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Whether you are a resident, a guest, a customer, or just a person passing through on your way to another destination, you expect buildings to be structurally sound and safe for habitation. Likewise, exterior areas like parking lots, parking garages, and sidewalks should also be maintained in safe condition. When a property owner decides to cut costs by neglecting his or her duties to maintain a building and comply with the code, major hazards can rapidly develop, jeopardizing the health, safety, and life of inhabitants, customers, and others.
If you or one of your family members was injured in a slip and fall accident that was caused by a property hazard, such as a broken step or puddle from a leak, you may be able to recover compensation through a personal injury claim or lawsuit.
Call The Queenan Law Firm today at (817) 476-1797 for a free case review with our slip and fall attorneys.
Types of Injuries Sustained in Dallas, TX Slip and Falls
Slip and fall accidents often cause catastrophic or fatal injuries, particularly when they involve falls from heights. Even when an accidental fall is a survivable event, the resulting injuries often leave the victim burdened with chronic pain and long-term or permanent impairment, leading to lifelong medical expenses coupled with a diminished earning capacity to create ongoing financial strain.
Falls are especially devastating among the elderly. Not only are seniors, who often have poor vision and delayed reflexes, more likely to experience falls, but they are also more likely to be seriously or fatally injured when an accident occurs. Broken hips are a particularly common outcome of falls among the elderly, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that falls are responsible for a shocking 95% of hip fractures among adults aged 65 or older.
Even for young individuals, trips and falls can produce severely disabling injuries. Some common examples of serious injuries resulting from accidental falls include ankle and back injuries, as well as broken bones and painful sprains. However, slip and fall accidents can result in relatively serious injuries, like concussions and facial and mouth injuries. If the victim hit their head during the fall, they might suffer traumatic brain injuries, which can take years to fully recover from.
TBI and concussions, which are a form of mild TBI, are of particular concern. According to the CDC, falls are the number one leading cause of TBI, accounting for over 40% of cases from 2006 to 2010. In severe cases, TBI can cause cognitive impairment, balance problems, incontinence, pain, depression, memory problems, paralysis or loss of sensation, and other major complications.
Grounds to File a Premises Liability Lawsuit in Dallas, TX
Premises liability is a complex area of personal injury law that deals with property owners’ obligations to keep their buildings, pieces of land, and other types of property safe for the people who visit or inhabit them. If an individual gets injured on another person’s property, the owner may be liable if the following elements are all present:
Duty
The property owner had a duty of care to the person who was injured. For example, landlords have a duty of care toward their tenants. Businesses have a duty to guests to ensure the premises are safe and make reasonable inspections of potential dangers that make sense for the circumstances. Other parties might also have had a duty of care for the property’s safety who can be held liable if they contributed to your accident, such as maintenance or landscaping workers.
Breach
The property owner breached or violated their duty of care. To continue with the above example, this might be a landlord who disregards a leak or a broken railing in a common area of an apartment complex despite knowing that the problem is a hazard and requires maintenance to be removed or repaired. Our lawyers will gather evidence like accident reports and surveillance footage to determine exactly what the defendant did to cause your slip and fall accident.
Causation
The property owner’s actions, or failures to act, resulted in an accident that should have been preventable. Essentially, we must prove that your slip and fall injuries and resulting damages would not have occurred had it not been for the property owner or business’s negligence. If you have older injuries or pre-existing conditions, we must show that your current damages are from this slip and fall.
Damages
The victim was harmed as a result of the accident which occurred. In a lawsuit, the harm is referred to as “damages” and can be shown with your financial losses and pain and suffering. For instance, medical bills and lost income are economic damages. “Pain and suffering,” which represent the impact of the accident and injuries on your life, are non-economic damages. Suffering any one of these losses will satisfy this last requirement.
If all of these facts are true, you may have grounds for a claim or lawsuit against the property owner or other parties. Even if you are unsure about whether you have a claim, we urge you to contact our law offices for a consultation. We can provide you with answers and information about your legal rights as a victim of negligence.
Determining Liability in a Slip and Fall Accident Claim in Dallas, TX
Accidental falls can occur for a variety of reasons, but many are the direct result of careless and negligent conduct. In many cases, slip and fall accidents are the product of inadequate property maintenance, which can quickly cause trip hazards to develop or accumulate at an indoor, outdoor, residential, or commercial property. Some common locations where slip and fall accidents occur in Texas and the hazards that cause them include the following:
Places Where Slip and Fall Accidents Occur
Some slip and fall accidents happen in private residential locations, like neighbor’s or friend’s houses. In these situations, determining liability is typically not too difficult since the property owner is liable for known and unknown hazards they should have known about. If the slip and fall occurred in an apartment building, the property manager is usually the one ultimately responsible for the building. Slip and fall accidents in apartment common areas might be more challenging since other occupants might have caused the hazard before the building could reasonably discover it.
