Property owners have an obligation to protect your safety by maintaining safe conditions on sidewalks, parking lots, and stairs. If you were seriously injured and you have a case, I will come to you. Call the Robinette Legal Group, in Morgantown, West Virginia. Call toll free: 866-552-6091.
Experienced Morgantown Slip and Fall Injury Attorneys
Property owners and managers have a legal responsibility to protect the safety of visitors to their property. This includes owners of retail establishments, government entities and owners of residential properties.
Slip and fall accidents are some of the most common events causing injury. Most of the time, a fall may only cause a bruise or skinned hand, knee, or elbow. Occasionally, these falls can cause more severe and long term injuries including broken bones which require surgery, head and brain injuries, severe spine, back or neck injuries, or a broken hip.
When these injuries cause you to lose time at work, to incur costly medical bills, and impact your family life, you may have a valid claim for negligence. Slip and falls can occur from natural conditions such as ice and snow on sidewalks and parking lots. Other times, these injuries occur as a direct result of someone else’s carelessness in failing to maintain their property in good condition.
Trips, slips and falls often occur as a result of:
- Broken or defective stairs or handrails
- Porches that are broken or in disrepair
- Uneven sidewalks
- Missing manhole covers
- Slippery floors
- Poorly lit stairwells
- Rugs or mats that slip, are in poor condition, or bunched up
- Oily or wet spots from spills
- Changes in flooring levels
- Door thresholds which present a tripping hazard
Not every accident that occurs is the fault of the property owner. In West Virginia, even if you are found to be partially at fault, you may be eligible for some compensation depending on the individual circumstance of your accident. You may be eligible for help with medical bills, past and future lost wages, and other future expenses which will result from your injury.
To obtain compensation in a slip and fall case, it must be proved that a property owner failed to keep his or her property in good repair and to warn about any unsafe condition. He or she is held to a standard of whether or not they acted as any reasonable person would have been expected to act. For instance, if he knew about a condition on his property and failed to take steps to ensure the safety of others, that owner may be said to be negligent.
It may be difficult to show that a landowner has been negligent. Considerations would include whether or not regular inspections of the property had occurred, immediate repairs are made to problems and defects, the premises is regularly cleaned, whether a repair person is on staff, and whether or not the property has a history of repairs not being made within a reasonable time. For instance, are light bulbs replaced quickly when burned out, or are steps not fixed until they actually break — if this is the case, then it may be easier to show that the landowner has a history of negligent property management.
Slip and fall cases are not always easy or clear cut. Individuals have a personal responsibility to look out for themselves and steer clear of obvious hazards. If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, you should contact an experienced slip and fall attorney before trying to settle your claim yourself.
The Robinette Legal Group has been representing clients involved in premises liability claims for more than a decade. In our early years, we were recognized as a formidable insurance defense law firm, fighting aggressively to defend insurance companies from paying excessive damages for injuries suffered on their policyholders’ properties. Our trial attorneys now use that same experience and knowledge of premises liability laws to prove that the victim’s rights were more important than corporate profits.
Free Consultation · No Attorneys’ Fees Unless You Win · Statewide Practice
Today, we often represent victims of negligence who have been injured or lost a loved one because a property owner or manager failed to protect the safety of the public. If you have been injured, contact us to arrange a free consultation about your premises liability claim. We represent plaintiffs on a contingency basis. If you don’t recover money damages for your injuries and financial losses, you won’t pay attorneys’ fees.
We have extensive insurance litigation experience in premises liability cases, including:
- Retail store injuries, falling accidents
- Assault injuries, negligent security
- Parking ramp accidents, parking lot injuries
- Defective doors, dangerous entryways
- Stairwell injuries, escalator and elevator accidents
- Dog bite injuries
- Toxic exposure, mesothelioma from asbestos products, exposure to lead paint
- Playground injuries
Contact our offices to discuss your slip and fall or other type of premises liability claim with a lawyer on our team today.
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