Businesses and property owners in Norcross are responsible for keeping visitors safe from unreasonable harm, but they don’t always uphold this duty. As a result of negligence or neglect, someone visiting their property can slip and fall, potentially hurting themselves in the process.
Slip and fall accidents can come out of nowhere, and they can lead to serious injuries that take months to recover from. Some unfortunate accident victims never fully recover from their injuries, obtaining spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, or nerve-damaging injuries that have lifelong effects.
Andersen, Tate & Carr, P.C. can provide accident victims with an experienced Norcross slip and fall accident lawyer to represent their case. We want to help you seek all available compensation possible for your injuries, increasing the chances that you make a full medical and financial recovery. Our seasoned attorneys know the strategies that have helped past cases succeed, and we are prepared to represent your interests vigorously during a claim or possible lawsuit.
Find out how much compensation your case could be worth and what legal strategies could benefit you the most during a free, no-obligation consultation with our slip and fall accident lawyers in Norcross.
Call 770-237-9860 or contact us online to schedule your free case review now.
Places Where a Slip and Fall Accident Can Occur in Norcross
Any property in Norcross has the potential to be the site of a slip and fall accident, but some types of properties are more prone to these types of accidents than others. These may include:
- Grocery stores
- Retail stores
- Car dealership lots
- Rented commercial spaces
- Amusement parks
- Parking lots
- Storage facilities
- Spas and salons
- Apartment buildings
- Rental homes
Basic Components of a Norcross Slip and Fall Injury Case
Slip and fall accidents fall under the category of law known as premises liability. Premises liability laws state that if a property owner — or in some cases, the current tenant of a property — directly causes an injury because of their negligence, then the injury victim can seek a personal injury claim against them.
The Four Parts of a Negligence Case
All negligence claims have four main components:
- The defendant (in this case, the property owner) had a duty of care to protect visitors or tenants of their properties from unreasonable risk of harm
- The defendant breached their duty of care by acting in a way that caused an unreasonable risk of harm or failing to act in a way that would keep their property reasonably safe
- The breach directly caused an injury (proximate cause)
- The injury led to damages, which is the legal term for losses, both financial and non-financial
In the case of a slip and fall, a negligence claim alleges that the property owner’s failure to keep their property reasonably safe directly led to an injury.
A property owner’s expected duty of care is that they must follow all laws and safety regulations required to protect visitors and tenants from harm, and they must also exercise “ordinary care” as a “reasonable person” would. If the injury victim was an “invitee,” such as a customer or tenant, then the property owner had an even higher level of expected care to prevent undue harm from occurring.
A Norcross slip and fall accident attorney must demonstrate the defendant’s failure to follow laws or the “reasonable person” standard and how this failure directly led to the accident. They will also use evidence to establish whether the victim was an invitee, licensee, or trespasser to apply the appropriate standard of care expected.
Foreseeable Risk of Harm
One crucial component of slip and fall cases that makes them different from other types of negligence cases is that the injury victim must often prove that the conditions of the slip and fall created a “foreseeable” and unreasonable risk to their health and safety.
If an injury victim cannot demonstrate a “foreseeable” risk that the property owner either knew about or should have anticipated, the defendant can sometimes allege that there was no way for them to reasonably prevent the accident from happening.
Examples of circumstances that could constitute a “foreseeable” risk include a hazard that was:
- Known to exist to the property owner, who failed to address it and also failed to warn visitors and tenants about the hazard
- Known to recur, such as a slippery patch of air conditioner runoff that appeared during hot days, and the property owner did not determine a means to solve the problem or prevent it from causing harm, such as by warning visitors
- Created by a failure to adequately survey and maintain a specific area — or the property in general — in a manner that a “reasonable person” would know to be unsafe
Evidence that the property owner was aware of an existing hazard or a recurring one is often the best way to strengthen a slip and fall injury claim.
Otherwise, the case may have to rely on statements by experienced professionals. These statements are intended to demonstrate that a property owner who was a “reasonable person” exercising “ordinary care” would have discovered the hazard or anticipated it to the point that it could have been dealt with. Examples of the property owner’s neglect or their failure to hire competent professionals to maintain the property can serve as evidence in these cases.
How a Slip and Fall Accident Attorney in Norcross Can Help
The “proximate cause” component of negligence cases can leave defendants with the opportunity to say that they were not the only cause of the accident. They could argue that the injury victim should have been able to notice the hazard that caused their slip and fall and avoided it as a “reasonable person” exercising “ordinary care” would.
Georgia’s comparative negligence laws reduce the liability of a party according to their portion of fault for an accident. In other words, if a property owner claims that you were 40% responsible for your accident, they will only have to pay 60% of the damages. A defendant who can prove that the injury victim was more than 50% responsible for their accident won’t have to pay anything at all.
Our Norcross personal injury attorneys are familiar with these tactics, and we are prepared to counter them with a vigorous legal defense. We are also aware of strategies insurers use to reduce the value of your claim, such as alleging that your injury wasn’t as severe as the claim stated.
By anticipating possible defenses and providing evidence to back up the main arguments of your case, we hope to give you the maximum chances of receiving a fair settlement offer. In the event no settlement offer can be reached, we are prepared to proceed to litigation, mediation, and even a jury trial if that’s what it takes to receive the amount of compensation you deserve.
Find out what strategies could be used to help you potentially win your case during a free, no-obligation consultation with a slip and fall lawyer in Norcross. Schedule your free appointment now when you call 770-237-9860 or contact us online.