Losing your footing and falling hard on whatever is beneath you can cause you to suffer deceptively serious injuries, especially if you are a young child, an elderly adult, or already dealing with another acute or chronic medical problem. When it comes to filing suit over this type of accident, the most important thing is not how badly you were hurt, but whether you can prove your injury was due to a landowner’s negligent property management.
Certain types of hazards are more likely to serve as substantial grounds for slip and fall lawsuits than others. These hazards can occur on various types of property and are typically things a responsible property owner generally has a duty to address. Here are the most common causes of slip and falls in Mesa, which the experienced premises liability attorneys at Phillips Law Group see in cases of this nature.
The physical cause of a slip and fall is almost always a loss of traction between someone’s feet and the surface they are walking on, and that loss of traction can stem from more than one type of hazard. An experienced personal injury lawyer will explain that the archetypal example of a slipping hazard is a puddle, spill, or damp residue left over from routine cleaning. This is because, even a fractional layer of water between the soles of someone’s shoes and a smooth surface, such as tile or stone, can eliminate friction between those two materials.
In Mesa, however, slipping and falling is also typically caused by something solid getting between a person’s feet and the floor underneath them, such as a loose piece of paper or a food wrapper not discarded in a trash can. In some cases, a lack of non-slip material on inclined surfaces, such as ramps or stairs, can also contribute to this type of accident.
A lawyer can advise on an entirely different set of hazards stemming from unique property threats that can cause tripping and falling accidents. For example, someone is unlikely to slip if they step on an unsecured electrical cord, but if their ankle were to snag against that cord or any other disorganized clutter jutting out into a walkway, their ensuing accident could lead to a hard impact against the ground with severe physical consequences.
Other typical causes of Mesa trip and fall accidents include uneven flooring, steps in staircases with varying heights and depths, torn or frayed carpeting, and cracks or potholes in pavements. Some hazards can even qualify as both slipping and tripping hazards simultaneously, such as an unsecured rug, which may catch on someone’s foot or slide out from under them as they step onto it.
The common causes of slip and falls in Mesa could all potentially qualify as a violation of the duty of care a landowner owes to lawful visitors on their land. If you can prove that such a breach of duty was the leading cause of an otherwise avoidable injury, you can demand civil recovery for every form of harm that injury will ever cause you. This includes medical bills, lost work income, physical pain and suffering, and more.
Getting a favorable outcome from this sort of claim is far from easy to accomplish alone, which is why getting in touch with Phillips Law Group should be a top priority if you have been hurt in this way recently. Call today to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our experienced personal injury lawyers to discuss your potential case.
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