Pearland Slip & Fall Lawyer

Anyone can fall at any time. Older people are especially at risk not only for falls, but also for serious fall injuries. Vision and mobility issues among older people increase the risk of a fall. These issues usually aren’t life changing, but in this context, they could be life altering. Additionally, many older people have arthritis and other pre-existing medical conditions. These conditions often transform moderate injuries into severe injuries and severe injuries into fatal injuries.

Henrietta Ezeoke, a compassionate Pearland slip & fall lawyer, understands the intense pain and suffering these victims, and their families, must endure. Many of the people on our professional team have been through similar experiences. This understanding gives us additional motivation to evaluate your case, collect evidence, and fight hard to obtain maximum compensation for your serious injuries. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.

Duty of Care

Under Texas law, most noncommercial drivers have the same duty of care. However, the duty of care varies in premises liability claims, as follows:

• Invitee: Most fall victims are invitees in Texas. This label applies if the victim had permission to be on the property and the victim’s presence benefited the owner. The permission could be direct or indirect and the benefit could be financial or nonfinancial. Because the victim/owner relationship is close, the duty of care is high.
• Licensee: Hotel guests swimming in a hotel pool are invitees. Guests of hotel guests swimming in a hotel pool are licensees. A licensee has indirect permission to be on the land, but there’s no benefit to the owner. So, the duty of care is lower. Normally, owners must only warn licensees about latent (hidden) defects, like a broken pool drain.
• Trespasser: People who go onto their neighbors’ property unannounced and uninvited to swim in their pools or lakes are usually trespassers. Usually, owners have no safety responsibilities in this area. However, some legal doctrines, like the attractive nuisance rule, protect some child trespassers in some cases.

If a judge determines that a legal duty applies, a Pearland slip and fall accident lawyer can proceed to step two, which is proving actual or constructive knowledge.

Knowledge of Hazard

The strongest injury claims usually include direct evidence of actual knowledge. These smoking guns, like restroom cleaning reports and sidewalk repair reports, usually only surface during discovery. So, if an attorney settles a fall injury claim too early, the best evidence, and therefore the most compensation, may be unavailable.

Circumstantial evidence of constructive knowledge (should have known), which is also admissible in these cases, usually involves the time-notice of rule. Assume Bill slips on a banana peel. If the peel was yellow, it probably just fell on the floor, so the owner had no duty to clean it up. However, if the peel was gritty and black, as if it had been on the floor for more than a few minutes, liability usually attaches.

Reach Out to a Dedicated Brazoria County Slip & Fall Lawyer

Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced slip and fall accident lawyer in Pearland, contact the Henrietta Ezeoke Law Firm, PLLC. We do not charge upfront legal fees in these matters.