Colorado Springs Slip and Fall Lawyer

A quick trip and fall injury has the potential to inflict long-lasting losses. Regardless of their physical severity of the incident, any such injury can result in not just substantial medical bills but also significant lost income and intense mental anguish. Fortunately, you may be able to recover compensation for these losses under certain circumstances.

Property owners have a duty to protect their visitors from these sorts of accidents, but proving liability in cases such as these can be difficult. Fortunately, a Colorado Springs slip and fall lawyer may be able to help you. Once hired, a knowledgeable personal injury attorney could work to establish your right to be on the land at the time of the accident, evaluate the actions of the proprietor that failed to prevent these injuries, and demand appropriate compensation on your behalf.

What is the Importance of the Classification of Visitors?

Tripping accidents are a prominent example of civil claims that fall under premises liability law. Property liability law states that landowners have a duty to protect guests who enter their property from any foreseeable harm. A failure to meet this duty obligates a negligent property owner to pay for any losses that occur as a result.

Colorado Revised Statutes §13-21-115 specifically defines the classifications of visitors and outlines the obligations property owners have to each classification of visitors. A Colorado Springs slip and fall attorney could help review an injured victim’s case to determine which category they may fall under and what types of compensation to which they may be entitled.

Trespassers

Any person who enters or remains on a property without the owner’s consent is a trespasser. Proprietor are only responsible for avoiding causing willful or deliberate harm to trespassers.

Licensees

Licensees are people who enter or remain on a property solely for their own benefit. These individuals may include house guests on otherwise private property. In trip and fall cases, the plaintiff must prove that the landowner failed to exercise reasonable care regarding dangers created by the landowner or which the landowner knew of.

Invitees are people who enter land for the benefit of the owner. Customers in a shop are a clear example. Landowners have a duty to protect invitees from dangers that result from an unreasonable failure to protect invitees from known hazards.

How is Liability Proven in Tripping Accident Cases?

Individuals who have been seriously injured in a slip and fall accident need to establish that the landowner, possessor, or person/entity in control was negligent.  To prove negligence, a claimant must establish that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care in maintaining his or her property.  For example, if a person slipped on an icy sidewalk and wants to pursue compensation, they must show that:

• The landowner was responsible for unsafe conditions or hazardous conditions like snow and ice
• The landowner knew or should have known about the existence of the snow and ice on the sidewalk
• That the landowner had a reasonable period of time to remove or make safe the dangerous or hazardous condition
• The landowner failed to take such precautions and warn the claimant of the dangerous snow and ice that proximately caused their injuries.

Generally, most residential landowners have 24 hours to remove snow or ice, or make their sidewalks safer but  putting down salt, sand, or other traction-aiding material.

Comparative Negligence in Slip and Fall Cases

In order for a civil plaintiff to recover compensation, it is necessary to prove that a defendant’s failure to provide adequate protection directly caused their injury. However, this can become more difficult to prove if a plaintiff is partially responsible for their injuries.

According to state law, if a court believes that a plaintiff is 50 percent or more to blame for an incident, that court cannot award any compensation to the injured party. If the plaintiff shares less than 50 percent of the blame, however, the court may simply reduce the available award in proportion to the percentage of fault a plaintiff had in causing their injuries.

Because of this statute, it is usually essential to build a slip and fall case that not only proves a defendant’s negligence, but also justifies the plaintiff’s actions leading up to the incident. A trip and fall lawyer in Colorado Springs could help an injured victim build a case that allows them to obtain compensation even if they are partially at fault for the accident in question.

Hire a Colorado Springs Slip and Fall Attorney

Trip and fall accident cases can be deceptively complex. It can be easy to assume that because an accident happened on another’s property that the landowner is automatically liable for the resulting damage, but these cases must evaluate your motivation for being on that property and any of your actions that may have contributed to the accident.

A skilled Colorado Springs slip and fall lawyer could help you to make this complex legal argument. Call today so an attorney can review your case and start helping you move forward toward your recovery.