Atlanta Premises Liability Lawyer Robert J. Fleming HomePublic Stairway Injuries
Slip and fall cases involve some of the most violent injuries that we encounter at our law firm. Many times someone is walking in a public area and they lose their footing and fall hard to the ground and end up with severe injuries. A lot of the time the injury involves a hit to the head. This is true for any one who is walking, running or climbing stairs in public places in Georgia. In fact, most of these types of cases involve injuries sustained on public stairways (which are stairways which may or may not be owned by a public entity, but which are open to the public). However, this is especially true for those of us who are younger, older, or who have a physical or mental disability which makes it harder to safely pass over areas that may contain unsafe defects. We have handled many serious public stairway slip and fall cases, and it is readily apparent after handling these cases how much force can be generated when someone slips on a stair, loses their balance and falls backwards and hits their head on a cement sidewalk or road. If someone has had this happen to them, they know just how traumatizing a fall like that can be. For those who have not experienced this, count your blessings. However, to fully appreciate just how sudden and violent these situations are, you may also want to view some videos of actual stairway slip and fall accidents (many of them are caught on surveillance cameras) to see just how sudden and violent these falls can be.
A premises liability action is a type of lawsuit brought on behalf of a person who has fallen in a public stairway and has been seriously injured and who alleges that the fall was caused by the negligence of the property owner or management company charged with properly maintaining the stairway. Many of these cases occur in restaurants, shopping centers, vacation rental properties, public parking decks, in entryways to stores or while entering or exiting many different types of locations that are public in nature. Some of the common types of premises defects that cause slip and fall injuries are: debris on the stairs, missing handrails on stairs, unsafe changes in step height on public stairways, tread or risers not being built to code, worn out or slippery stair treads, walking surfaces constructed of the wrong material or maintained in a way that makes them too slippery to be safely walked on and failure to install slip resistant materials in areas that require them. Although it may not be initially obvious that public stairway slip and fall claims are among the most serious types of personal injury losses, many times the injuries develop over time and end up being debilitating. If you or a family member have been seriously injured from a slip and fall in a public stairway, you must understand that time is of the essence and you should consider hiring a well-established Georgia attorney that specializes in these types of case as soon as possible. Why? The stakes are high and the playing field is anything but level. If your case is valuable enough and the stairway defect that caused your fall is apparent; while you are hurt and receiving treatment with doctors and the hospital for your injuries and hopefully recuperating, the insurance company, business, or owner of the premises is most likely consulting with their lawyers and taking action to develop their case, correct the defective stairway condition, destroy any evidence that would help establish your case against them and defend any lawsuit.
Why You Should Act Quickly to Retain an Experienced Public Stairway Slip and Fall LawyerOnce the public stairway slip and fall has occurred, things move very quickly. If the fall was caused by a defective condition, the potential defendants often go to great lengths to decrease the chances of your success and they do this very quickly by destroying evidence of the negligent condition that caused your fall. Once you retain us to represent you, we start working for you as quickly as possible. The first course of action is to send correspondence demanding that all evidence be preserved and not destroyed. This would include, in many cases, video tapes of the fall, pictures of the defective condition(s) that caused the fall, any recordings that exist, and many other types of evidence that can help prove your case but which potential defendants might try to destroy because they realize that it may be damaging to their defenses in litigation. We then fully investigate all aspects of your public stairway slip and fall case. This includes hiring the best premises liability experts (or industry experts if the fall was caused by practices of the defendant that would be considered negligent for those who operate in that particular industry) to help us to prove how the fall occurred and what acts of negligence lead to the slip and fall. Among other things that our experts do regularly are: perform a site inspection to determine which statutes and building codes may be applicable to your case, study all of the relevant videos, records and documents related to the stairway and surrounding areas, perform research to fully understand the facts of how the fall occurred and negligence issues involved, work closely with our experienced attorneys who specialize in slip and falls to determine strategy, investigate all potential defendants, draft affidavits to be filed with the court, and help us proactively manage your lawsuit to ensure that you receive the help you need to fully recover for your loss. It is often the case that a very good expert can add additional allegations of negligence that were not apparent at the beginning of the case.
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We have earned our reputation for excellence by helping clients and families face life changing tragedies such as suffering serious injuries from slip and falls in public stairways. In doing so, we have recovered millions of dollars for our clients and we understand the issues that can make or break many public stairway slip and fall cases.
If you have questions and would like to discuss your situation in complete confidence, call attorney Robert J. Fleming directly at (404) 525-5150.
Many slip and fall cases result in serious and permanent injuries such as traumatic brain injuries ("TBI"), closed head injuries, broken legs, broken arms, fractures to the face and teeth, and torn rotator cuffs, to name just a few. Because the stakes are so high in many of these public stairway slip and fall cases, immediate investigation is warranted so that potential liable parties can be identified and fully investigated. All potential causes of actions must also be considered, with proper notices being sent to preserve some claims (this is especially true for those slip and fall cases that occur when governmental entities such as cities, counties or state entities are involved) and protect critical evidence before it is destroyed. In addition, all primary and secondary layers of available insurance must be identified and properly notified of the claims. It is important to have an experienced Atlanta slip and fall personal injury lawyer who handles public stair way slip and falls on a regular basis to perform all of these tasks in order to protect all of your interests when you find yourself in this position.
If you have suffered a serious injury from a slip and fall in a public location and would like to discuss your case in complete confidence, call attorney Robert J. Fleming directly at (404) 525-5150 or contact us online. We are here to help you today.
