Falls are all too common throughout the state of Pennsylvania. There are many reasons and situations in which they might occur. Whether it happens at your workplace, at another person’s home or in a store, it can result in serious injuries. These injuries could lead to prolonged or permanent impairment and necessitate expensive treatment.
Depending on the circumstances surrounding an incident of this nature, it may be possible to recover damages via a premise liability lawsuit. To be successful, there are multiple elements that might need to be proven.
The first is that the owner of the property, or an employee, either knew, or should have known, that the condition that caused the fall was dangerous and needed to be addressed. Next, that despite that knowledge or suspicion, the issue was not fixed. In the alternative, it must be shown that either the employee, or owner of the property, caused the dangerous condition to occur.
Cases of this nature are generally complex and may hinge on whether actions taken by responsible parties, that led to the fall, were reasonable. In providing support for this it may make sense to focus on whether in the case of tripping over an object, there was a legitimate reason for the object to be where it was, when it was. In other situations, looking to the way in which the property was routinely cleaned could be enlightening. Last, offering information regarding how long the defect that caused the fall, had been in existence, can be beneficial.
Because these cases are often complicated, those who find they are in this situation could benefit from working with a lawyer.