A “slip and fall” case probably makes people think of a relatively simple situation: a person is on someone else’s property when they slip on some unseen dangerous condition, fall and suffer injuries as a result. In reality, that isn’t too far off. But, these types of cases, which can trigger “premises liability” legal issues, can occur in a wide range of situations.
However, despite the varying number of situations in which a person can suffer an injury on another person’s property, proving the case in court will typically follow a fairly straightforward outline. First and foremost, the dangerous property condition — and its existence — must be addressed.
One of the most crucial parts of proving a premises liability case in court is to show one of the following: that the property owner created the dangerous property condition; that the property owner, while not actually creating the condition, knew about it and did not take any action to correct the condition when he should have; or, lastly, that even if the property owner did not create the condition or know about it, that the dangerous property condition existed on the property for so long that the property owner should have found out about it and addressed it.
Even though these factors may seem fairly straightforward, the fact is that premises liability cases can be somewhat complicated. There are more issues as stake, including: Was the injured person allowed to be on the property? In what capacity? What risks did the injured person assume by entering the property? And many others.
