Fort Myers Slip & Fall Lawyer
When you are out on a hike in the wilderness, the ground is very often uneven, littered with rocks and other natural debris, steep, muddy, wet, sandy, off camber, and generally difficult to walk across without continually looking down at your footing to make sure your foot placing is solid and sound. Now consider a supermarket aisleway. The tiled floor is polished smooth and you could put a level on it and the bubble would be perfectly centered. The uniformity of the floor means that you do not have to look down at your footing. You expect each step to be like the last: easy and uneventful. When a large crack opens up underneath your foot or you step in a spilled pool of water or cooking oil that leaked from a broken container, the sudden jolt from uniformity will likely send you straight to the ground. And, depending on how you fall, you may be seriously injured. We expect controlled environments to have even, safe walkways with good lighting and free from clutter that could cause us to trip. When the flooring turns out to be unsafe, disaster strikes because we are utterly unprepared for it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average hospital visit due to a fall costs $35,000. If you have been injured in a fall, call our Fort Myers slip & fall lawyer immediately.
Wet Floors in Fort Myers are Cause for Slip and Falls Year Round
In Florida, we have to worry about slippery floors quite frequently. Due to the heavy rainfall throughout the year, water gets tracked into businesses and creates a slipping hazard for all of the invitees. In fact, Fort Myers receives an average of just under 60 inches of rainfall per year, according to U.S. Climate Data, while the average precipitation for the entire U.S. is just 30.2 inches, according to Current Results. With Fort Myers receiving twice the annual rainfall, slippery floors, especially near entrances, can be a big problem. Business owners must take precautions by mopping up puddles and by placing mats at each entrance and exit to reduce the tracking in water.
Defining Actual and Constructive Knowledge
One of the most important aspects of a successful personal injury lawsuit stemming from a slip and fall is revealing that the owner of the business had one of two types of knowledge beforehand. Florida law requires that in order to be held liable for a slip and fall, it must be shown that a business owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the unsafe environment of their store. To bring it back to the example of a slippery floor condition due to heavy rainfall outside, if the business owner or manager saw or heard from an employee that there were massive puddles of water near the entranceway, that would be considered actual knowledge. However, if they did not see any puddles but knew that it was raining, it could well be argued that they had constructive knowledge because rainfall means a wet floor due to customers’ wet shoes.
Contact our Experienced Fort Myers Slip & Fall Lawyers Today
Regardless of how you fell, if you were injured in a slip and fall, contact an experienced Fort Myers slip & fall lawyer today with The Pendas Law Firm at 1-844-200-0000. We will help you fight to recover compensation for your injuries.
