Slip and Fall

Slipping hazards are everywhere. When you are shopping for groceries, a recently-mopped floor can be dangerous. Along the docks and ramps of the Florida coastline, salt water can cause a slipping hazard for any unsuspecting pedestrian. Even a cracked sidewalk or broken step can lead to a life-altering injury that leaves you paralyzed, disabled, and in debt.

If you suffer injury from a slip or a fall because of another party’s negligence, you have the right to seek monetary compensation for your injuries. This compensation comes through a process known as a personal injury claim. A personal injury claim is a claim against a negligent party or his or her insurance provider for the damages caused by his or her negligence. If your slip or fall was due to a poorly maintained piece of property, it is known as a premises liability claim.

The statute of limitations for a personal injury claim in Florida is four years following the date of the accident.  If the claim is against a city, county, or state government entity, you must properly notify that entity of your claim within three years.

Dangerous Conditions

To prove that the property owner was negligent in maintaining his or her property, the claimant must prove that a dangerous condition existed and that the property owner not only knew about the dangerous condition, but failed to properly address it to prevent injuries. A dangerous condition is defined as any condition that:

• presents an unreasonable risk of harm to the individuals present on the property; and
• any reasonable individual could not have anticipated and actively avoided.

Examples of dangerous conditions on property can include broken stairs, an unmarked sinkhole or other drop off, or an area of a property that suffers from low lighting and poor visibility.

Pure Comparative Negligence

In Florida, a model known as the pure comparative negligence model is used to determine the percentage of damages every party involved in a personal injury case is responsible for.

If a claimant is found to be responsible for a portion of his or her injury, the damages that he or she may recover are reduced in proportion to his or her responsibility. For example, if a fall victim was looking at his phone while he was walking up a set of stairs, not taking care to look down and see the cracked stair before he stepped on it, the court may deem him 20% responsible for the fall because he could have avoided the broken stair if he had been paying attention. In this situation, the victim may only recover 80% of the damages he could have potentially recovered if he had not contributed to his accident.

Experienced Personal Injury Attorneys in Winter Park

If you or a loved one has suffered from a slip or fall that resulted in an injury, contact the Florida attorneys at Hornsby Law Group to begin working on a personal injury claim. You should not have to shoulder the burden of your injuries alone. Our team of personal injury attorneys at Hornsby Law Group advocates for our clients’ best interests and will fight to get you the monetary compensation for your injuries that you deserve.