Getting your medical bills paid for a slip and fall injury claim in Houston
You go to your local grocery store just as you have tens, maybe even hundreds of times before. You collect a grocery cart and you’re walking through the entrance when your feet slip out from under you and the next thing you know you’re looking straight up at the ceiling tiles. You feel a dull pain in your low back and you think you hit your head when you fell. Another shopper helps you up and you see that you slipped in a puddle of clear liquid about the size of a dinner plate. You fell and were hurt on the grocery store’s property so they have to cover your medical bills, right? Not necessarily.
Slip and fall claims are among the trickier personal injury claims Smith & Hassler handles for clients. It is NOT the law in Texas that merely because you fall on somebody’s property and were injured the property owner is automatically responsible for your medical bills. You must be able to present evidence that the property owner’s negligence was what caused your fall.
Texas law requires that you prove that you were injured by an “unreasonably dangerous condition.” Typically liquid spilled on a polished surface presents a slip hazard and would qualify as an unreasonably dangerous condition. You must also have evidence that the property owner both failed to warn you of the dangerous condition (e.g. by putting out a sign) AND failed to try and make the condition safe (e.g. by mopping up a spill).
Slip and fall injury claims come down to what the property owner knew or reasonably could have known BEFORE you fell. You will need evidence that the property owner either: (a) knew about the dangerous condition before you fell but didn’t take care of it; or (b) the property owner actually created the dangerous condition themselves; or (c) even if the property owner didn’t actually know about the dangerous condition, it had existed for long that through a reasonable inspection the property owner should have found it and taken care of it.
Smith & Hassler has handled hundreds of slip and fall claims for people injured on properties in the Houston area. You can call us today and speak to an attorney about your specific case. Premises liability can be tricky, so sound legal advice can be invaluable.