Sacramento Injury Lawyer Blog

Many people every year suffer major injuries from slip and fall accidents. Wet floors, faulty floors and, walkways have made many people victims of slip and fall cases. Even though there are many who are victims of slip and fall accidents, there are some who could of easily prevented the accident themselves. I have accumulated a number of facts, statistics, and tips to prevent from being a victim in a slip and fall case.

Slip and Fall Injury Statistics according to www.safetytoday.com

- An estimated 300,000 disabling injuries occur each year in the American work force, resulting in 1,400 worker deaths. Slips, trips and falls account for 15 to 20 percent of all workers' compensation costs.

- The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 303,800 workplace fall injuries in 2000.

- A new American National Standard from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) focuses on reducing slip and fall injuries in the workplace, the second leading cause of incidental workplace deaths.

- A1264.2 Standard for the Provision of Slip Resistance on Walking/Working Surfaces explores surface characteristics, footwear traction properties and environmental factors of slip resistance to ensure a safer walking and working environment. The standard provides basic guidelines for professionals to apply to their own workplace.

- According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 15 percent of incidental workplace deaths are caused by slips, trips and falls, second only to traffic accident fatalities.

The standard covers:
- floor characteristics, including how to install mats and runners;
- controlling access to areas with slippery environment and providing appropriate signage;
- footwear traction properties, such as a shoe's sole design to ensure slip resistance;
- housekeeping training and maintenance;
- surface testing equipment; and
- floor selection.
--Source, ISHN Online, ASSE.

A variety of policies and practices can be established to reduce the number of injuries and deaths due to slips, trips and falls. A few suggestions:
- Owners, managers and supervisors must make a commitment to prevent accidental slips, trips and falls.
- Conduct frequent inspections of working and walking areas to identify any hazards that could cause slips, trips and falls. Special attention should be given to working and walking surfaces, housekeeping, lighting, visibility, stairways and ladders. Immediately correct dangerous situations.
- As mandated by OSHA, provide extensive safety training on the prevention of slips, trips and falls for all new employees. Regular retraining should be provided for all employees. Give special attention to proper walking, carrying, and climbing as well as descending stairways, ladders, vehicles and equipment. Unsafe practices should be corrected immediately.
- All workers should wear proper footwear for their work and environment whether in the office, shop, plant, or field.

- Prohibit riders on tractors, trucks or other self-powered or towed equipment unless a safe seat or workstation is provided.
- Report and record all slips, trips and falls, with or without injury. Every incident should be thoroughly investigated. Take immediate corrective action to prevent repeat occurrences.
--Source, ISHN Online, ASSE.

- ANSI sets standards for shoes and boots. Never purchase work shoes that do not meet these standards. A typical ANSI rating could be 1-75 C-25. This means the toe will withstand 75 foot pounds of impact and 2,500 pounds of compression.

Tips for safe footwear:
- The soles and heels should be slip-resistant
- The toe of the shoe should resist crushing injuries
- The shoe should support the ankle

As a Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins specializes in serious personal injury cases, including Slip and fall cases. We believe that if you or a loved one have been seriously injured and your not at fault, you have the right to obtain an experienced personal injury attorney. Hiring an experienced lawyer will help you win the money to pay for medical care, and other expenses resulting from the your accident.

I read the craziest story in the news today. It is about a personal injury lawsuit in Southern California in which a woman was injured from a trip-and-fall and then assaulted. The woman, Star Harris, states that she was in 7-11 when she fell over some crates that were in her way. Badly injured, Star made her way to the counter to call 911. Star suffered another blow, literally, once she reached the counter. While asking a cashier for a phone to call 911, a man punched Star in the face and knocked her down! Hard to believe that someone would do such a thing to a injured woman. A store security camera depicted this second incident, and after the punch, showed the man paying for a beer and leaving.

It is a crazy world.

Star ended up in the hospital, suffering from three broken ribs, and an injured back and head. In response, Star is suing 7-11 for $1 million. 7-11 has offered Star $15,000.

This is a very interesting and unusual case. However, it does depict a trip-and-fall situation. The facts that need to be discovered are several, including whether someone’s negligence caused the fall and whether the crates were open and obvious. Something is open and obvious if it is apparent upon “causal inspection”, so that a reasonable person if in the same situation, would avoid the potentially dangerous object.

If you have been seriously injured in a trip-and-fall accident because of someone else’s negligence, please call me at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.

To read the full news article, please click here.

As a Personal Injury Attorney in Sacramento, I know that someone can easily slip and fall in a store when there has been a spill that has not been taken care of. Currently, there is a lawsuit against the superstore, Wal-Mart, claiming that Wal-Mart employees failed to clean up water on the store's floor and allowed a customer to walk in the puddle and subsequently fall.

The puddle of water was left near the main exit of the store and two employees were nearby when the injured person fell, supposedly leaving her “permanently injured”.

If employees leave a spill, such as water, on the floor of a store, a dangerous situation is present. For this case, there will have to be many questions answered, beginning with if the employees knew about the water spill, how long it had been there, if it was open and obvious to the injured person, and what the injured person was doing at the time.

