Slip & Falls Accident Lawyers in Denver, CO
Many people think of slipping and falling on a slick floor to just be an embarrassing moment, quickly brushed off. However, slip & falls accident lawyers in Denver, CO know these incidents can be devastating, leading to life-changing injuries. Read on to find out more about these injuries—and what you can do if you’re injured.
If you’d like to speak to a slip and fall attorney in Denver right away, you can always reach out to Flaxman Law Group for a consultation.
What is a Slip and Fall Accident?
Slip and fall accidents are situations where an individual doesn’t have adequate traction on a walkway, staircase, sidewalk, or flooring and suffers an injury and a fall as a result. Slip and fall accidents can happen in private and public spaces, both indoors and outside. Anywhere where individuals walk can be a place where these accidents happen.
Common Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents
When someone simply falls on a sidewalk or indoors, there may be multiple reasons. The individual may have become faint, for example, or may have tripped. With slip and fall accidents, however, many causes can include other factors. These include the following:
- Uneven or poor-quality flooring. Flooring issues are a common cause of slip and fall accidents. Damaged flooring surfaces, uneven surfaces, missing or cracked floors and walkways, and other issues can cause water to pool in specific areas, leading to slip and falls. These types of flooring surfaces can also pose a trip and fall hazard.
- Poor maintenance. Inadequate maintenance in any public areas can be hazardous. For example, a common cause of landlord-tenant disputes in Colorado involves poor maintenance. Tenants may note that floors are not properly cleaned, that eaves aren’t maintained, and that leaky pipes aren’t addressed. These and other issues, when not fixed, can lead to accidents and injuries.
- Poor lighting. Dim conditions can make it harder for visitors to a property to notice any hazardous conditions, including spills and slick floors. Poor lighting can also increase the risk of trip and fall accidents.
- Lack of safety features. Property owners should ensure all areas of their property have adequate safety precautions. For example, in a stairway, non-slip treads on stairs as well as proper handrails can help prevent falls.
- Inadequate signage. In some cases, property owners and managers can’t easily address slippery conditions. For example, a floor may be slippery after it’s been cleaned. In these cases, signage can help visitors notice and avoid slippery areas. When property owners fail to post signs, serious injury can happen. Slip and fall construction site accidents, for example, can easily happen if there are slick conditions and warning signs aren’t posted.
- Weather conditions. In Colorado, snow and rain can easily accumulate on outside walkways, leading to falls. Snow and rain can also be tracked indoors, where it needs to be cleaned promptly to prevent serious injuries.
- Glossy surfaces. One common cause of slip and falls has to do with surface areas. For example, if a business installs very shiny and slick floors, that can increase the risk of falls. Inside of hotel bathrooms, bathtub and shower floors can also be very slippery, which can also lead to serious falls and injuries.
As you may notice, many of the above causes are preventable. The right flooring in the right place as well as some care can prevent many slips and falls. Even falls caused by weather conditions may be considered preventable.
In Colorado, property owners can reasonably expect snow and ice at specific times of the year, and they’re expected to take steps—such as shoveling snow and de-icing walkways—to keep visitors safe. When property owners fail to take these basic precautions, they may find themselves facing premises liability claims.
Common Slip And Fall Accident Injuries In Denver, CO
Injuries sustained in slip and fall accidents in Denver can be more serious than many people realize. Common injuries sustained in slip and fall incidents include the following:
- Broken bones
- Facial injuries
- Sprains and strains
- Injuries to the hands and arms
- Bruises and cuts
- Back and neck injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Traumatic head injuries (TBIs)
Unfortunately, slip and falls can also lead to fatalities. Serious injuries like TBIs can lead to coma and death and can prompt wrongful death claims.
Serious injuries resulting from slip and falls can disrupt your life in more ways than you can imagine. Having to lose income and time at work can be devastating, and the pain and suffering caused by a broken bone or other serious injuries can impact your sleep, mental health, and quality of life.
Since the stakes are so high, it’s important to take any slip and fall seriously. If you’ve fallen, seek medical attention immediately. It’s crucial to rule out a life-threatening head injury and getting prompt attention for sprains and fractures—injuries that may not present symptoms right away—can improve your prognosis.
Risks To the Elderly
Some groups are especially vulnerable in slip and fall accidents. One such group is seniors, who are more likely to be in a slip and fall accident in the first place, in part because of age-related mobility problems, health conditions, and medications. Someone who is suffering from arthritis or vision problems, for example, may be more at risk of falls. In addition, many types of medication can cause dizziness and other side effects, which can also increase the risk of falls.
Seniors who do fall also face more serious injuries when compared with other groups. They may be more vulnerable to hip fractures, for example, a serious injury that can inhibit independence and mobility. Seniors who fall are also more likely than other groups to suffer from a second fall once they heal.
