When you walk around in your daily life, it’s natural to not look at the ground you walk on, because you expect it to be generally free of hazards. Sometimes, though, certain conditions can make the floor dangerous to walk on, causing injuries.
While dangerous flooring sounds like a minor hazard, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that floors contribute to more than 2 million fall injuries each year, and 85% of all workers’ compensation claims come from workers falling on floors.
Dangerous flooring is a broad term used to contain a number of conditions and hazards that can cause injuries, which can be minor, such as sprains and fractures, bruising, and cuts, to catastrophic, including injuries like brain trauma, broken bones, and spinal cord injuries.
Dangerous flooring conditions include:
- Cracked, damaged, or missing stairs
- Damaged, torn, or worn carpeting
- Uneven or broken floors, sidewalks, parking lots, and walkways
- Bunched up rugs and carpets
- Ice and snow on outdoor walkways
- Slippery floors due to spilled liquids or water tracked inside, as well as wax or polish
While you’d assume many individuals can recover from falls easily, they can often result in serious injuries and in some cases, death. Falls are especially fatal to elderly individuals, and thousands of Americans over 65 die every year from falls or complications relating to injuries from a fall.
Why You Need a Lawyer After a Fall
If you’ve fallen and injured yourself on someone else’s property, you may have a premises liability case on your hands. Property owners are responsible for maintaining the safety of their property, and if they didn’t fix the dangerous flooring, they can be considered negligent.
Injuries from a fall can be expensive to treat, resulting in medical bills and prescription bills, and you may have damaged property in the accident, or have lost wages from having to miss work. If your fall happened in the workplace, you may also be entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits.
Whether you need to file a workers’ comp claim or a premises liability case, our personal injury lawyers can provide legal counsel to help you achieve the maximum amount of compensation you deserve. Guilty parties may try to evade liability in order to not have to pay; our team has recovered millions of dollars for clients and can make sure you receive everything you need.
Holding Property Owners Accountable
At Smolich and Smolich, we believe that property owners owe it to customers and visitors to keep them safe. As a visitor, when you visit a business or store, you expect the premises to be free of hazards. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. If you’ve been injured as the result of a property owner’s negligence, you deserve to be compensated. Our slip and fall accident lawyers are available to listen to your story and help you recover. Slip and fall accidents can cause serious injuries that require extensive medical treatment. You shouldn’t have to worry about paying the bills when you weren’t at fault.
Call Smolich and Smolich for a free consultation at (916) 571-0400, or contact us online if you or a loved one has been injured. From slip and fall accidents to wrongful death cases, our personal injury attorneys can pursue the compensation you need to recover and return to work.