Slip and Fall Lawyer

Gainesville Slip and Fall Lawyer

Slip, trip, and fall accidents can cause serious injuries such as bone fractures, head injuries, and spinal cord damage. It is up to a property owner to prevent these accidents through proper care of a premises. Failure to do so, resulting in someone else’s injuries, is negligence in the eyes of the law. If you or a loved one have injuries from a slip and fall somewhere in Gainesville, contact Fischer Redavid PLLC. We can help you file a premises liability claim if your case has merit.

Florida’s Premises Liability Laws

Under Florida law, a company will be liable for a slip and fall if the “business establishment had actual or constructive knowledge” of the substance or condition that caused the accident yet failed to remedy it. “Constructive knowledge” can mean that the condition existed for a long period of time or that the condition occurred often and was thus foreseeable. Constructive knowledge means that the business or property owner reasonably should have known it existed. It may take testimony from experts to prove that a reasonable and prudent business owner would have known about the hazard and taken action to fix it.

Property owners have different levels of duties according to who is entering the property. Invitees have the highest standards of care. They are people the business owner invites to the premises, such as customers. Property owners must repair known slip and fall hazards, check for hidden ones, and warn of potential dangers, such as a freshly waxed floor. Licensees are a step below invitees. They are people who have permission to enter the property but do so for their own reasons, such as salespeople. Owners do not have to check for hidden slip and fall hazards for licensees.

Unless you were an adult trespasser at the time of your slip and fall accident, the property owner where your slip and fall accident occurred owed you certain duties of care. If the owner breached this duty by failing to remedy a slip and fall hazard and you fell as a result, you have the main elements of a premises liability claim. You have four years from the date of your fall to file a claim in Florida. Contact our firm as soon as you can to learn more about the laws surrounding your case.

Common Slip and Fall Hazards

Gainesville, Florida might not have common slip and fall hazards relating to sleet, snow, or ice, but that doesn’t mean these accidents don’t happen. Other slip and fall dangers can befall Floridian property visitors at grocery stores, public parks, beaches, shopping malls, amusement parks, and elsewhere. Even government agencies could be responsible for slip and falls if they occur at public or government-owned buildings, such as a Gainesville courthouse. Some of the most common causes of slip and fall accidents include:

Cluttered floors
Failure to warn
Faulty staircase railing
Greasy, oily, or waxy floors
Improper footwear (i.e. at a nursing facility)
Inadequate lighting
Rainy weather conditions
Sprinklers overflowing onto sidewalks
Uneven surfaces
Wet floors

Property and business owners have a duty to notice or foresee potential slip and fall hazards, and to repair them before welcoming anyone onto the property. Otherwise, the environment could pose unreasonable risks of harm. If you think someone else should have prevented your recent slip and fall accident but negligently failed to do so, contact our Gainesville Slip and Fall lawyers. We’ll listen to your story, tell you if you have grounds for a personal injury claim, and take over the legal process from there.