If you have been injured or know someone that has been injured in a slip and fall accident, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins for advice.

Caution…

To read the full article, please click here.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/contentview.asp?c=198925

There is an ongoing slip and fall lawsuit south of our Sacramento home in Orange County, California. The lawsuit was brought by Brenda Richardson after she slipped and fell on a patch of mud at an elderly apartment complex called Heritage Center. Brenda is seeking reimbursement from a construction company called Michael Moore Renovation and Restoration, and claims that they were negligent in failing to “provide adequate signs” to warn pedestrians that they could slip in the mud.

In addition to Brenda’s fall, another resident, Celestine Morris, also claims that she fell because of the mud in the same year. The fall left her with a broken arm.

The Moore construction company states that it is "not in any way guilty” and places the blame back onto Brenda and the apartment complex. Moore believes that Brenda was not cautious enough when walking on the sidewalk and Heritage Center did not keep the apartment complex in a safe condition.

If you or someone you know have been injured in a slip and fall accident and believe it was caused by someone’s carelessness, please give us a call at the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.

Stay out of the mud…

To read the full article on this news story, please click here.

When a client of my Sacramento Law Firm is injured in a slip and fall accident, one of the first questions they have is, “Who is a fault?”. There are three possible answers to this question, the first of which I generally addressed in my last blog, being the owner of the property. The other two options are both parties or the injured party itself.

Both parties responsible…

When both parties are responsible it is called “comparative negligence” and means that the carelessness of the injured person and the carelessness of the owner resulted in the accident. There are varying degrees of comparative negligence and liability is distributive by percentage of responsibility owed to the accident (i.e. 30% caused from plaintiff and 70% caused by defendant).

Injured person is responsible…

In a slip and fall case, there lies the doctrine of “open and obvious”. Throughout my years as a Personal Injury Attorney in Sacramento, I have seen this question pop up time and again… was the dangerous condition that caused the plaintiff’s injuries open and obvious? This question is of key importance because an affirmative answer could place liability on the injured party.

When a dangerous condition is “open and obvious”, it means that a reasonable person in the same situation would have seen the dangerous condition and avoided it. For example, a store just cleaned up a spill and the floor is still wet. Management places a sign that reads “Caution: Wet Floor” in front of the wet spot . If someone slips and falls on the wet spot, the liability will most likely fall on the injured person because a reasonable person in the same situation would have seen the caution sign and avoided the wet floor.

If you have been hurt from a slip and fall accident and believe that it was not an open and obvious situation, please call our Law Offices, we would love to help.

Look for those caution signs…

For more information, please read the article on findlaw.com.

Slip, trip and… fall. As a lawyer in Sacramento, I have seen many slip and fall accidents that have resulted in serious injury. I am sure that you also have heard the term “slip and fall” before or know someone that has been injured in an accident such as this. But what does a slip and fall case entail?

First of all let’s start with defining a “slip and fall” case. A slip and fall case usually falls into a category called premise liability. This means that someone is injured on another person’s property and because that person owns or maintains such property, that person may be held liable for damages.

Slip and fall cases come in many different forms. The cause could be an open pothole in the ground, a slippery floor, a broken sidewalk, and so on. In all these situations, there poses a dangerous situation that has the potential to cause injury. When someone is actually injured on a slippery floor, for example, there remains the necessity of proving fault to the person/company responsible for the floor. In my next blog, I will continue to discuss slip and fall cases and what is needed to prove fault.

If you or someone you love has been injured in a slip and fall case, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. We would love to speak with you about your case and subsequent options.

Take care…

For further information on this topic please read this article on findlaw.com.

As a Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyer, I know that there are numerous conditions that must be met in proving fault in a slip and fall case. Many people are injured each year when they slip or trip and fall. But how many of these accidents are valid slip and fall cases?

One of the first requirements that must be met is that the injured person fell on someone else property because of a dangerous situation and were injured because of the owner’s lack of action to amend the situation. There are three ways to show this:

1. The owner of the property caused the dangerous condition.
2. The owner of the property knew about the dangerous condition and failed to do anything about it.
3. The owner of the property should have know as a reasonable person that the dangerous condition existed and should have corrected it.

Let me give you an example using scenario number two. A store owner likes to keep her floors shiny and polished and gets them waxed several times a week. Unfortunately, several customers lately have complained about the slipperiness of the floor. The store owner does nothing to amend the floor’s slipperiness (she likes her floors shiny) and continues to get them waxed several times a week. Mr. X walks in one day to shop and slips and falls on the floor, seriously injuring himself. In this situation, the store owner is likely to be held liable for Mr. X’s injuries.

In my next blog, I will continue to discuss conditions that must be met in order to prove fault in a slip and fall case. If you have been injured by slipping or tripping and believe that the property owner allowed a dangerous condition to exist, please call our Law Offices for advice.

Stay safe…

For more information, please read this article on findlaw.com.