If you or someone you know has already suffered the consequences of a severe accident, you want the support of a West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. You must take specific care to address your rights and the legal claim so that you have the best possible chance of recovering needed compensation.
Common-Law and Standard Principles of Negligence
The primary principle that allows an injured person to file a claim in Florida courts is negligence. When you can show that another person owed you a duty of care and breached it, it could be used to illustrate negligence in court. When you can prove negligence, the negligent party is responsible for the damage and injuries they caused.
Regarding Florida slip and fall accidents, a party could be held negligent if they knew about but failed to correct a hazard on their property that ultimately contributed to your injuries or if they should have known about that hazard.
Who is Responsible for Paying Damages?
As the injured victim, it falls to you to submit evidence indicating that the property owner or manager in question is negligent and responsible for your injuries. For example, if this was a landlord who knew about or should have known about broken floorboards and you trip and get hurt, you can allege that this landlord is responsible for damage payments. In many cases, you might need the support of a West Palm Beach slip and fall lawyer to help you.
How Does Florida Premises Liability Work?
Premises liability law in FL outlines the most critical factors in these cases. It sets up three categories of people who are owed different levels of care on someone else’s property. Depending on the circumstances, a victim might be able to hold that property manager accountable in a lawsuit.
Here’s what is important to remember about visitors on your property:
- Business visitors are owed the highest level of care on the property, meaning that the owner should be doing regular inspections for possible issues.
- Invited guests have the second-highest duty of care owed to them as they should be protected and warned about possible hazards.
- Trespassers must not be harmed intentionally by the property owner but are owed the least duty of care under the law compared to these other kinds of guests.
As a victim, you must file an injury claim in a timely manner to protect your rights. Don’t wait too long, or you could have your claim dismissed. As our Florida accident attorney can tell you, it’s in your best interest to move forward quickly with a slip and fall injury claim. While the medical bills and lost wages are mounting, you deserve to know your rights.
The Landowner or Controller Has the Highest Duty of Care
A property owner should be aware of possible risks on their property and work to mitigate or remove them. Whoever owns a property can be held liable for injuries sustained on their property. The court looks at the factors above and the relationship between the property owner and the visitor to determine the level of care owed to that person in the event of an accident.
The victim might be able to show, for example, that the property owner knew about cracked and uneven sidewalks but failed to notify others of this hazard or fix it. Your Florida accident attorney can raise these concerns in your slip and fall claim.
Understanding Negligent Failure
Florida statutes define negligence as “the failure to use reasonable care.” While this is up to interpretation amid a FL slip and fall case, if the victim can show that the landowner or manager had the responsibility to fix or remove something and failed to do so, this information could form the basis of a successful slip and fall claim.
The Most Common Type of Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and fall accidents can happen anywhere, and they can lead to devastating injuries. Some of the most common causes of these accidents include:
- Stepladders
- Broken or torn floorboards
- Slick surfaces
- Poor lighting
- Clutter
- Loose mats
- Inclement weather accumulation
Most people don’t realize the severity of slip and fall injuries. These accidents can cause broken bones, fractures, cuts, bruises, strains, and more. Such injuries could cause the victim to miss out on activities they loved to do before the accident and could impact their ability to go back to work.
DiBaggio Law Can Help
No matter how your accident happened, you shouldn’t have to go through this on your own. Di Biaggio Law has extensive experience investigating these kinds of cases and bringing claims when you or someone you love is paying the price from a slip and fall accident. Our dedicated accident attorneys serve clients in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe Counties and will work closely with you to define a plan of how to proceed. Contact DiBiaggio Law today at (561) 473-9800 to schedule your free consultation.
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DISCLAIMER: The information in this blog post (“post”) is provided for general informational purposes only, and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction. No information contained in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author or the law firm, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible through, this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
DiBiaggio Law
605 Belvedere Road, Suite 17
West Palm Beach, FL 33405
(561) 473-9800
https://dibiaggiolaw.com/
