Suffering a serious injury under any circumstances can prove detrimental to your life. When the injury or injuries occurred due to another person’s negligence, you may feel particularly wounded by the fact that certain occurrences could have prevented the injury-causing incident. Nonetheless, you must deal with the aftermath of the event, and in many cases, injuries can create a myriad of problems, ranging from the physical to the financial.
When it comes to slip-and-fall accidents, the owners or operators of the property where the incident occurred could potentially hold liability for your injuries. Therefore, you may wish to understand the circumstances that could point to their liability and how you could potentially seek compensation.
Floor issues
Slipping due to the conditions of the floor inside a store, home or other structure commonly results in injuries. Though the owners have a duty to clean their floors to maintain a sanitary environment, certain conditions could result in their facing responsibility for your injuries. Some of those conditions include:
- Failing to provide warning of wet or otherwise compromised floors
- Failing to close off an area under cleaning
- Creating uneven conditions that affect your tread
- Creating unsafe conditions on a sloped or inclined area
Additionally, owners have a responsibility to maintain the overall safety of the floors by attending to issues of wear, including:
- Torn carpeting
- Rugs or mats with holes or curling edges
- Rough patches caused by wear or items stuck in the carpeting
If any of these issues contributed to your accident, the court could hold the property owner responsible for your injuries.
Stair problems
Stairs can easily pose risks to you and other individuals, even when they do not have issues. However, risk of injury can greatly increase if problems with the stairs exist. Some of those problems may include:
- Worn, rounded or broken steps
- Debris and obstacles left on the stairs
- Slick substances present on the steps
- Lack of or unsafe handrail
These issues could cause you to easily slip and potentially fall down several stairs, which could cause you considerable harm.
Seeking compensation
If any of these conditions resulted in your serious injuries, you may have cause to file a premises liability claim against the owner of the property. This action could help you seek compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, and other permitted damages. Therefore, you may wish to gain more information on your options. Speaking with an experienced Massachusetts attorney could help you obtain more insight into this legal avenue.
