A Word About Pennsylvania's Slip and Fall Law
In Pennsylvania, showing liability on another for your slip and fall accident can prove to be difficult. If you are ever injured in a slip and fall accident, the best thing you can do is hire an experienced slip and fall accident lawyer, someone who handles these cases all the time. Then, ask questions about your burden of proof - what must you prove to be successful in your case. Finally, and most importantly, give serious consideration to the advice of your lawyer who handles these cases every day.
As a Philadelphia Slip and Fall Lawyer, I urge my clients to be reasonable when considering a settlement offer. This week, one of my clients agreed to settle her slip and fall case. The client was walking through Franklin Mills Mall when she slipped and fell on water on the floor. Through hard work during the litigation of the case, we were able to get a very fair settlement offer.
As a Personal Injury Lawyer, I believe a client (in this case a woman) should have as much information about her case as possible so that she can make an informed decision concerning settlement of her case. The following is an excerpt from my letter to the client explaining about the proof issues in her case:
I would like you to understand that this is a slip and fall case on water in a mall. In order to prove liability on the management company of the mall, we must prove that they had notice of the dangerous condition that caused you to fall (the water). Notice can be "actual" or "constructive". Actual is almost never proven in these cases. They will never admit that they had actual notice of water being on the floor and did nothing about it. So, the proof we will need to show is "constructive notice". That means that we must show that they "should have known" of the condition and that the time that they "should have known of the condition" was long enough for them to take reasonable action. So, if the water was there for a minute, then we would lose. If it was there for 60 minutes, well I think this is constructive notice.
So, how do we go about doing this? We look for testimony from other individuals to help us with the case. In this case, we have your daughter who was with you who has said that the puddle looked dirty and had dried foot tracks coming out of it. This is one way to try to show the water was there for a long enough period of time to prove constructive notice.
Assuming we could prove "constructive notice", we have to deal with whether you were negligent for not seeing the puddle. So, if the puddle was dirty and had foot tracks from it, then a jury could conclude you should have seen it as well and charge you with some liability for your own fall. If the jury found you 50% liable, your recovery would be reduced by 50%. If the jury found you 25% liable, then your recovery would be reduced by 25%. And so on. However, if the jury felt you were more than 50% (51% or more) liable, then your recovery is completely barred under Pennsylvania Law.
I hope this explained a bit about Pennsylvania's Slip and Fall Law. Please feel free to contact Slip and Fall Lawyer, Michael Mednick, if you have any questions about your case.
