Fault may seem obvious if you slip or trip and hurt yourself when at a commercial establishment. Most people immediately assume the business is to blame. This may not be the case, depending on where, how, and why the accident occurred. The following guide can help you better understand who may be liable for your accident.
Who Can Be Liable?
There is no single answer to this question, since each accident is different. The following are just a few of the people or entities that can be held responsible:
The business owner
The owner of the property, if it differs from the business owner
An outside contractor, such as a construction crew working on the property
The manufacturer of the item that caused the accident, such as a railing with a faulty design
You, the person that suffered the injury
How Is Liability Determined?
The circumstances of the injury are the main way that responsibility is determined. For example, let's assume you tripped over a broken piece of concrete. The business owner (or an employee) of the business was aware it was broken, but had not called it in to the property owner. In this case, the business owner may be liable. If they had called it in, but the owner failed to fix it, the property owner can be held liable. In some cases, both the business owner and the property owner may be held liable, since the business owner could have marked the location or cordoned it off for safety.
If the concrete is in the process of being fixed, and a paving company had failed to mark off the area where they were working, they could be at fault. This is why it is a good idea to contact as many eye witnesses to the accident as possible, so that your lawyer can verify the exact circumstances that lead up to the accident.
Are There Mitigating Circumstances?
Some circumstances can shift the blame to you, or it may be determined that it was truly an accident and no one is responsible. For example, if you were under the influence of alcohol, the court may decide you are at fault for the accident.
You must also prove that there was negligence involved. If you slip in a puddle of water that wasn't there a moment before, the business owner usually won't be held responsible. You must prove that the cause of the accident was through negligence – the responsible party knew or reasonably should have known about the issue and fixed it. Contact a personal injury attorney for more information.
Share2 August 2015
Like many other people, I admire the important tasks lawyers take on every day. I’m amazed at how knowledgeable general attorneys are about a variety of subjects. These professionals can accomplish many complicated jobs seamlessly, such as representing a client in a civil lawsuit, assisting a business with a merger, and acting on a client’s behalf in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Besides creating detailed legal briefs, they must argue their clients’ cases in court in front of a judge, jurors, and others. On this blog, I hope you will discover how crucial general attorneys are to this country’s legal system.