When you are out and about running errands or visiting friends, getting injured is the last thing you should be worrying about. However, if you are on a property that is maintained by a negligent property owner, you may slip and fall due to dangerous conditions on the property and suffer serious injury.
Victims of these slip-and-fall accidents may be entitled to damages for their physical injuries, mental distress, and financial hardships. To recover compensation, victims can file a premises liability lawsuit against the property owners of the property on which the accident occurred.
Proving a premises liability claim will require you to establish that the property owner failed take reasonable steps to fix a dangerous condition on the property and that the dangerous condition caused your accident.
What if both parties are at fault?
Under Illinois’s modified comparative negligence laws, accident victims who are less than 50% at fault for their accidents can recover damages. However, the judge will reduce their compensation amount based on the percentage of fault attributed to the victim by the judge or jury.
For example, if a jury finds a slip-and-fall victim to be 30% at fault for texting and not paying attention while walking through a parking lot, they will only recover 70% of the damages awarded to them.
An attorney specializing in personal injury law can help the injured build a premises liability case by using several forms of evidence, such as the accident report, witness and expert testimony, and photos/videos of the scene. These cases can be difficult, but they can also be crucial in helping the injured to recover the compensation they deserve.