Personal Accidents/Injuries
Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC Have a Successful Track Record of Settling Slip, Trip, and Fall Cases.
Slip and Fall Accidents
Many people presume that slip and fall accidents are minor incidents that rarely result in anything more than bumps or bruises. This is not, however, the case. Every year, slip, trip, and fall accidents result in severe injuries in Oregon. Slip, trip, and fall accidents can be truly life-altering. They are in fact the second leading cause of accidental death behind motor vehicle accidents and they result in approximately 17,000 deaths per year. Oregon slip and fall accidents frequently result in catastrophic injuries including debilitating head injuries and spinal injuries. Premises liability accidents are the number one cause of visits to Oregon’s emergency rooms and, on average, related medical expenses for such visits exceed $28,000.
If you or someone you love has been injured in a serious slip, trip, and fall accident in Oregon, the attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC can conduct a thorough investigation into the accident in order to evaluate your right to compensation. We will seek the compensation you need to pay your medical expenses, lost wages, diminished quality of life, and other costs. If you have suffered any devastating injuries as the result of a premises liability accident, you may be entitled to the full value of your loss including intangible damages like pain and suffering. The damages you may be entitled to include:
- Reimbursement of all medical expenses including rehabilitative care
- Any wages that are lost
- Future lost earnings resulting from the inability to work
- Pain and suffering including the impact on your enjoyment of life
- Loss of services or companionship of a spouse
- Burial or funeral costs (for slip, trip, and fall wrongful death accidents)
Evaluating the Right to Compensation
The attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC can conduct a thorough investigation into the accident in order to evaluate your right to compensation. We will seek the compensation you need to pay your medical expenses, lost wages, diminished quality of life, and other costs. If you have suffered any devastating injuries as the result of a personal accident/injury, you may be entitled to the full value of your loss including intangible damages like pain and suffering.
The damages you may be entitled to include:
- Reimbursement of all medical expenses including rehabilitative care
- Any wages that are lost
- Future lost earnings resulting from the inability to work
- Pain and suffering including the impact on your enjoyment of life
- Loss of services or companionship of a spouse
- Burial or funeral costs (for wrongful death accidents).
Some Causes of Serious Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents
Premises liability accidents may be caused by a wide variety of hazards including wet surfaces, broken stairs, stairs lacking handrails, or simple debris on the ground. Property owners may have an obligation to warn of particular hazardous conditions. It is the responsibility of property owners to keep their premises reasonably safe. Guests and other citizens have a right to assume that certain spaces and premises will be safe for their regular use.
Slip and fall accidents are a common cause of traumatic brain injuries according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and they can cause a variety of other injuries such as fractures of the hand, spine, and pelvis. They also are a leading cause of fatal work-related accidents. The experienced premises liability attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC have extensive experience handling a range of Oregon slip, trip, and fall accidents that include:
- Slips resulting from a wet surface
- Accidents caused by tripping on debris on the floor
- Slips, trips, and falls of the elderly who are especially vulnerable to serious slip and fall injuries
- Work-related slip, trip, and fall injuries resulting from dangerous conditions
- Handrail or guard-rail failure
- Poorly maintained or uneven floors, pavements, or sidewalks
Bringing Successful Premises Liability Lawsuits in Oregon
Premises liability accidents mainly occur in commercial settings such as grocery or retail stores, gyms, recreation centers, parking structures, or hospitals, but they can also occur on public property or in private residences. Legal remedies are generally available to you if you have been injured in a slip, trip, and fall accident despite where the accident occurred.
Oregon premises liability lawsuits tend to turn on the specific facts of each individual case and they require a prompt and thorough investigation of the fall-related accident. If you slip into a store or restaurant in Oregon, the question of the property owner’s liability will turn on whether the owner knew or should have known of the dangerous condition on the premises. Factual evidence that will be important includes:
Defective Condition or Foreign Substance: Is the defective condition that caused your injury a broken step that has been in disrepair for months or drainage from a leak in a water cooler that started this morning? A broken step that remains in disrepair is called a “static condition”, which a business owner generally will be presumed to know exists and have a duty to repair. A spill or leak is something that may change or emerge suddenly. A property owner’s liability for this second type of hazard will typically turn on the duration of time that has passed since the condition emerged and the maintenance practices in place by the property owner for discovering, preventing, and cleaning up hazards.
Duration of the Hazardous Condition: If a spill occurs only moments before a person slips, it will be difficult to prove that a property owner was liable for any accidents resulting from the condition. It may be necessary to establish that an employee witnessed a foreign, slippery, or sticky substance on the floor and failed to clean it up in order to hold a property owner liable. Conversely, if a spilled liquid or sticky substance has remained on the floor for a substantial period of time, a business owner or property owner may be presumed to have constructive knowledge of the danger even if no employee was aware of the dangerous condition. Property owners operating a business have an obligation to conduct reasonable maintenance procedures to keep their floors and premises clear of debris or foreign substances. For this reason, the more time that has elapsed between the time when a dangerous condition came into existence and the time of an accident due to that condition, the more likely the property owner will be found liable for negligence.
Surrounding Conditions: Hazardous conditions such as a broken and uneven floor tile, a spilled beverage, or a missing stairway guard-rail may all create a basis for liability in Oregon if the property owner did not take reasonable care to warn of the danger or to correct the hazardous condition. However, your premises liability must also develop additional evidence supporting a finding that the business owner did not take reasonable care to protect against slip and fall accidents. Pieces of evidence that reasonable care was not taken include but are not limited to the following:
- Poor lighting or non-working lights
- A history of similar accidents in safety reports for the business
- Evidence of related prior emergency medical calls to the property
- Past lawsuits or settlements related to negligent maintenance of the premises.
- Negative safety reports or findings from inspections
- Existing slip and fall maintenance procedures and policies
- Compliance with safety regulations (i.e. building codes)
- A business’ actual practices of performing inspections and cleanups of spilled substances
- Analysis from surveillance videos
- Expert analysis regarding the degree of slip resistance in flooring (this is formally called a floor’s friction coefficient)
This is an abbreviated list of the kinds of investigation that are required to build a case in premises liability that will allow you to successfully recover damages available if you have suffered from a serious slip, trip, and fall accident in Oregon. Thorough expert investigation and analysis are required to flesh out your case and to provide you with the best chance of prevailing under Oregon law. The experienced premises liability attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC use innovative and sophisticated litigation strategies and conduct an exhaustive investigation in order to ensure that your recovery is maximal.
Damages in Oregon Premises Liability Cases
Thousands of compensated clients and millions of dollars in settlements recovered by premises liability attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC, provide an objective measure of our skill as well as our commitment to holding property owners accountable for conditions on their premises that injure members of the public. Slip, trip, and fall accidents can have catastrophic and life-changing results, which include:
- Severe head trauma or brain injury causing loss of mental functioning
- Permanent debilitating spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis
- Broken bones including hip fractures that can be very dangerous for the elderly
- Wrongful death
Frequently Asked Questions About Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents
We Have Over 100 Years of Combined Premises Liability Experience
Thousands of compensated clients and millions of dollars in settlements recovered by premises liability attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC provide an objective measure of our skill as well as our commitment to holding property owners accountable for conditions on their premises that injure members of the public.
If you or someone you love has suffered a serious slip, trip, and fall injuries or you have lost a loved one in a fatal premises liability accident in Oregon, you need an attorney with experience and proven results. The dedicated attorneys at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Attorneys, PC have over 100 years of combined litigation experience and a 98 percent success rate in these cases.