You may think that if you fall down in a store or other place of business, that the business is automatically liable for your injury. But that’s not the case. Slip and fall cases are not “strict liability” cases. Rather, you must have evidence of negligence by the business in order a recover for damages. In a slip and fall lawsuit, you must show that (1) the dangerous condition (such as a puddle of water) was caused or created by the owner, or (2) if the condition was created by someone else, that the owner knew or should have known that the condition existed before the accident.
Over the course of many years as a slip and fall lawyer Memphis TN trusts, I can tell you that the best types of evidence to have in a slip and fall case are video and photographs. Why? Because a picture or video shows what the scene of the accident looked like, and that is critical in a slip and fall case. In addition, most major retailers and many other businesses have video surveillance systems. These videos are important because not only do they document the actual incident, they can answer important questions such as how the dangerous condition came to be in the first place, who created it, and how long it had been there before the accident.
What to Do If You Get Hurt in a Place of Business:
- Report your accident to a manager immediately.
- Take photos or video of the scene before the area is cleaned up or changed.
- If your clothing became wet or dirty during the accident, take a photo or video of your clothing.
- Make sure management creates an incident report.
- Ask the manager to preserve any surveillance video camera footage of the accident, and a period of at least one (1) hour prior to the accident.
- Seek medical attention.
It isn’t good enough to simply provide evidence that you fell down or were injured. You need proof of why you fell, what the dangerous condition was, and that the owner knew or should have known of it and corrected it. Court rules require that specific evidence be presented in certain ways, and that is why you should always have an experienced slip and fall lawyer Memphis TN trusts to help you properly support and prove your case in court.
Thanks to our friends and contributors at Wiseman Bray PLLC who have significant experience fighting for slip and fall and injury victims in Tennessee.