Suing for Damages after a Slip and Fall Injury as a Tenant

As a tenant, you always expect that the property you are occupying is safe from any hazardous conditions. As any reasonable person should, it is your landlord’s responsibility to ensure that the whole complex, including every room, is free from anything that could potentially injure you and your co-tenants. Unfortunately, there have been incidents of slip and fall inside and outside properties being occupied by tenants, causing injuries to the latter. Even though your landlord, by law, can’t and isn’t expected to protect you or your other tenants from such situations, you are still entitled to your right to seek compensation from him or her. In this regard, it is imperative that you devise a claim right away.

Basically, a slip and fall accident occurs when you slipped or tripped and then fell forward or backward, causing you injuries. Dangerous conditions that may cause you injuries include broken steps on the staircase, slippery floors, lack of lighting on stairwells and corridors, and other conditions brought about by inclement weather, such as rain and ice. If you get injured in any of the abovementioned situations and you believe your landlord failed to address the condition, then you may claim for damages against him or her, demanding compensation for whatever losses you incurred.

However, it is important that your claim should establish that the landlord was indeed negligent. In this case, you need to show in your claim these elements:

• The landlord has a duty of exercise reasonable care;

• The landlord failed to perform said duty;

• The failure to perform said duty resulted in you getting hurt.

• The accident resulted in physical and/or financial injuries.

More importantly, you must also establish in your claim that your landlord must have knew the hazardous condition before your accident, or the condition itself had been existing for a long time enough for him or her to have known of it.

If you suffered an injury in a property as a tenant, it is important that you seek medical attention immediately. Moreover, since you are claiming for damages, you need to have legal assistance, and that is through an expert personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles. Basically, your legal counsel must have experience in handling various personal injury claims, including those stemming from slip and fall accidents. Your attorney will guide you throughout the process of the claim, in which you may have the chance to recover compensation for the losses you incurred, from medical costs, future medical care, to emotional damages. You may likewise be advised to contact witnesses and assist you in gathering pieces of evidence in order for your claim to be strengthened.