When there is an accident happening on the property of someone else and you are injured because of the negligence of another party, you have legal rights. However, in order to receive financial compensation, liability needs to be established. Basically, you need to prove who is responsible for what happened.
According to Boston slip and fall lawyers, liability is all about 2 things:
- The parties that are potentially liable.
- Whether or not these parties were really negligent.
You should also be able to anticipate and defend against what the defense is going to try to prove. For instance, the defendant might try to show that you were negligent and you played a part in you getting injured.
What Should You Prove?
If you want to hold someone else responsible for the injuries you suffered because of the slip and fall incident, you need to prove a thing like:
- The property owner needed to recognize the presence of a dangerous condition and should have repaired or removed the danger. However, the owner failed. Simply put, the important thing here is to show that a reasonable person could have identified hazards and done something to prevent the injury.
- The property owner was the cause of the condition that led to the accident, like when leaving hazardous obstacles unattended.
Proving Liability And Negligence
In legal cases, it is the term “reasonable” that appears in negotiations and that causes problems. Basically, you want to prove negligence and liability but how can you do this? The way in which this is done is by showing how a regular person would act in the same situation as what happened during the accident. When the actions of the defendant were different, it is considered that they were negligent.
When assessing if the defendant did or did not act reasonably, the plaintiffs have to consider different things, including:
- Whether or not the obstacle or the hazardous condition existed for enough time to be considered reasonable to take action in order to eliminate it.
- Whether or not there was some sort of policy in place to check for the existence of potential hazards. If this was the case, was there a log of what procedures were done and what procedures need to be done if an accident happens?
- Whether or not there was some sort of reasonable justification for the potential hazard being created. If this is the case, was the justification still reasonable when the slip and fall accident happened?
- Were there ways to prevent the hazardous condition through some preventive measures like using warning signage, relocating hazards, or by preventing location access?
- Was the slip and fall accident influenced by limited visibility or poor lighting?
As you can see, some of these things can be quite complicated. It is very important that you get the proof you need to prove negligence. A slip and fall attorney will help you to do exactly that. Look for one that is highly reputable and is very experienced with cases like yours and you are going to receive a much higher financial compensation.
