Injuries from Falling Down
by Jonathan C Reed
Falls are the leading cause of injury hospitalization and the third leading cause of injury death. Can a person who falls sue the organization which owns or controls the place of the fall? To have a case the fall victim and their attorney must be able to convince an insurance company (or a jury) that the organization in control of the fall site was careless. Even though the fall may have happened in a store controlled by a giant corporation such as WalMart the need to prove WalMart careless is often the same standard as used against a single person.
Fall cases are divided into different categories:
Substance on Floor:
A common fall injury in a store is that a customer slips on spilled liquid or other material on the floor that shouldn’t be there. The usual store defense is: “The liquid the customer slipped on must have been spilled by a customer. We have someone check our floors every 15 minutes, so the liquid must have been spilled between our inspections and therefore we weren’t careless. Too bad about the fall victim, but we are only liable if we were careless and we weren’t careless.”
A good attorney at the initial interview will ask their client/victim and any witnesses questions like these:
1. “Did you see anything that suggests the liquid or other material had been on the floor a while? For example, were there a lot shopping cart tracks through the liquid?”
2. “Did any employees make any statements that they knew about the spill and had been meaning to clean it up?”
Also, we all know that good intentions, such as having an employee check the floor every 15 minutes, are often not carried out. In Nevada attorneys and their investigators have the right to directly approach low level employees and chat with them—if they are willing—without the employer’s attorney being present. Thus a good attorney can hire an investigator to examine the defensive claim of frequent floor checks.
Structural Tripping Hazard:
Unfortunately, many walking surfaces have tripping hazards such as uneven cracks in the cement, objects sticking up out of the surface, steep slopes, unusual stairs, and ramps or stairs without handrails. In these cases it is important to obtain a photograph of the tripping hazard. It is best if such photos are taken from several different angles and show scale by placing a ruler next to the hazard. If you are the victim of such a tripping hazard and have a cell phone camera but no ruler you can show scale with common items of standard size such as a quarter or a dollar bill.
The strongest cases involve a building code violation such as ramp, even a very short one, being too steep, stairs or ramps lacking a handrail etc. Building codes vary from one jurisdiction to another and the date of completion of the structure may determine what code rules apply. A good attorney will know to check for any code violations. For example, in one case I settled an apartment complex had an asphalt ramp between the parking lot and a concrete sidewalk leading to the lot. The ramp was only a few inches high and a few inches long but it was way too steep for the city code.
But a building code violation is not necessary for a successful fall case. In one case I (Jonathan Reed) took to a jury trial the premise owner had cut a large square out of an outdoor sidewalk which formerly had been used as a planter. At the time of my client’s fall, however, all of the plants had died and been removed and there was simply a dirt square in the middle of a sidewalk. It was easy for the jury to conclude that this was an unnecessary tripping hazard. In another case I had a client fell on the carpeted hallway of a casino. It turned out that underneath the carpet there was hole in the concrete floor which had been patched with thick plywood. Eventually, heavy traffic caused the plywood to delaminate and buckle creating the tripping hazard.
Inadequate Lighting:
Tripping hazards can be concealed by darkness. Local building codes may specify certain lighting standards which can be measured by an expert with a light meter.