Posts tagged "slip and fall"

During the month of June, the National Safety Council encourages people, organizations and workplaces to educate themselves and each other on preventing common accidents and injuries. Each week during the month focuses on a specific cause of common injuries. The first two weeks of June focus on preventing work injuries, the third week on preventing falls and the final week focuses on safe driving.

The National Safety Council offers free educational materials and tips on its website. The tips for preventing slips, trips and falls include:

• Keep stairs free of clutter
• Maintain good lighting on outside walkways
• Keep loose cords out of walkways
• Use non-slip rugs in slippery areas, like the bathroom
• Clean spills up immediately

Target is a well-known retail chain, known for its clean atmosphere and well-lit stores in California and elsewhere. But how clean must a store actually be to avoid liability for injuries resulting on a business owner's premises?

This is the question that a jury may end up deciding involving Target and a shopper who was injured during a slip-and-fall accident in one of their stores.

As you may know, property owners have a responsibility to maintain property in a safe manner. This includes the owners of retail establishments, homeowners, and apartment building owners. If they fail in this duty and an individual is injured on their property as a result, they may be held responsible. This area of law is commonly known as premises liability.

Recently, Sam Poueu, a popular contestant on the reality television show The Biggest Loser was seriously injured in a fall from a San Francisco apartment building fire escape. He suffered a variety of serious internal injuries as well as head trauma.

The head of the largest database company in the world served as a jury foreman last month in the case of a slip and fall accident in California. Billionaire Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, was among the jurors who helped award a woman a judgment of more than $470,000 after being convinced that a car dealership was at fault for a fall the woman took in its parking lot.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff visited a Ford dealership in Half Moon Bay. As she stepped from her vehicle, she slipped on a patch of diesel fuel and fell, sustaining injuries. The jury held the dealership liable for negligence for allowing a dangerous situation - the oil spill - to exist on the premises. The court awarded damages of over $300,000 in for medical expenses and an extra $172,000 for loss of wages and pain and suffering.

Typically, businesses and landowners are legally responsible for the injuries suffered by patrons and guests who are on their property. This concept is known as "premises liability." A recent lawsuit illustrates the principle of premises liability.

Last April, a California woman fell after slipping on a banana peel while shopping in a 99 Cents Only store. The 58-year-old California woman is now suing the store under claims that she spent $9,000 on medical expenses as a result of her slip and fall accident.