A Legal Guide to Slip and fall accidents and who is at fault.

Slip and fall accidents. Who is to blame? While they can happen in residential and commercial property, it is important to know who is at fault when it comes to injuries since they can be costly. In our guide, we explain the different roles you can have in a landlord's property and what you can do.

1. Are slip and fall incidents for both businesses and residential properties?

   Yes, It applies to everything, but the thing that makes it different is the status of the person entering the property.
   
   There are three basic statuses that someone can have when entering a property:
   
   1. Trespasser: someone is trespassing on your property when they enter it without any right whatsoever. Whether it is your office, house, or business, the law establishes the duty as a homeowner/business owner that serves people. In the case of adult trespassers, the owner generally has no duty and doesn´t need to take reasonable care of their property or can warn of hidden dangers.
   
   For example, if someone trespasses on your property and you have a pile of garbage there, and the trespasser suffers a slip and fall accident or any kind of accident, you won't be liable for their slip and fall. You would have no duty to that person, even if you knew that the condition was dangerous or could be hazardous.
   
   2. Licensee: the second status is when you are a social guest. In technical terms, the licensee enters the property for their own purposes but is present with the owner's consent. The owner should warn about the “dangers” that could exist on their property.
   
   For example, if you invite someone to your house, your must warn your guests about the pile of garbage that you know is there and where they could have a slip and fall. You could be liable if you know about it and don´t tell them.
   
   3. Guest: The third and more important for our purposes is who we call a guest. A guest is someone who goes on the landlord's premises for the landlord's benefit, for a pecuniary gain (to earn money) for the landlord. The owner owes the guest the highest duty of care. A typical example is a customer at a supermarket. It’s not enough that they warn guests about the defects that exist on the property; landlords have to go further than that. The property could be safe, but they must let everyone know if there are any extraordinary dangerous conditions.
   
   So, if you are a licensee at someone's home with faulty flooring, without the owner’s knowledge, and while walking around, you step on the floor, and it suddenly breaks, it will be tricky to make the landlords liable for it. However, if you are a guest in a business, they must conduct several inspections to ensure the property is safe before letting you (the guest) on the premises.
   
   The bottom line, everything depends on the status of the person on the property.

2. From a legal point of view, is there a difference between a slip and fall and a trip and fall?

   No, it is just different scenarios where someone can be negligent.

3. What are the owner's legal obligations, and what type of care are they expected to have?

   The duty to the person depends on their visitor status. 99% of the slip and fall accidents will be on commercial property. The obligation of the business owner and their circumstances are to keep the premises safe, warn the client, and check the property where it is reasonable to inspect. It is good to know if a company has a standard procedure for employees to have inspections; if they don't, that's good for the plaintiff but bad for the defendant. Business owners must know that they are opening their doors for you to spend money on their business, but to do that, they must keep their business safe. The real question is: when are they legally liable, and when not.
   
   For example, let's say you have a cup of water and you’re walking down the aisle, someone is right behind you, and they are looking elsewhere. You spilled your glass of water on the floor, but the person behind you didn't notice, and at that moment, they slipped, fell, and injured themselves. So who is liable for that? Is the business liable? They never had a moment to expect or prevent that, so probable that a slip and fall attorney won't be able to make the business liable. Let´s say that that particular business is making inspections every 10 minutes, more or less, or some other reasonable time. You can’t make the business liable since the cause of the accident happened in less than 10 minutes between their inspections.
   
   But a similar example, in a big supermarket, someone spills water on the floor, and the employee sees it, shrugs their shoulders, and just walks away without doing anything. So now the supermarket, through their employees' actions, can be held liable if an accident happens because they didn't do anything.
   These cases are very fact-specific; there can be some little facts that can destroy your whole case, and it can get complicated. The landlord's duty is to inspect the property and take proactive steps to ensure everything is fine.

4. Details matter.

   If you suffer a slip and fall accident, it is essential to take pictures immediately. When there is damage, there is a clear indication that someone is negligent, but to prove it, we need evidence before everything is debated. For example, if there is a puddle of water barely visible in the photo, it will be different than if the puddle looked dirty. In the case of a dirty puddle, it has been noticed, and many people have walked over it with a possible boot print on it or cartwheel tracks around that can show it was there a while. So that puddle would raise some flags, bringing proof to a slip and fall attorney that the supermarket and its employees are not conducting inspections efficiently. Evidence is crucial and collecting it at the exact moment is one of the keys to winning a case. Keep in mind that you can not ask for damages in a case you caused yourself.

5. The warning should be proportional.

   Sometimes a sign is not enough to warn you about possible dangers on a property. For example, if there is a big hole and an electric cable comes out, which can cause an electric shock, a sign won't be enough to protect you. The owner and their employees must take extra measures to protect their customers, like shutting down the whole aisle or section to avoid danger. The precautions should be proportional to the danger they are trying to prevent.

6. Can I still claim injuries if I already had one but is aggravated in the slip and fall accident?

   Yes, that applies to slip and fall accidents, car accidents, and other personal injury cases. You can claim the injury’s aggravation. The complicated issue is how to prove it because previous injuries can hurt your case. You can make the negligent party liable for only the damage they cause. However, sometimes you just have your previous MRIs that show no difference between your injuries now and then, which will have the defendant say it is the same damage you had a few years ago.

7. In Conclusion.

   Every case is different, but after receiving medical attention, the first thing to do is to collect evidence. For a slip and fall accident in Atlanta, our expert attorneys will first analyze if you have a case by seeing which status you are considered: guest, trespasser, or licensee, and the evidence that will make or break your case. Remember that slip and fall cases are fact-sensitive and rely on your experience and cooperation.