Delray Beach Slip & Fall Attorney

Duties to Visitors 
Your potential compensation will depend on why you were on the property in the first place. Florida common law divides visitors into three categories: Invitees, licensee and trespassers.

• Invitee: A person who is invited onto a premise as a member of the general public or to conduct business on the grounds. This includes customers at a store or business clients at an office building. Property owners have to make a reasonable inspection of the premises to check for dangers and to warn anyone of dangers that are not, or cannot, be repaired.
• Licensee: A person who is invited onto the premise for a social purpose is called a licensee by invitation, and a property owner owes the same duty of care to that person as they would to an invitee. A person on the grounds for only their convenience is an uninvited licensee.
• Trespasser: A person who enters a property without any sort of permission is labeled as a trespasser. A property owner’s only duty to these people is to refrain from causing willful or wanton injury. For example, a person cannot have concealed traps in their yard to hurt trespassers.

Elements of a Premises Liability Claim

Duty: One of the four essential elements of any negligence claim is duty. Most premises liability claims are for negligence on the part of the property owner. Florida law describes negligence as a person who did not act reasonably carefully or did something that a reasonably careful person would not do.

Breach of duty: For any negligence claim, the plaintiff, or person filing the lawsuit, must show:

• The defendant, or person being sued, had a duty to the plaintiff
• The defendant breached that duty
• The breach was the actual and proximate (or “legal”) cause of damages, and the plaintiff suffered damages as a result

For example, let’s say you broke your arm in a slip and fall accident while visiting a local grocery store where laundry detergent had been spilled on the floor. You may be able to show the four elements by proving:

• The store had a duty to you as an invitee and customer to make reasonable inspections for dangers.
• The stored breached this duty by not sending an employee to check the aisles in more than a reasonable amount of time.
• You were hurt due to slipping on the detergent and, had store employees checked the aisles, they would have known about the spill and been able to warn of it or clean it up (this shows causation).
• You suffered damages, including hospital bills, physical therapy bills, bills for follow-up care, lost wages while seeking medical care, and pain and suffering.

Examples of Breaches by Retail Stores and Commercial Buildings

Retail establishments, office complexes, and other businesses owe a high degree of care to the people they invite into their buildings, yet there are many ways they may fail to meet this duty. Some examples may include:

• Stacking or shelving merchandise too high or doing it in an unsafe manner
• Failing to repair cracks in the floor or the parking lot and not posting signs around the cracks
• Failing to make needed repairs to elevators and escalators
• Not repairing loose handrails on stairs
• Providing insufficient security

Damages in Florida Premises Liability Cases

The purpose of a personal injury lawsuit is to help you recover monetary compensation for the damages you suffered in a preventable accident. If you’ve been hurt in a slip and fall accident, then you have suffered pain, and there is no way to win back the time you lost going to the doctor and experiencing the many other frustrations that come with an accident. As such, you may be able to seek compensation the cover the following:

• Economic damages: As a result of your accident, you may owe hospital bills, doctor bills, physical therapy bills, and other medical debt. You may have missed work and lost wages. To prove this, you can show hard facts of your losses — bills, receipts, paychecks, etc.
• Noneconomic damages: While still very real, economic damages are less tangible. These include pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of capacity for enjoyment of life, disability, and disfigurement.
• Punitive damages: When gross negligence or a willful act caused your injury. These damages are intended to punish the responsible party.

In most cases involving commercial property and homeowners, you will be dealing with the insurance company. However, it’s important to know that the insurance company will very likely make you an offer that does not cover the full extent of your damages, which is why you should not accept that offer before speaking to our Delray Beach slip and fall attorney.

One of our attorneys represented insurance companies in the past and knows how they strategize and operate in slip and fall cases; as such, we know what it takes to prepare defenses and arguments against them. We can negotiate with the insurance company to seek a better settlement on your behalf. With McLaughlin Morris Law representing you, you will have an experienced slip and fall attorney on your side, negotiating for a settlement that comprehensively covers your needs. If your settlement is not satisfactory enough, our trial attorneys are happy to take your case to court.