Call for a Free Consultation 678-753-6431Georgia Slip and Fall Injuries
If you’ve ever walked into a downtown Atlanta office building when it’s raining and seen the racks of umbrella bags, you probably thought “That’s so nice of the building to help me keep my bag or coat dry from my web umbrella.” And it is nice, and it does help you. But in reality, the building owners and their management company are providing those bags to prevent their floors from getting wet and slippery. That’s the same reason you see large mats at the building entrances. Their goal is to dry you shoes as you walk in the door. These safety measures will never be 100% effective, but they are put in place to minimize injury claims.
It’s the same reason that you see aisles shut down in grocery stores when an item breaks on the floor, or if you are shopping in a home improvement store and they close entire sections to bring a forklift out. The businesses are doing this to minimize their liability exposure in the event of injury.
How Do You Prove Negligence in a Slip and Fall Case?
There are four requirements to recover from slip and fall injuries due to another parties negligence:
The place where you were injured owed you a duty of care.
The place you were injured failed to abide by that duty of care.
That failure caused you to slip and fall.
Your slip and fall resulted in injuries, including medical bills, pain and suffering, and/or lost wages.
What is “Duty of Care?”
Duty of care is defined as “a requirement that a person act toward others and the public with the watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would use.”
The duty of care owed to a person depends on your relationship. Business owners, property owners, friends, caregivers, and employers all owe different levels of care depending on the circumstance. Someone who invites another onto their property owes a different duty of care than to someone who trespasses onto the property, shows up after hours, breaks into a property, or any other situation where they were not invited onto the property. A business owner profiting off of your presence owes a higher duty of care than someone who is not profiting off your presence. Children are owed a higher duty of care than adults. The duty of care owed to you is constantly changing. Having an experienced Atlanta slip and fall attorney investigating the circumstances surrounding your slip and fall is important in establishing the appropriate duty of care required and how that duty of care was breached.
How is a Duty of Care Breached?
There are generally three ways to breach a duty of care:
The responsible party should have known about the hazardous condition that led to your slip and fall
The responsible party knew of the hazardous condition that led to your slip and fall and did nothing to rectify it
The responsible part cause the hazardous condition that led to your slip and fall\
To succeed on a slip and fall injury claim there must be a duty or care, and breach of that duty. The breach of duty must be the cause of your injury to succeed in the claim.
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident and you believe someone else is responsible for your injury, call or text immediately at 678-753-6431. There may be deadlines that can impact recovery in your case. Speak with a knowledgeable Atlanta slip and fall attorney today.