Were you Injured at a Store? Memphis Slip and Fall Attorneys Discuss Your Rights

While shopping can be an enjoyable activity with friends and families, a negligently maintained store can be an accident waiting to happen. The good news is that most store owners are conscientious about keeping their property safe for us to visit.  However, too many owners fail to adequately maintain their properties or cut-corners to turn a larger profit.  When this happens, the customers are the ones to suffer.

According to the National Floor Safety Institute, slip and falls account for over 1 million hospital emergency room visits each year.  The elderly are the most common group of people who could fall as one and three people above 65 will experience a fall.  Of these people over 65 years old, approximately 15,000 will die as a result of the fall.

There can be many different causes of Memphis slip and fall cases.  Some of these causes include:

• Wet floors;
• Inadequate or no lighting;
• Missing, inadequate, or broken hand rails down stairs;
• Poorly maintained or damages stairs;
• Improperly constructed or maintained walking surfaces;
• Product slips which are neglected to be cleaned up;
• Improper mixing of cleaning chemicals;
• Broken sidewalk or curbs;
• Icy or otherwise slick curbs; and
• Deceptive or poorly marked short-step or half-steps.

Under the law, slip and fall cases are categorized as “premises liability” cases.  These types of cases pertain to injuries that occur on a property, because of a property, or of relating to the land in one way or another.

This is why Tennessee law creates a burden on the property owner to use reasonable care to make the premises safe or to warn of dangerous conditions.  Thus, if a property owner either creates is has notice of a dangerous condition on his or her property, and fails to take steps to fix the dangerous condition or warn entrants onto the land about the dangerous condition, the property owner may be responsible for injuries caused by the dangerous condition and the injuries that occur from it.

Essentially and said another way, there are really three elements that your experienced Memphis slip and fall attorney will need to prove.  First is that the owner, lessee, or person otherwise in control of the property was negligent in either creating or permitting a dangerous condition to exist on the property.  Second, your injuries must have been actually caused by the dangerous condition.  Third, the owner, lessee, or person otherwise in control of the property had notice of the dangerous condition prior to your injury.

Where you really need an experienced slip and fall attorney is proving the notice requirement.  There are two types of notice; actual or constructive.  Actual is the easier of the two types of notice to prove because it is when the owner, lessee, or person otherwise in control of the property either created or was aware of the dangerous condition on the property.

Constructive notice, on the other hand, can be significantly more difficult to prove.  This is where the owner, lessee, or person otherwise in control of the property does not know about the dangerous condition, but rather should have known about it.  This could be because the dangerous condition existed for a prolonged period of time or because the dangerous condition is a recurring incident.

Here are Bailey and Greer, PLLC our Memphis slip and fall attorneys understand how to effectively pursue your claims.  Our legal team has a proven track record of compassionately representing our clients injured in Tennessee personal injury cases which is included in our testimonials page and our successful case results.  Please contact us today to receive your free case evaluation by dialing 901-680-9777.  Remember, you only have one year from the date of the accident to commence your action to recover compensation.

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