Winter Park Slip & Fall Lawyer

Slip and fall accidents are common in Winter Park and throughout Orange County and can occur almost anywhere. These accidents are caused by unsafe property conditions and can lead to serious injuries to the victims. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, slip and fall accidents account for about one million visits to the emergency room every year. Most victims assume that a slip and fall accident is their fault, which may not always be the case. 

Winter Park business owners, landlords, homeowners, and even local governments have a responsibility to keep their property adequately safe at all times. If another person’s negligence contributed to your slip and fall accident, you might have the right to seek compensation for your injuries. Working with an experienced slip and fall attorney like David B. Datny can help you prove liability and get the compensation you deserve.

For a free consultation, call us any time at 407-753-7474.

Premises Liability in Slip and Fall Cases

The premises liability law assigns liability when one slips and falls on someone else’s property. Under this law, property owners or occupiers have a duty of keeping visitors safe and may be held liable for the injuries suffered by a visitor if they fail to do so. However, there are different categories of visitors based on why they set foot on the property. Depending on these categories, property owners or occupiers will owe visitors different duties of keeping them safe.

Duty of Care to Invitees

Invitees have express or implied permission to be on another person’s property for the owner’s benefit. Such visits are usually for business or official reasons, and property owners or occupiers owe such visitors the highest duty of care. Winter Park property owners or occupiers are obliged to take reasonable measures to ensure invitees are safe while on their property. They should keep their property well-maintained for visitors’ safety and warn them of any unsafe conditions like slippery floors. Invitees could be customers at businesses open to the public like restaurants, supermarkets, resorts, and amusement parks.

Duty of Care to Licensees

Licensees are individuals with express or implied permission to enter property mainly for their own benefit. Such visitors are owed a slightly lesser duty of care than that owed to invitees. Licensees include individuals visiting a public beach or park and those invited to another person’s house as social guests. Property owners should not expose licensees to potential hazards and should always warn them of existing and known dangers on their property. However, owners have no legal obligation to always keep their property in a safe condition for licensees.

Duty of Care to Trespassers

Trespassers are parties with no permission, express or implied, to enter another person’s property. Property owners owe such people almost no duty of care or protection, except for children. The only duty of care owed to a trespasser is not to deliberately injure them. However, stand your ground laws grant property owners special rights to defend their property against damage or commission of a crime, and the duty of care may be limited on such occasions.

Cases involving child trespassers may be slightly different. Property owners have a duty of care to a certain extent, as they are expected to take reasonable steps to protect children on their property, even if they are trespassers. This is true, especially if their property has features that would be attractive to children, like trampolines and swimming pools.

The Datny Law Firm helps slip and fall victims by first identifying the type of visitor they were on the property at the time of injury. This helps determine the degree of legal liability the property owner has to the injured person.

Proving Liability in Slip and Fall Lawsuits

Property entrants who get injured after slipping and falling on another person’s property may have a right to receive compensation for their injuries, depending on the owner’s legal liability. For a successful slip and fall claim, the plaintiff should prove the following elements:

Duty of Care

Property owners or managers owe visitors a duty of care. They should ensure that the property is sufficiently maintained and that no harmful conditions exist. Any potential hazards should be dealt with by removing, repairing, or placing warning signs on the property to avoid any injuries to visitors. In slip and fall cases, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant owed them a duty of care at the time of injury.

Negligence

The term “reasonable” often comes up in settlement of slip and fall cases. To prove negligence in these cases, the plaintiff must show that the property owner, occupier, or manager breached their duty of care by failing to act as a reasonable person would have, and therefore caused the plaintiff’s injuries. The following questions are relevant in trying to assess whether the defendant was negligent:

• Did the hazardous condition exist long enough that a reasonable person could have noticed and acted to eliminate the hazard?
• Did the property owner put in place a policy for routine checks for potential hazards on their property, and was the procedure followed right before the slip and fall accident?
• Was the creation of a potential hazard reasonably justifiable? If so, was the justification still existent at the time of the slip and fall?
• Could injury from the hazard have been prevented through preventive measures like eliminating the hazard, preventing access to the location, or placing adequate warning signs in the area?
• Could injury from the hazard have been prevented through preventive measures like eliminating the hazard, preventing access to the location, or placing adequate warning signs in the area?

At The Datny Law Firm, we help slip and fall victims hold property owners responsible by proving that they breached their duty of care and that their negligence led to their injuries.

Get Help by Hiring an Experienced Slip and Fall Lawyer in Winter Park

Whether you are a social guest in another person’s home or a customer at a Winter Park store, you may have a valid claim if you were injured in a slip and fall accident due to a property owner’s negligence. David B. Datny can help prove that the property owner was responsible for your injuries so that you receive your much-deserved compensation. By getting the best legal representation in your slip and fall case, you can focus on full recovery and getting back to your everyday life. Contact David B. Datny today by phone at 407-753-7474 or online to find out your legal options if you have suffered injuries following a slip and fall accident.