Most people trip and fall from time to time, typically with no significant harm done. However, falls can cause severe and permanent injuries. Even when an injury heals completely, an individual might incur medical costs and lose time at work.
How Negligence Leads to Falls
Property owners who invite the public onto their premises to do business must keep their property free of hazards and dangerous conditions. A commercial property owner or lessee must conduct regular inspections to discover hidden dangers and repair them as soon as reasonably possible. The owner must post warnings if they cannot correct a dangerous condition immediately. Unfortunately, owners do not always inspect as often as they should, or they may defer maintenance, allowing unsafe conditions to develop and persist. Some examples of conditions that could lead a visitor to slip or trip include:
- Poor lighting
- Broken steps or steps in unexpected locations
- Flimsy, broken, or unsecured railings
- Wet floors
- Items blocking aisles
- Poorly marked steps in unexpected locations
- Broken floor tiles
- Loose or damaged carpet
When an individual falls due to a preventable hazard in a place that is open to the public, the property owner is likely negligent unless the individual was trespassing when they fell. If the individual was a social guest or visiting a property for their own purposes, the property owner has a more limited duty to keep the premises safe from dangerous conditions that the owner has actual knowledge of. A seasoned Rockwall slip and fall attorney could assess the circumstances around a specific fall and determine whether the owner was negligent.
