Our Approach to DC Slip and Fall Cases
The following is taken from an interview with a DC slip and fall lawyer as they discuss how to approach a slip and fall case in DC. For information regarding your case, call and schedule a consultation today.
How To Approach a Slip and Fall Case in DC
Well the most important thing in slip and fall cases is to investigate thoroughly. It’s important for the person who has been injured to report the incident immediately. It’s also important generally to seek the services of a qualified attorney because that attorney will want to be in a position to investigate, to talk to witnesses, to take pictures of the area where the fall occurred, where the injury occurred so that a thorough analysis can be done.
The law is somewhat difficult in this area because the property owner doesn’t have to guarantee the safety of everyone that’s on the premises. The duty is really to keep the premises reasonably safe and the negligence of the property owner is in permitting a condition to exist on the property. And to use ordinary care to keep the property in a safe condition for use by the members of the public. So when you are advancing a person’s case, you have to prove that an unsafe condition caused the plaintiff to fall and either that the property owner caused the unsafe condition or reasonably knew or should have known of the condition and the danger that it posed. So notice becomes a very important issue in most of these cases. Notice that the property owner had notice of the defect themselves and had time to do something about it.
So when you’re looking at these cases, that’s what you need to investigate from the outset and the sooner that an attorney is involved the sooner that the investigation can take place. Witnesses can be interviewed, pictures can be taken of the defect to capture the conditions at the time of the injury and all of this is extremely important when looking at these types of cases.
What Are The Benefits of Having a Law Firm Represent You On a Slip and Fall Case?
This is not an easy area of the law. People might think that because they’re injured on someone else’s property, the property owner is automatically liable, but that is not the case. In many respects, the law favors the property owner, and just because an incident happens on their property does not mean they are responsible for it. They must either know of the dangerous condition and have failed to eliminate it, or should have known of it, and have failed to warn of it, which is the responsibility they have as well.
In these cases it has to be proven that the property owner caused or knew of the dangerous condition, or should have known of it and/or should have warned of it. Just the fact that it occurred on the property does not make them liable. So in that respect, you need a qualified lawyer with experience in handling these cases to know how to navigate the ins and outs of the law, to be able to get involved and investigate early, and to establish what is needed to prove the case.