Seniors may be less mobile and therefore less likely to instinctively try to break the fall. This can mean they’re most at risk of TBIs and other serious injuries. If they have any pre-existing conditions, seniors may also face more complications and longer recovery times when compared with younger patients.
For all these reasons, if you’re a senior who has fallen, it’s important to treat the situation seriously. Call emergency services if you’re seriously injured but get a full medical evaluation even if you think you’re fine. If your injury happened in a public space, you may also want to consult with slip & falls accident lawyers in Denver, CO to find out what your options are. You may have a legal claim and taking steps early to pursue that claim is important to make sure you secure any financial recovery you may be eligible for.
How Do I Know Who Is Responsible for My Fall Injury?
Many property owners try to blame someone who has fallen on their premises. They may tell visitors that they weren’t careful enough, when in fact it was the owners’ negligence that caused the fall. If you have fallen in a store, gas station, amusement park, workplace, or anywhere else, there are multiple possible liable parties:
- The owner of the property
- The company or organization responsible for maintenance
- The site supervisor
- The property manager
- The tenant or renter of the property
- A third party—such as the manufacturer of a faulty pipe or poorly-designed flooring
In some cases, there may be multiple parties who contributed to your fall. For example, if your injury happened in a movie theater, the owners of the property may be responsible if they failed to create adequate clean-up processes to address spills. The manufacturer of the flooring may be responsible, too, if they created flooring materials that were unreasonably slick.
Ultimately, to find out who is responsible you may want to consult a slip and fall accident lawyer. Slip & falls accident lawyers in Denver, CO have access to networks of investigators who can determine whether there are other claims against the property, whether a property has policies that contributed to your fall, and what happened to cause your fall.
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What If I Am Partially At Fault?
If you slip and fall in Colorado and someone else is entirely at fault, you may have a claim. You may be able to seek compensation for your medical bills, lost income, and other losses.
In reality, though, most situations are not so cut and dried. For example, you may have been walking to the restroom in a restaurant and looking at your phone, so you did not notice a spill on the floor. In this situation, you may be partly at fault.
Colorado follows a “modified comparative negligence” rule, so even if you are partly at fault for your injuries in a slip and fall situation, you may be able to seek compensation—as long as you are responsible for less than 50% of the accident. In addition, your compensation will be reduced in accordance with your percentage of fault.
To understand this more clearly, let’s look back at that example in the restaurant. The restaurant didn’t clean up a spill on the floor, but you were also distracted and not looking at where you were going. In this situation, a jury may determine that you were 15% at fault and may award $100,000. You would be able to recover $85,000 ($100,000 minus 15% of that amount).
Liability in Slip and Fall Accidents
Not every slip and fall in Colorado may result in a legal claim. Even if you’re seriously injured, not every fall has a liable party, and that is required to file a claim. In Colorado, the legal framework for slip and fall cases states that:
- Property owners have a duty to reasonably maintain safe premises.
- Visitors have different statuses, such as a licensee or invitee (the level of responsibility a property owner has towards you will depend on your visitor status).
- Property owners must address potential hazards on their property and must regularly inspect their property.
To file a successful claim, you must also prove that the owner or other responsible party was liable for your injuries, meaning they were legally responsible for your injuries. A property owner or other party may be liable if:
- A hazardous condition existed.
- The party knew or should have known about the danger.
- The party failed to fix the problem (or properly warn visitors if the problem couldn’t be immediately and reasonably addressed).
- The hazardous condition directly caused your injury.
- Your injury causes losses and damages.
Proving all of this can be challenging. For example, if you slip at a public pool, how can you prove the liable party was more than 50% responsible? How can you accurately predict how your injuries will impact your income and medical bills in the future? How can you know what internal policies the pool had in place to protect you—and whether those policies were followed the day you were injured?
The reality is that working with slip & falls accident lawyers in Denver, CO may be required to get all these answers. Experienced attorneys can help you understand whether you have a claim, find all liable parties, gather evidence of your claim, explain your legal options to you, and pursue your claim for you if you decide that’s what you want to do.
Working with an experienced attorney means you have someone representing your best interests—someone who has the experience and understanding to ensure your rights are protected and you have a chance to pursue maximum compensation. With your attorney working on your claim, you can focus on your health and on rebuilding your life.
Even if you’re not sure whether you have a claim, contact the Denver law offices of Flaxman Law Group for a consultation to at least get an attorney’s perspective on your situation. You can get answers to your questions and find out if you have a claim—and how much that claim could be worth. There is no cost and no obligation involved in your first personal injury consultation with Flaxman Law Group.
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