After a slip and fall accident on someone else's property, it is a good idea to look into your options for getting compensation for your losses.
If you slip and fall on somebody else's property, that person most likely is liable for you injuries and must compensate you for any and all damages. Washington state provides you with a time frame of up to 3 years in order to file any claims you may have resulting in a slip and fall accident.
Many people are injured when they slip and fall on a wet floor, trip on defective stairs or fall from a rough patch of ground. In order to determine liability in a slip and fall accident to be attributed to someone else either the employee on the premise must have caused the spill, the employee must have known about the spill and did nothing about it or the employee should have known about the dangerous surface because a reasonable person would have known.
Common Sites:
Common places that have been found to have dangerous environments include:
- Apartment buildings
- Home Depot
- Grocery Stores like: Fred Meyer, Costco, Safeway, QFC etc.
- Shopping Malls
- Gas stations
- Neighbors' houses, yards and decks
Damages
There is an area of comparative negligence that will occur during the lawsuit. This means that if you are making a slip and fall claim, the person you are filing the lawsuit against will often state some of the following:
- The dangerous condition should have been obvious to you
- The dangerous condition was notated by signage
- You were not paying attention to your surroundings and could've avoided the dangerous situation
- You were not wearing appropriate footwear for the circumstance
It is important to have an experienced personal injury lawyer guide you through this process in order to prevent any of these statements from impacting the amount of damages that you are eligible to receive.
