One of the least understood law cases is slip-and-fall. While this is a very simple premise, figuring out what actually constitutes a slip-and-fall case can be challenging.
The basics of a slip-and-fall lawsuit involves somebody falling down and another person or entity being responsible for causing the fall. However, according to FindLaw, finding fault is the difficult aspect of a slip-and-fall case given that it is also possible for people to injure themselves as a result of carelessness.
What is a “responsible party?”
A responsible party is the entity responsible for the fall and thus the injury. For example, if a tenant slips and falls on ice in the apartment courtyard and then attempts to sue, the responsible party would be the landlord.
However, in order to establish a responsible party there has to be an expectation of duty. For example, if the apartment complex has broken pavement in the courtyard and the landlord has known about this and never made any effort to fix it, this may prove a fertile ground for a slip and fall accident should a tenant sustain injury as a result.
On the other hand, if the weather has been very cold and the tenant leaves the apartment at 6 a.m. and slips on ice, the landlord is not necessarily at fault. It is possible ice appeared overnight and it is not reasonable to expect the landlord to salt the ground at 4 in the morning.
What do I need to prove?
In order to have a successful slip-and-fall case you need to be able to prove that the responsible party created the condition, knew about the condition, negligently did not correct the condition, and the condition was around for a long enough period of time where the entity could have fixed the problem.