Spring Valley Slip & Fall Lawyer
A serious slip and fall, like most other kinds of personal injuries, can happen to anyone at any time. However, older people are at a higher risk for slip-and-fall injuries. Over half of nursing home residents fall every year. These victims don’t just have pre-existing conditions, like vision problems or gait disorders, that increase the risk of a fall. Other pre-existing conditions, like osteoarthritis and diabetes, increase the severity of fall injuries.
Even if pre-existing medical conditions are involved in a case, a Spring Valley slip & fall lawyer from Cameron Law is usually able to obtain maximum compensation in these cases. Thanks to Nevada’s eggshell skull rule, insurance companies and other defendants cannot use such conditions as an excuse to reduce or deny compensation. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.
Duty of Care
Negligence claims usually begin with a legal duty. To determine this duty, Nevada law, like the law in most other states, divides victims into three categories:
- Invitee: If the victim has specific or general permission to be on the land and the victim’s presence benefits the owner in any way, the victim is an invitee. In these cases, owners have a duty of care to ensure their premises are reasonably safe. This responsibility usually applies to interiors and exteriors.
- Licensee: Some slip-and-fall victims, like guests of hotel guests, are licensees. Since the owner doesn’t benefit from their presence, the owner only has a duty to warn a licensee about latent (hidden) defects, like a loose handrail.
- Trespasser: Victims with no permission and who confer no benefit are usually trespassers. Owners usually owe no duty in these cases. Tales of injured burglars who successfully sued homeowners for damages are mostly urban legends.
Admittedly, these categories are confusing and often overlapping. For example, if Max comes over for a party, he’s an invitee. But if Max sneaks into the bedroom to open the safe, he’s a trespasser. Because of such issues, some states, such as neighboring California, have replaced the three-tier classification system with a general duty of care.
Knowledge of Hazard and Spring Valley Slip & Fall Lawyers
Theoretical responsibility isn’t enough for maximum compensation. A Spring Valley slip-and-fall injury lawyer must also establish practical responsibility, which is knowledge of the injury-causing hazard.
Direct evidence of actual knowledge could be a restroom cleaning report or a safety report. These smoking guns usually surface during the discovery process. So, if a lawyer settles a slip-and-fall case too early, the best evidence, and therefore the most compensation, might be unavailable.
Circumstantial evidence of constructive knowledge (should have known) usually involves the time-notice rule. Think of a banana peel on the floor. If the peel is yellow, as if it just fell, the owner probably isn’t responsible for injury. But if the peel is black, as if it’s been on the floor awhile, liability usually attaches.
Connect With a Diligent Spring Valley Slip & Fall Lawyer
Injury victims are usually entitled to substantial compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced Spring Valley slip & fall lawyer, contact Cameron Law. You have a limited amount of time to act.
