While slipping and falling may not seem like a big deal to everyone, they have the potential to cause serious injuries. A person who suffers a hard impact on a curb, shelf, or other stationary object may end up dealing with muscle strains, bruises, lacerations, fractures, and potentially even permanent brain or spine damage, which could require lengthy and expensive medical treatment.
Who Can File a Claim Following a Trip and Fall Injury?
Like other types of personal injury claims, most cases stemming from a slip and fall are based on a theory of legal negligence. Under this theory, a person who violates a duty of care they owe to another may be held financially liable for harm they cause as a direct result of that breach. However, the exact duty of care a property owner or manager owes a visitor varies depending on why that visitor is on their premises. For example, retail store owners in Texas must provide customers with adequate warning of known hazards and take action to fix those safety issues as quickly as possible in order to keep those customers safe.
Conversely, that same store owner would not have any duty to protect a person trespassing in their store, so long as they do not do anything to intentionally injure them. In addition, various factors could compel a court to find a claimant partially liable for their slip and fall accident, in which case Chapter 33 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code allows the court to reduce the recoverable compensation by their percentage of fault. Representation from a Lewisville trip and fall attorney is often crucial to contesting comparative fault standards and avoiding restrictions on recoverable damages.
