If you have suffered injury as a result of a slip and fall accident and are seeking compensation, it is vital that you prove fault. Slip and falls need to have an element of negligence to them in order to have a successful case.
Proving fault in a slip and fall accident is an inexact science and can be extremely difficult. According to Findlaw, a slip-and-fall case will hinge on if a dangerous condition that the owner of the property was aware of prior to the accident caused the fall.
What is a dangerous condition?
A dangerous condition could refer to many things. For instance, if a slip and fall accident occurred in an office building with old, pulled up carpet, loose carpeting could be the dangerous condition. If the slip and fall accident happened outside on broken pavement, then the dangerous condition is the pavement.
However, it is not good enough for a dangerous condition to merely exist. For instance, if you leave your home on a winter morning at 6am and slip on ice, the ice meets the criteria of a dangerous condition. However, the owner of the property also must have known about the dangerous condition and consented to let it exist for you to file a slip and fall case. Since it is likely that the ice accumulated overnight, the property owner likely did not know about the dangerous condition and thus there is no case.
Are there additional requirements?
In addition to proving negligence on the part of the property owner, it is also assumed that individuals are doing everything they can to avoid injury. That is, the injured party must not have been able to anticipate the dangerous condition.