Spartanburg Slip & Fall Lawyer
When an injury occurs at a nursing home, grocery store, or anywhere else away from home, the Spartanburg slip & fall lawyer at The Stanley Law Group is here to help.
Grocery stores rely heavily on foot traffic. Sometimes, the amount of traffic outpaces the store’s effort to keep its floors and common areas clean. Restrooms are not properly maintained, wet spots on sidewalks are ignored, and other injury hazards are unaddressed. Usually, owners have a duty of care to promptly address and remove such hazards. More on that below.
Money is a root of all kinds of evil, and money is usually the root of nursing home falls. To keep up with the growing elderly population, many facilities are almost constantly under construction. Understaffed facilities usually do not have staff members near construction areas to keep residents safe. Therefore, they often wander into dangerous places.
Spartanburg Slip & Fall Lawyers and the Duty of Care
The duty of care is based on the story of the Good Samaritan. This man went out of his way to help an injured traveler. Likewise, owners must go out of their way to make their properties safe. Some owners must go further out of their way than others, as follows:
- Invitee: Owners have a duty of reasonable care to protect commercial or social invitees, or people who have the owner’s permission to visit and whose presence benefits the owner. That benefit could be extremely slight. The duty of reasonable care requires owners to address known injury hazards and remove them. More on that below.
- Licensee: Guests of nursing home residents are usually licensees. These individuals have permission to visit, but their presence doesn’t benefit the owner. Therefore, the owner must only warn these individuals about latent (hidden) hazards. A “Caution Wet Floor” sign is usually more than enough warning.
- Trespasser: Usually, no duty applies if the victim didn’t have permission to visit and didn’t benefit the owner. Stories of injured burglars who successfully sued homeowners for damages are mostly urban legends.
These categories are complex because they overlap in several ways. For example, a nursing home visitor could be an invitee. Visitors indirectly benefit owners because visitors lift the spirits of residents. Furthermore, the categories shift. Nursing home visitors become trespassers if they stay after visiting hours end or if they go into a prohibited part of the facility.
Knowledge of Hazard
A Spartanburg slip & fall lawyer can only obtain compensation for a victim if the owner knew, or should have known, about the fall hazard.
Direct evidence of actual knowledge is the best evidence in these cases. Owners who ignore warning signs seem reckless. Such proof, like a restroom cleaning report, usually isn’t available early in the process. So, if a case settles too quickly, the victim may be settling for less.
Circumstantial evidence of constructive knowledge (should have known) is also admissible on this point. Think of a banana peel on the floor. A yellow peel probably just fell on the floor. But a black peel had probably been on the floor for a while, meaning that someone should have picked it up.
Work With a Diligent Spartanburg County Lawyer
Injury victims are entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced slip & fall lawyer in Spartanburg, contact The Stanley Law Group. We routinely handle matters throughout the Palmetto State.
