A bright yellow “Wet Floor” sign is hardly an uncommon sight in retail stores and other customer-focused businesses across Arizona. Those signs are typically there for a very good reason—namely, to ensure visitors know to watch their step, and to minimize the legal liability that the property owner holds for ensuing accidents. However, just because a landowner puts up a sign like this does not necessarily mean you cannot sue them over a slip and fall, nor does the lack of a sign automatically make the landowner liable for your injuries.
The legal rules and restrictions governing wet floor accidents in Tempe are a bit more complicated than you might expect, and navigating them efficiently to get a favorable outcome from a civil claim can be exceptionally difficult alone. Fortunately, you have help available from tenacious slip and fall attorneys with over 30 years of experience helping people like you all across the metropolitan area.
When Are Property Owners Liable for Wet Floor Accidents?
To briefly sum up “premises liability” law in Arizona, property owners and managers are expected to keep their land in a reasonably safe condition for lawful property visitors, and their “duty of care” in this regard requires them to warn visitors about all known hazards and, in many situations, inspect their property regularly so they discover unknown hazards quickly. As a result, successfully filing suit over a wet floor accident in Tempe typically entails first proving that the landowner did not provide sufficient warning about the wet floor in question and that they either knew or reasonably should have known about the wet floor but did nothing to address it.
This is why the presence or lack of a “Wet Floor” sign does not necessarily make or break a slip and fall claim. For instance, the sign could be placed so far from the spill that it is useless in a practical sense, or the spill could have happened so soon before someone slipped on it that no reasonable landowner could have discovered and addressed it in time to stop the accident. Sorting out what the available evidence shows and who might actually be liable for this sort of incident is something a skilled legal professional from our firm could provide irreplaceable assistance with.
How “Comparative Fault” Could Affect Recovery
Another thing a legal representative can help handle proactively after a wet floor injury in Tempe is accusations made by a defendant landowner that the injured person suing them was partially at fault for their own injuries. In brief, if someone hurt in a slip and fall did something negligent to increase their risk of being in an accident and getting hurt, like knowingly wearing shoes without any tread, they may be assigned a percentage of “comparative fault” for their own ensuing injury.
In accordance with Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-2505, a court could proportionately reduce the total compensation available to that injured person based on their share of total fault for their accident. It is worth noting, though, that since Arizona is a “pure comparative fault” state, it is still possible for an injured person to demand at least some civil compensation from another at-fault person so long as they are not 100 percent to blame for their own injury.
Contact a Tempe Attorney for Help Suing Over a Wet Floor Accident
Anyone who does not think a wet walking surface can lead to serious injuries has never accidentally walked over one and taken a hard fall as a result. Unfortunately, actually holding a landowner legally liable for an accident of this nature can be harder in practice than you might prefer to think, especially if you try to do it alone.
Assistance from seasoned legal representation can make a world of difference in your odds of recovering fairly for the harm you unfairly suffered through a wet floor accident in Tempe. Call today for a private consultation.
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