Basics of a Florida Slip and Fall Case
In slip and fall injuries, a person slips, falls and injures himself or herself due to the negligence of the owner of the business or property in which she slipped. Under tort law which encompasses personal injury law, the injured person can recover monetary compensation for her injuries when certain elements are met. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that over 800,000 Americans are hospitalized yearly due to fall injuries with the average hospital visit costing over $30,000.00.
What Does the Injured Person Need to Prove to be Successful in a Slip and Fall Case?
In order to be successful, the injured person or plaintiff must prove several elements to be successful.
She must show that the person in charge of the property in which she fell had a duty to protect her from falling. Property owners, landowners, and businesses that rent the property have a duty to inspect for dangerous conditions like wet floors and to repair or warn their customers of those conditions.
The injured person must show that the business in control of the floor was negligent, or careless, in discovering the wet or dangerous floor and protect against customers slipping and falling.
If the business in control of the floor knew about the dangerous condition, the injured person must show that the business was negligent in cleaning up the dangerous condition or in warning their customers about it. For example, if the business knew about a slippery laundry detergent spill and did nothing to warn customers, they breached their duty to the customers visiting their business.
The injured person must also show that the carelessness of the business caused her to fall. She must show that but-for the business failing to warn her of the dangerous condition of the floor, she would not have fallen. She also must show that a slip and fall by a customer was a foreseeable outcome of the dangerous floor.
Finally, the injured person must show that she was injured by the fall. For example, if the customer slipped and fell, she must show that the fall caused her to have a bodily injury of some kind.
What Types of Compensation are Available to Successful Plaintiffs in Slip and Fall Cases?
First, courts can award the plaintiff specific compensation. This compensation is easy to quantify and includes the following: medical bills, hospital stays, physical therapy, home health care, medical treatment, prescriptions and other medical expenses that are quantifiable.
Successful plaintiffs may also recover general compensation. This type of compensation refers to consequences from the injury that are more difficult to quantify. General damages can include loss of consortium (the benefit of enjoying a loved one) and pain and suffering. Pain and suffering compensation usually includes the physical pain that a person endures due to the injury. It also includes the emotional toll that the injury takes on a person such as anxiety, depression, and stress caused by the injury.
Have you slipped and fallen? Would you like help to recover compensation for your injuries? Contact the Miami slip and fall attorneys at Spencer Morgan Law today.
Resource:
cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/fallcost.html