Irvine Slip and Fall Lawyer

Slip and fall or trip and fall incidents fall under the general legal category called premises liability. Slip and fall or trip and fall injuries can be extremely serious, which can include orthopedic injuries, head injuries, such as a concussion or traumatic brain injury. When these types of accidents take place the owner or operator of the premises where the injury occurred may be held responsible for the injuries of the victim in some cases. As a result, it is extremely important to analyze the mechanics of the fall and what caused the exact injuries to be sustained. An Irvine slip and fall attorney can assist in this regard by examining all the available documentation and looking how the accident took place. An

An Irvine slip and fall attorney can assist in this regard by examining all the available documentation and looking how the accident took place. An experienced personal injury attorney can also help by guiding the victim through the legal process in order to maximize the recovery.

How Important Are the Causes of a Slip and Fall Accident?

All property owners and lessees must use reasonable care to maintain safe premises. In practical terms, that means they must:

  • Conduct regular inspections to identify hazards
  • Repair dangerous conditions
  • Warn visitors of any unrepaired hazards that are not obvious or apparent

An owner or occupier is considered negligent if they fail to uphold these obligations and an individual suffers an injury as a result. An Irvine slipping accident attorney must investigate the circumstances of a fall to determine whether negligence was a factor and if an injured person has grounds to bring a lawsuit.

It is exceedingly important to review the specific mechanics of the particular fall. This includes the location where the individual fell, the nature of the flooring, whether there was a foreign substance on the floor or ground, and the type of alleged defective condition on the premises that caused the fall.

What Factors Are Important for Attorneys to Review?

It is also important that an Irvine slip and fall attorney analyze what are known as the “human factors” aspect of a fall, which would include details such as conduct of the individual who fell, the type of footwear they were wearing, and what they were doing at the time the fall occurred. The nature of the fall and how it produced the injury is also very important. All of these factors need to be analyzed in order to proceed with a slip and fall or premises liability case on behalf on an injured client.

California Civil Code § 1714 makes every party to a lawsuit responsible for the consequences of their actions. A judge or jury will allocate fault between the parties, and a plaintiff who was partially negligent will be responsible for their proportional share of the damages. The negligent plaintiff could then collect the rest of their damages from other negligent parties.

Slip and Fall Laws

There are specific laws in California that deal with premises liability and slip and fall cases. In order to prove a premises liability case, the plaintiff and their slip and fall injury lawyer in Irvine must show that there was a defective condition at the location which caused the individual to sustain injury.

Another important factor in premises liability cases requires proof that the owner or operator of the premises had notice of the defective condition that caused the injury. The types of notice to the owner/operator of the premises differs depending upon if the injury occurred at a retail or commercial location such as supermarket or shopping mall, as opposed to whether the injury occurred at a private residence.

Regardless of the location, the experienced Irvine slip and fall attorney will know how to analyze all of these factors in order to represent the client and obtain the best possible compensation depending upon the facts of the particular matter and injuries sustained.

Damages Available in Slip and Fall Injury Cases

The money that an injured person receives from a property owner or lessee in a slip and fall case is called their damages. Virtually any loss that a claimant suffers because of an injury could be recoverable through an award of damages, as long as the claimant establish a direct connection between the loss and the injury.

Compensatory damages typically include reimbursement for injury-related costs such as medical care, prescriptions, copayments, and any out-of-pocket expenses related to the injury. If the injury kept the individual from work, their damages would include lost income. When an injury is so severe that is requires ongoing medical treatment or will prevent a return to work, damages also might include a sum to compensate for these projected future losses.

Damages include payments in acknowledgment of an individual’s diminished quality of life. Embarrassment, disability, inconvenience, physical pain, lost enjoyment of life, loss of companionship, and emotional suffering all could be elements of a damages award.

Punitive Damages

In most slip and fall injury cases, a plaintiff could collect only compensatory damages. However, if an Irvine attorney could prove by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant in a slip and fall case acted with malice or recklessness that resulted in a plaintiff’s injury, a court might award punitive damages.

As the name implies, the purpose of punitive damages is to punish a defendant and discourage similar behavior among others. The amount of punitive damages is up to the court’s discretion.

Filing On Behalf of a Child

When a premises liability matter involves injuries to a child, the parent should obtain appropriate legal advice as soon as possible after the incident occurred. Since we are dealing with injuries to a minor child, the parent or legal guardian will need to be named as the “guardian ad litem” which means that he or she is required to represent the child’s best interest.

An experienced slip and fall attorney in Irvine will know how to deal with the specific injuries sustained by the child concerning what medical treatment is required, from the time of the injury and into the future. Ultimately, the Court must approve any settlement of a case involving a minor child, so that the funds obtained on behalf of the minor are set aside and protected for the benefit of the minor.

Contact an Irvine Slip and Fall Attorney

An individual who has sustained serious injuries in any type of slipping case should ask and Irvine slip and fall lawyer if they have handled these types of cases previously. There are specific statutes and precedent cases in California that deal with proving these cases. Call now to learn more.