St. Louis Slip & Fall Attorney

Did you suffer a broken bone, sprain, head injury or other harm after a slip/trip and fall accident in St. Louis? Talk to a slip and fall attorney about your case at Goldblatt + Singer. Slip, trip, and fall accidents are some of the most common causes of unintentional injuries in the country. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, falls account for more than 8 million trips to the emergency room each year. Nearly one million of these incidents stem from slip and falls alone. If you or a loved one suffered any kind of injury in a bad fall in St. Louis, contact our fall accident lawyers for assistance.

Slip and Fall Accident Claims in St. Louis

Slip, trip, and fall accidents take the form of premises liability claims in Missouri. The law holds property owners legally responsible for the safety of their premises, including finding and remedying potential slip or trip hazards. Property owners owe certain duties of care to all who enter the land – even to trespassers if they are under the age of 18 in Missouri. An owner’s duties of care vary according to the status of the visitor. Three main types of visitors exist:

• Invitees are persons the property owner expressly or implicitly invites to enter a property, such as shoppers at a business. They require the highest standards of care. Property owners must reasonably search for hidden hazards (such as hidden sprinkler heads that could cause trip accidents), repair obvious hazards and warn of potential hazards (such as putting up “Slippery When Wet” signs).
• Licensees also have the owner’s permission to enter a property, but they do so for their own purposes. Door-to-door salespeople are examples of licensees. Licensees carry the same property owner duties of care as invitees, minus the requirement to search for hidden hazards. Property owners must still make sure that no slip or trip hazards exist on a property before allowing licensees to enter.
• Trespassers do not have the property owner’s permission to enter the property, but do so anyway, therefore breaking the law. In Missouri, property owners do not owe any duties of care to trespassers. An injured trespasser could not, for example, hold a landowner responsible for injuries from tripping over debris in the yard. Trespassing children are exemptions from the law and require the same level of care as invitees.

To have a premises liability claim against a landowner, company or another party in Missouri after a slip and fall or trip and fall, you must first identify your status as a visitor. Then, you must analyze whether the property owner in charge of maintaining the premises fulfilled his or her duties to you according to your classification. If not, you likely have grounds to file a fall-related personal injury claim against the owner. The legal team at Goldblatt + Singer can help you with every element of your claim from beginning to end.

Proving Your Trip and Fall Claim

Unfortunately for actual victims of slip, trip and fall accidents, thousands of fraudulent insurance claims over the years have made these cases somewhat difficult to prove. It’s important to hire an attorney to maximize your odds of success, especially if going up against a major company’s insurer, such as Walmart or Lowe’s. Large corporations have plenty of money and resources to throw at personal injury lawsuits, often resulting in accident victims agreeing to smaller settlements than they should.

To prove your slip, trip and fall claim, you will need to collect evidence that the property owner owed you a duty of care, neglected to fulfill this duty and thereby caused your accident and related injuries. Prepare for the property owner to try to allege your shared fault for the accident. For instance, the defendant might try to lower his/her liability for the incident by stating that you weren’t watching where you were going. It takes an experienced slip and fall lawyer to combat this common defense and maximize compensation despite Missouri’s shared fault laws. To work with top trip and fall attorneys in St. Louis, contact Goldblatt + Singer today.