Maryland Slip & Fall Lawyer
A slip and fall is thankfully not always serious, but it can be. An unexpected fall can result in broken bones in the wrist or hip, head injuries, back injuries, facial lacerations, and painful muscles tears or sprains. Property owners owe a duty to keep their premises in a reasonably safe condition to keep serious accidents like these from occurring. When they don’t, the Maryland slip & fall lawyers at Steinhardt, Siskind & Lieberman, LLC provide strong and aggressive representation to hold property owners accountable for their negligence and make sure injury victims are compensated for their medical bills, time missed from work, pain and suffering and other legal damages. Read on for more information about slip & fall accidents in Maryland, or call our office if you or a loved has been injured because of a store owner’s negligence.
Maryland Premises Liability Law
Property owners in Maryland owe a duty to people they invite onto their property or who have a lawful right to enter the premises to conduct business. This duty includes making a reasonable inspection of the property and promptly correcting any dangers that are discovered, or putting up a warning until the hazard can be fixed. When a danger has been allowed to exist for an unreasonable period of time, the property owner can be held liable for any injuries caused in a slip and fall or trip and fall accident. Common premises liability claims in Maryland include the following:
- Food or drink spill in a grocery store or restaurant
- Pooled liquid from a refrigerator, condenser or cooling unit
- Missing, torn or misplaced floor mats
- Tracked-in rain or snow
- Broken step
- Missing handrail
- Unmarked step or incline
- Exposed wiring
- Improperly stacked boxes or merchandise
- Malfunctioning elevator or escalator
Maryland slip & fall cases are challenging and complex
Slip and fall cases can be complicated to bring and win for a couple of different reasons. On the one hand, you have to be able to prove that the hazardous condition existed for an unreasonable period of time – long enough for the property owner to become aware of it and fix it but fail to do so – before the accident occurred. Proving this can be especially difficult when the danger is due to a “transitory foreign substance,” such as a food or drink spill, water tracked in from outside, or fallen merchandise blocking the aisle. At Steinhardt, Siskind & Lieberman, LLC, our attorneys understand how to investigate and reconstruct an accident, utilizing security camera footage, company inspection records and logs, and industry expert witnesses to prove that store personnel had the opportunity to become aware of the problem and either fix it or put up a warning before someone got hurt.
Not all cases involve transitory foreign substances; sometimes the hazard has existed for some time and is permanent until fixed. Examples include broken curbs or steps, cracked pavement, missing handrails, or burned-out light bulbs. These situations present a different problem for premises liability plaintiffs. Here the owner may argue that the condition was open and obvious, and the injury victim must not have been looking where he or she was going, or he or she would have noticed the hazard and avoided it. Most states will allow an injured plaintiff to recover some measure of damages, even if the plaintiff was partly to blame in the incident. However, under Maryland law, if a person is considered even only partially at-fault in an accident – in any amount – then the individual can be kept from recovering any money at all from the other negligent party. Insurance companies use this law to their maximum advantage, not only in slip & fall cases but in auto accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents and other personal injury matters. You need knowledgeable, strong and experienced attorneys on your side who can prove the property owner’s liability while defending you against claims that your own negligence caused or contributed to the accident.
Help is Available after a Serious Slip & Fall Accident in Maryland
Call Steinhardt, Siskind & Lieberman, LLC after a Maryland slip & fall accident. We maintain offices in Glen Burnie, Owings Mills, Ellicott City and Annapolis, and our slip & fall lawyers can come to you if your injuries prevent you from travelling to our offices. Your consultation is free, and you pay no attorney fees or expenses unless we win your case.
