Slip and Falls
Premises Liability Lawyers Helping Victims in New Jersey
A slip and fall may sound minor, but the injuries that result may be serious, including fractures, broken bones, herniated discs, and concussions. If you slip and fall on someone else’s property, you should enlist a personal injury attorney to try to hold a property owner or business responsible for items of loss, such as medical bills, lost wages, loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and rehabilitation. At the Grimes Law Firm, New Jersey slip and fall attorney Raymond A. Grimes is ready to help you bring a claim for compensation.
Establishing Liability for a Slip and Fall Accident
If you are hurt on property where you were invited for reasons that benefit both the owner and you, you are owed a high standard of care. All property owners are supposed to provide reasonably safe conditions for visitors. For example, in New Jersey, business owners owe their invitees the duty of using reasonable care to maintain areas that customers might traverse, including the parking lot, in a reasonably safe condition. Part of that obligation is the duty to keep the lot reasonably free of ice and snow.
A business owner also owes a duty to its customers to clean up any spills or substances that could cause someone to slip and fall. If you are hurt in a slip and fall, you will need to prove that the property owner or business owed you a duty to conform to a specific standard of care, it failed to meet this duty, the failure was the actual and proximate cause of your injuries, and you incurred actual damages. Often, you will also need to prove actual or constructive notice: that the defendant knew or should have known about the dangerous condition on which you fell and failed to warn you about it or fix it in a reasonable amount of time.
There is an exception in New Jersey to the actual or constructive notice requirement, known as the mode of operation rule. You will not need to establish notice if the dangerous condition was something that was likely to happen based on probability because of the nature of the business, the property conditions, or a demonstrable pattern of conduct or incidents. If you properly invoke this rule, you will establish an inference of negligence. This means that the burden shifts to the defendant to provide proof that it took reasonable and prudent measures to avoid a potential danger.
For example, the mode of operation rule applies if a defendant mall does not restrict customers from carrying or consuming food and drink, and someone slips and falls on a spilled drink. The rationale is that the mall becomes the functional equivalent of a cafeteria and may reasonably be charged with notice that spills are likely to occur.
Consult a Skillful New Jersey Attorney for Your Slip and Fall Claim
If you are able to establish a business’ or property owner’s liability, you may recover economic and noneconomic damages to the extent that you are able to prove them. Slip and fall accidents may cause serious injuries. It is crucial to retain a New Jersey slip and fall lawyer who understands how to pursue damages in these cases, including how to gather evidence of notice or invoke the mode of operation rule. At the Grimes Law Firm, we represent slip and fall victims in Neshanic Station and elsewhere in Somerset County, as well as throughout the tri-state area. Contact us online or call us at (908) 371-1066 to schedule a free consultation. We also assist people who need a car accident attorney or guidance in another personal injury case.