However, many more slip and fall incidents occur inside businesses like bars, cafes, fast food restaurants, gyms, grocery stores, department stores, malls, hotels, movie theaters, and virtually anywhere else people commonly visit. Businesses are responsible for making their shops safe for guests and for sidewalks and parking lots connected to their businesses.
Hazards that Cause Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and fall claims relate to an area of personal injury law known as premises liability. In short, premises liability means that property owners are responsible for maintaining properties (premises) that are reasonably safe for residents, visitors, customers, and others. If a landlord or other property owner fails to meet this standard, he or she may be liable for personal injury or wrongful death which results.
The conditions of the premises themselves might be hazardous. For instance, broken or uneven stairs account for many slip and fall accidents, while loose flooring can cause others to trip. Dim lighting is another common danger in the locations mentioned above. If the outside of a property or its stairwells are poorly lit, like a parking lot, victims can easily fall from a crack or other unseen danger. The property’s natural features can also cause accidents, such as broken branches and other natural debris. However, property owners are responsible for making responsible inspections and posting warnings to guests of potential hazards.
Slips and falls are common in restaurants, bars, and convenience stores because these locations sometimes have product containers and drink machines that leak. Often, stains from previous leaks will be left over from these machines, which can help prove that the property owner knew it was an issue and did nothing about it.
Recoverable Damages in a Dallas, TX Premises Liability Case
Many types of accidents can take place when a property is not maintained in safe condition. For example, faulty wiring could cause a person to be badly shocked or even electrocuted. An unsecured object could fall from above, striking a victim on the head or shoulders. A person could be attacked or sexually assaulted at a place of business because the company failed to hire or adequately screen the necessary security guards. A property could contain defective escalators or elevators or have serious fire hazards.
With that being said, a large portion of premises liability claims involve a specific type of accident known as a slip and fall accident, or, as it is sometimes called, a slip, trip, and fall accident. These types of accidents can affect people of all ages but are especially dangerous for individuals aged 65 or older, as seniors are at an elevated risk of sustaining a pelvic fracture (broken hip) when a fall occurs.
If a property hazard caused your slip and fall injury, the owner may be responsible for the expenses that resulted, including your medical bills. Other losses for which compensation may be available include the following:
Future Medical Expenses
You can recover more than just your current medical expenses. You are also entitled to future medical costs you are likely to incur. For instance, many slip and fall victims tear important ligaments in their wrists and knees, which often cannot be fully repaired with just one surgery. If you need time to recover from one procedure before additional surgeries can be done, the future costs for them and the recovery can be claimed.
Lost Wages
Many times, slip and fall injuries will keep them off their feet for a while and out of work. If you lost income because of your accident, you can claim it. However, you can also claim reduced earning capacity if your injuries are such that you cannot perform the same job or lose out on professional opportunities. For example, if you were an athlete who had the real potential to go pro before your accident, your reduced earning potential could be considerable, entitling you to a significant amount of compensation.
Non-Economic Damages
The above damages are financial, but you can also claim non-economic damages. These compensate you for a range of effects the accident has had, such as the physical pain you experienced during and after the incident.
It also repays you for the mental anguish your injuries have caused. If you cannot enjoy life the way you did before, feelings of depression and humiliation are common and can be claimed as damages. The mental anguish will be all the worse if the accident results in scarring or disfigurement, which is common since many victims have surgical scarring left over from their procedures.
Dallas, TX Slip and Fall Injury Lawyers Offering Free Consultations
When you or a family member has recently suffered a serious injury, all you want to do is rest and recover – not deal with complicated legal statutes and insurance paperwork. We understand completely, which is why our attorneys will be there to handle all of the legal work on your family’s behalf. Let us investigate the causes of your accident while you get the rest you need to heal. Equipped with more than 20 years of experience, our slip and fall injury lawyers are committed to helping injured Texans recover the compensation they deserve for negligently inflicted injuries.
To talk about your Dallas injury claim in a free legal consultation, call the Dallas slip and fall lawyers of Queenan Law as soon as possible at (817) 476-1797. We can answer your questions and help you understand your rights as an accident victim.