Negligent or careless building owners can be held responsible for slip-and-fall injuries. However, these are personal injury cases where renters must prove that their landlord’s (building owner) carelessness caused their slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accidents. In other words, you must be able to connect the property owner’s and/or managing agent’s etc. negligence (carelessness) and your accident or injury. There is no question that slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accidents may lead to major injuries or even death. Therefore, it is important to know what your rights are when it comes to claiming compensation for your losses.
New York Premises Liability Law
Under New York’s premises liability laws, you may have the right to be 
compensated for slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall injuries that you suffer on someone else’s property. Property owners and property managers have a duty of care when it comes to owning and maintaining their properties. There are two main elements to prove in a premises liability case against a landlord (building owner) – one, that a property owner/manager owed a legal duty to the victim and two, that they breached this duty.
In order to establish these elements, plaintiffs must often establish the following:
• That the defendant owned the property, which means they should have ownership and control of the property, not that they need to be present at the property.
• Plaintiffs (victims) may be tenants on the property or they may have been invited by someone on the property, or they may have been hired to do some type of work on the property.
• The plaintiff (victim) must show that dangerous conditions existed on the property. Examples of dangerous conditions include slippery or uneven floors, snow or ice on walkways or stairways, insufficient lighting, broken or poorly maintained stairways, urine or debris on stairs, etc.
• Plaintiffs (victim) must also show that property owners and/or managing agents etc. knew or should have known about the unsafe conditions, but failed to address them. Proving negligence (carelessness) and failure to uphold that duty to keep people safe can be accomplished in various ways. You may be able to show that the property owner or manager did not take reasonable steps to fix potential hazards. You may show that property owners/managers did not actually repair the dangerous condition, or that they did attempt to fix the issue, but it was inadequate or made the problem worse.
• It is also important to note that the law requires property owners/managers to warn tenants, visitors and others about potential hazards. For example, newly polished floors or wet floors should be marked with cones or signs that warn people about the potential slip-and-fall danger. The area could also be cordoned off.
What to Do If You Have Been Injured
If you have been injured in a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident, it is important that you seek prompt medical attention and treatment. Not only does it put you on the road to recovery, but also helps document all injuries caused by the accident as evidence for your potential slip-and-fall lawsuit.
Renters who suffer injuries as a result of property owners’ (or property manager’s) negligence (carelessness) should remember to take photographs and/or video of the accident scene especially the dangerous condition that caused the fall. In addition, you should collect contact information for eyewitnesses and write down details of the accident such as time, location, and cause.
It would also be a good idea to file an incident report with the property owner or manager and get a copy of that report for your own records. It is also important that you contact an experienced New York premises liability lawyer who knows and understands how to compile a strong case and can rescue you from the pitfalls that jeopardize your claim.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
Slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall accidents have the potential to result in life-changing injuries and long-term medical expenses that will not be covered by health insurance policies. If you were injured in a slip-and-fall or a trip-and-fall accident as a result of someone else’s negligence (carelessness), please remember that you have rights. Some of the damages that victims of such accidents can claim include, but are not limited to, medical expenses, loss of wages and benefits, cost of hospitalization, surgery, physical therapy, past and future pain and suffering, permanent injury, etc.
The experienced New York personal injury attorneys with the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. For over 49 years, our skilled attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims.
Our law firm recovered $1,700,000 for a woman who slipped and fell and received no hospital or medical treatment for one month after the accident. Our law firm also recently recovered $5,600,000 for a bicyclist who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, and the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck, and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury and medical malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com