security at the premises about your condition. This will definitely help you to substantiate your claim later on.
- Photographing the premises as soon as possible is yet another action that can swing the case in your favor. The absence of warning signs and overcrowded aisles along with a floor that is slick with oil or water will help your lawyer to gauge the situation accurately and argue your case more forcefully.
- It will also help you to claim compensation once you have the names and contacts of the witnesses who had assisted you to get up after the fall.
- Do not accept any kind of compensation from the authorities right away though as it might weaken your case considerably.
