Slip and fall accidents are personal injury and are one type of "fall down" accidents.
There are four general types of slip and fall accidents:
Trip-and-fall accidents, where there is a foreign object in the walking path.
Stump-and-fall accidents, where there is an impediment in the walking surface.
Step-and-fall accidents, where there is an unexpected failure or hole in the walking surface
Slip-and-fall accidents, in which the interface of the shoe and the floor fails
Both the property owner as well as the injured person can be held to varying degrees of responsibility for an injury. The property owner has a responsibility to keep property safe. Each person has a duty to watch where they are going, as well as realize that there are things that fall or spill onto walking surfaces.
Ideally, an accident report should be completed at the time of the incident noting what happened, who witnessed both the accident and the conditions that caused the fall along with any other relevant information such as lighting. The requirement for a report is generally a store or business policy, rather than mandated by law.
If a report is not completed at the business location or occurred at private location or was not observed by others, compile a record of what happened yourself. Include information such as:
A description of the circumstances
Who was present
The comments made by those who saw or helped after the fall
If possible, take photos of the area. If you were physically hurt, have your injury checked out immediately to help substantiate your slip and fall injury lawsuit claim.
