Why Slip & Fall Claims in North Carolina are so darn difficult.
The law surrounding this subject area is a great example of why people hate the law, and as a consequence, lawyers.
In order to prove a slip and fall claim in NC, or premises liability claim in general in NC, you have to show the following:
- Existence of a dangerous condition
- Owner (or person in control) was aware of it OR by exercise of reasonable care SHOULD have been aware of it.
- Owner failed to warn victim
- Victim was hurt as a result
Contrary to popular belief an injury on someone’s property does not automatically create liability on the part of the owner/person in control of the property! You must show negligence of some kind – that the dangerous condition was known of or should have been known of and there should have been a warning about it.
That isn’t horrible to me. I find it quite reasonable, actually.
For example if I come to your house and fall in a sink hole you had NO idea was there, should you be responsible for that? Clearly not. You didn’t know it of the danger, and by the exercise of reasonable care you probably wouldn’t have known about it, so how could you have warned me?
The problem that this creates in NC is a result of another law combining with this: North Carolina recognizes Contributory Negligence.
Contrib – remember my past video on that? Blog entry? Anyway, they are there…
Contributory Negligence (we in the business call it “contrib”) means the injured person gets NOTHING from the at-fault party as long as jury/judge find that the injured person was even the least bit responsible for causing his own injury.
How do they (insurance companies) prove contrib?
Well, Contrib is seen as a failure to exercise reasonable care for your own safety.
The first hurdle in a premises liability claim is proving the owner was aware of the dangerous condition.
This is mostly proven by demonstrating that the condition was so darn obvious they should have known about it by exercising reasonable care.
See where this is going?
If you are successful in doing that, you help them prove that it was so darn obvious YOU should have known about it by exercising reasonable care for yourself!
For example, you slip in a puddle of juice spilled at the grocery store. There is no evidence that an employee spilled it or when it was spilled. Your only hope to establish liability is to show that it was so obvious they should have done something about it. Hooray, when you prove that, you also help to bolster their defense that it was so obvious that you should have noticed it yourself.
It may not be as simple as that, of course. Every case is different, and that example above can be improved drastically by several different variables.
But you can see that as a result of this little twist in the law slip and fall claims are notoriously difficult in our state, and as a result, most attorneys don’t take them.
They are difficult, but NOT impossible. I have had great success with a few claims and I’ve not done too badly with many others.
So if you have a slip and fall claim in NC, call me to discuss it.
Thanks for joining me again. I hope you learned something useful.
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