Let's say you're in a grocery store, and you slip on some water that was carelessly left on the floor by someone spraying the lettuce in the produce section. Or the area carpeting at the front door, used to help soak up excess water being tracked in during a rainstorm, gets bunched up, and you trip over the roll in the carpet.
Just an accident, you say? Maybe. But those falls wouldn't have happened had the carpet not been allowed to bunch up, or the water in the produce section properly mopped and the floor dried—or at the very least, blocked with a pylon until it does.
In other words, it is the responsibility of the owner of the premises, or whomever occupies those premises to ensure a safe, hazard-free environment for the consumer.Falls are not fun, and they are anything but the funny pratfalls one sees on television. We may have laughed at Rob Petrie's pratfall over the ottoman during the opening sequence of the Dick Van Dyke show. And when we were young, we were invincible—coming home with scraped knees bruised elbows, and laughing at the experience.
But TV pratfalls are rehearsed and controlled. And the falls we survived when we were young. well...we are no longer young.
Which means a fall for someone at middle age, or someone a few pounds overweight, or someone with slower reflexes, or someone frail and elderly, can be a catastrophic incident. Bones are brittle, and muscles atrophied. Gone are the lightning-fast reflexes of youth that allowed us to brace for a fall, in order to minimize the impact.
Now, we are older—and that trend, thanks to the Boomer wave, will continue. And when you are older, falls are a big deal.
And sometimes they can kill you. How many stories have we heard of Aunt Martha or Grandma Alice, slipping in a fall and breaking a hip, only to never come out of the hospital again? Sometimes, all it takes is a certain injury to accelerate the process that can end a life prematurely.
You don't have to be old, to carry risk from a fall. Pregnant mothers, for example, risk danger to their unborn baby in a fall. Such was the case last year, when a woman six-months pregnant slipped on some liquid on the floor while walking the toy aisle at a Wal Mart in West Hill, California. The woman managed to grab a shelf to steady herself, and to avoid suffering a painful and perhaps life-threatening injury to either herself, or the baby. While she broke no bones in the accident, she was plagued with a swollen ankle and lower back pain for weeks afterward.
A California slip and fall attorney advised the West Hill woman regarding her case, noting that while she was entitled to compensation for her injuries, many businesses and corporations liable for the safety of premises will fight a claim. At this point, many claimants will simply give up, rather than suffer from the intimidation, indignation, or the hassles that are inherent with pursuing, and litigating a claim.
This, while the medical bills pile up. Medical bills the victim has to pay, for a fall that was allegedly caused by someone else.
READ MORE LEGAL NEWS
Wet floors, poor lighting, uneven sidewalks, bunched carpeting—they're all recipes for a fall. You could probably fall just fine on your own, thank you, without help from someone else. Someone whose negligence either contributed to, or caused outright your fall.
And if you break a hip, or suffer some other injury that puts you in hospital for weeks at a time, that's a very expensive fall.
A California slip and fall lawyer, properly looking out for your interests and expertly handling your case, is the one individual next to your doctor, who can really get you back on your feet.