Slip & Fall Lawyer in Baton Rouge

A slip and fall might not seem like the most serious injury, but in fact, around 30,000 people die every year from injuries sustained while falling, and millions more suffer pain, lose wages, and experience other problems. If your slip and fall happened on someone else’s property, they could be held liable for your damages via a concept called premises liability.

Property owners are obligated by law to keep their properties safe and free of danger. This requirement applies to owners of homes, apartment complexes, grocery stores, malls, offices, playgrounds, schools, libraries, and many more. If you’ve been injured on someone else’s property and can prove that the owner was negligent in preventing your injury, contact Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys for a free consultation today.

How Does a Slip and Fall Happen?

A slip, trip, or fall accident can happen for a number of reasons. However, the common denominator for all of these is generally negligence such as:

• A store owner, manager, or employee who neglects to erect a “Wet Floor” sign after mopping an area
• A property owner failing to fill in a hole in their yard, causing a visitor to fall and break their leg when they step in it
• A restaurant patron leans against an improperly-braced deck railing, falling off the second floor deck
• A suddenly-stopping mall escalator causes a customer to lurch forward, hitting their head on a step

In all of these cases, the property owner or manager neglected their duty to properly maintain their property or to warn visitors of the risks that navigating their property presented. As a result, they could be held liable for the victim’s injuries and ordered to pay some or all of their damages.

Injuries Resulting from a Slip and Fall Accident

Injuries from a fall can range from relatively minor bruising to major complications and even death. Here are just a few of the possible complications you could suffer after a slip and fall accident:

• Bruises, cuts, or scrapes
• Dislocated joints
• Broken bones
• Torn ligaments, sprains, or strains
• Head trauma, such as concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Neck or back injuries
• Long-term incapacitation
• Spinal cord injuries that could lead to paralysis
• Wrongful death

Slip and Fall Injury Statistics

Slips and falls are a contributing factor to half of all fatal accidents at home, and the vast majority happen on the ground—that is, not off a ladder or stairway. In addition, about a third of all people older than 65 will experience a fall every year—and falls can be even deadlier for them.

Slip and fall accidents are quite dangerous: they account for more severe injuries than motor vehicle accidents in the United States, and they are the leading cause of non-fatal medical treatment in the country. Up to 30% of falls result in an injury of some sort.

Establishing Liability After a Slip and Fall Injury

All property owners have a duty of care to provide a reasonably safe environment for visitors. If they fail to do so, they can be held accountable for any injuries sustained by visitors to their property, usually by paying for damages sustained.

In order to establish liability, the plaintiff will need to prove the following points:

• The property owner, or a responsible party like a manager or employee, knew or should have known about the dangerous condition
• The owner or responsible party failed to address that condition properly (for example, by repairing a broken railing, or mopping a wet floor)
• The victim, while exercising ordinary care, had no way to know about the hazardous condition
• The victim suffered an injury as a result of the owner’s negligence

Proving that your injuries were caused by the negligence of the owner of the property can be difficult. The condition—a slippery surface, weakened ceiling, rotting floorboard, or other danger—must be something the owner knew about or should have known about, under ordinary circumstances, and that an ordinary owner would have repaired.

In addition, you must prove that you weren’t acting negligently in the lead-up to your injury. A judge or jury will be less likely to award damages if the victim was running, horse-playing, breaking the rules, or otherwise acting unsafely before their accident.

Compensation After a Slip and Fall Injury

The kind and amount of compensation you’re eligible for collecting will depend on your injuries and other damages you’ve suffered. In general, there are three main types of damages awarded in personal injury cases:

• Economic damages, also known as special damages, are those that can be counted on a balance sheet. These include hospital bills and bills for ongoing therapy and equipment, the wages you’ve lost from an inability to work, and the economic cost of a permanent disability.
• Non-economic damages or general damages are those which aren’t so easily quantifiable. These damages include pain and suffering, a loss of the enjoyment of your life, mental anguish, and the like.
• Finally, punitive damages are rarely awarded in cases where the defendant acted extremely negligently. These damages are intended to dissuade the defendant from similar behavior in the future, as opposed to compensating the plaintiff for their losses.

Dedicated Slip and Fall Lawyers in Baton Rouge

Because of how complicated slip and fall injury claims can be, you need a dedicated advocate on your side to help you recover the compensation you need to heal. Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys have 679+ years of combined legal experience representing slip and fall victims in Baton Rouge (and all of Louisiana), and we’re confident we can help you too.

Call Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys at 225.888.8888 today for a free consultation. A dedicated slip and fall attorney will hear your side of the story and offer advice on next steps. Our team will get started right away on collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and building your case.