Slip & Fall Injuries

Slip and fall accident is a personal injury and are one type of "fall down" accidents. There are four general types of fall accidents:

• Trip-and-fall accidents , where there is a foreign object in the walking path
• Stump-and-fall accidents , where there is an impediment in the walking surface
• Step-and-fall accidents , where there is an unexpected failure or hole in the walking surface, and
• Slip-and-fall accident , in which the interface of the shoe and the floor fails

Both the property owner as well as the injured person can be held to varying degrees of responsibility for a slip and fall injury . The property owner has a responsibility to keep property safe. Each person has a duty to watch where they are going, as well as realize that there are things that fall or spill onto walking surfaces.

Ideally, a slip and fall accident report should be completed at the time of the incident noting what happened, who witnessed both the accident and the conditions that caused the fall along with any other relevant information such as lighting. The requirement for a slip and fall accident report is generally a store or business policy, rather than mandated by law.

If a slip and fall case report is not completed at the business location or occurred at private location or was not observed by others, compile a record of what happened yourself. Include information such as:

• A description of the circumstances
• Who was present at the place of the accident
• The comments made by those who saw or helped after the fall
• If possible, take photos of the area. If you were physically hurt, have your slip and fall injury checked out immediately to help substantiate your slip and fall claim.