By Gordon S. Johnson, Jr., Esq.

Call me at 800-992-9447

A brain injury slip and fall may necessitate a lawsuit to recover compensation. A brain injury slip and fall should be preventable. If proper care could have prevented a fall, the party who failed to exercise such care can be found accountable. If the fall occurred on a commercial or business premises, full and adequate compensation may be possible.

The first issue in determining whether the someone can be held liable for a brain injury slip and fall is to determine who is responsible. Typically, this is thought of as the owner of the premises, but in many commercial situations, the business tenant may have equal or greater responsibility. It is the entity who occupies (possesses) the property who has the responsibility for safety. If the fall happens because of a condition of the property, the business premises can be found liable if they would have in reasonable diligence, have discovered the condition. This duty exists if the owner of the property or business, should have expected that someone might not discover the fall risk and they if the owner failed to exercise reasonable care to protect against the danger.

So what does that mean in practical terms for a brain injury slip and fall case? A business owner might not be responsible for a natural accumulation of a slippery substance, such as ice or snow, when it first occurs. But if that substance is allowed to stay there longer than is reasonable, then the land owner may be responsible.  Another example from an actual case settled by the Brain Injury Law Group settled dealt with the flow from a rain gutter.  In this case, the ice which caused the brain injury slip and fall, was the result of the runoff from a rain gutter.  The gutter routed the icy water, across an area where pedestrians were expected to walk.  As the unnatural icy condition caused the fall, the lawsuit had merit.

Such could also be true of a leaky floor in a supermarket, where the leak came from a defect in the roof of the premises. The less conspicuous the slippery substance, the greater the responsibility for the business owner to make sure it doesn’t occur.  The longer the slippery condition is allowed to remain, the greater the liability for a brain injury slip and fall.

As with motor vehicle accidents, the sooner the evidence can be evaluated by the brain injured person’s attorney, the greater the chance of proving fault against the business owner. It is important to document and preserve any evidence of the actual conditions of the premises at the time of the fall.  Use your cell phone to photograph the spot and the conditions as soon as possible.  Modern cell phone cameras have improved to the point they can provide meaningful guidance. If the slippery substance is something unusual, it may prove determinant to prove what that substance was.

It is also important to keep the shoes of the injured person (in an unchanged condition) so that they can be tested for how slippery they are.

Brain injury slip and falls can be particularly dangerous, because the unexpected slip and then fall, often result in a fall directly to the back of the head.  More often than not, the surface which causes a slip is a hard surface. Skull fractures with accompanying brain bleeds or brain hematoma’s are common.  Even a concussion from such a fall can cause significant disability.

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