Falling on a stairway can cause serious injuries that lead to permanent harm. Even when the wounds heal with time, a fall on the stairs could temporarily impact your quality of life and ability to earn a living and manage your daily responsibilities.
When a property owner’s negligence leads to an accident, you could seek financial compensation for your injuries. Damages may include medical expenses, lost wages, and money for your pain and suffering.
An experienced premises liability attorney at Reaves Law Firm, PLLC, represents people who suffer injuries in stairwell accidents in Bartlett. Working with a skilled lawyer on your claim could ensure you receive appropriate payments for your losses.
Landowners must take reasonable care to protect visitors from dangerous conditions. What is “reasonable” depends on the circumstances.
The hazard must be discoverable through normal inspection. A property owner is unlikely to be liable for a risk that could not be discovered without opening walls or ceilings unless there was some outward indication of it.
Once a landowner knows of a hazard, they must correct it promptly. When the risk is a spill or something simple to fix, the owner must remediate it as soon as they become aware of it. If repairing the danger requires significant time or expense, the property owner has a longer time to fix it but must warn visitors or prevent their access to it in the meantime.
Many accidents in stairwells have negligence at their root. The landowner is often to blame, but people using the stairs could be negligent, too. Thus, property owners and the person using the stairs could share responsibility for a stairwell accident.
Deferred maintenance causes many stairwell accidents in Bartlett. For example, a person may lose their balance or trip and fall due to:
A property owner could be liable when someone suffers an injury due to their failure to keep a stairway in good repair.
People using a stairway must take reasonable precautions to use them safely. If a person suffers an injury in a stairwell while inebriated, using their phone or otherwise distracted, running, or is careless in similar ways, they might be partially liable for the incident.
The law permits an injured person whose actions contributed to the accident to collect damages from other negligent parties in many cases. However, the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure § 8.03 allow a property owner to raise the affirmative defense of comparative negligence.
When the plaintiff contributes to the accident, the jury must determine how much blame resides with them. If the jury decides the injured person is more than 49 percent responsible, that person cannot collect any monetary damages for their injuries. However, if the jury assigns a smaller percentage of blame to the injured party, they could collect compensation minus a percentage equal to their degree of fault.
Comparative negligence is usually a factor in negotiations with insurance companies to settle injury claims. The insurer often argues the injured person bears significant responsibility for a stairwell fall and should receive only minimal damages. A dedicated stairwell accident attorney in Bartlett could counter those arguments with proof of the property owner’s negligent failure to maintain safe premises.
Falling on stairs could lead to severe injury. Even if you escape without major physical damage, you will likely suffer pain and limited movement for a few days or weeks.
You deserve financial recovery when a property owner’s negligence causes you harm. If you were injured in a stairwell, contact a capable attorney at Reaves Law Firm, PLLC, for help. Our team of seasoned lawyers has experience seeking fair compensation for those who suffer harm in stairwell accidents in Bartlett.
