What do you need to prove in a slip-and-fall claim?

Sustaining an injury in a slip and fall may give you a cause of action to pursue a legal remedy against the responsible party. Proving that you fell is fairly straightforward, but establishing liability is more difficult. Here are a couple of key considerations about what you will need to do to make a successful slip-and-fall claim. Obtaining evidence of the cause of a fall To make your case, you must present evidence that there was a hazardous condition on the premises that caused you to fall. This might be photographic evidence, video surveillance footage, or eyewitness testimony. Proving negligence The presence of a hazard may not necessarily signify that the owner or operator of a property acted negligently. Slip and fall claimants have to show that a party failed to take reasonable steps to prevent a foreseeable hazard or remedy a known hazard. For example, if a store’s personnel were aware of a leak and did not repair it, that business acted negligently. In contrast, consider a situation in which a customer spilled a beverage that he or she brought into a store, causing someone to slip and fall only seconds later. In this scenario, it might be hard to show that a business knew or reasonably should have known that the floor was slippery. Meeting your burden of proof In personal injury claims, plaintiffs do not have to prove their claims beyond a reasonable doubt. This burden of proof is applicable to criminal trials, not civil litigation. To prevail in a premises liability action, you must be able to prove your case by a preponderance of the evidence. Under this legal standard, there must be sufficient evidence to convince a trier of fact that your allegations are probable.The post What do you need to prove in a slip-and-fall claim? first appeared on Englander Peebles.