Stairway Fall: Personal Injury Claims

If one falls in a stairway and sustains a serious injury, one may seek to file a lawsuit against the property owner. These lawsuits are typically based upon personal injury claims. While personal injury claims based upon stairway falls are frequently filed in courts throughout the country, such personal injury claims are complex; consequently, if one is contemplating the filing of a personal injury lawsuit based upon a stairway fall, one should consider retaining an experienced attorney.

How Stairway Falls Arise

There are several common ways that stairway falls can arise and lead to personal injury claims. Some frequently filed lawsuits include the following:

injuries due to slippery stairway surfaces due to wet surfaces or improperly maintained stairways
injuries due to a lack of handrails on the stairway
injuries resulting from handrails which are either placed too high or too low in the stairway
injuries caused by insufficient lighting in the stairway
injuries due to a collapsing stairway
injuries due to a failure to warn of a dangerous condition in the stairway

Parties in a Stairway Fall Personal Injury Case

It is important to consider all of the necessary parties involved in a stairway fall personal injury case. While at initial consideration one may think that only a property owner may be named in a case, there are other parties to consider. These parties include, but are not limited to, the following:

landlord
renter
insurance company
municipal entity if a public location (such as a city, state, village, town or hamlet)
third party who may have intervened (such as a contractor who performed work at the site)

Public Entity Notice Requirements

It is also critical to note that in certain municipalities or public entities, such as a city, state, village, town or other public corporation, one may have to provide written notice of one's intent to file a personal injury case if the injury in the stairway occurred in a publicly owned location. For instance, if the injured party fell at a state owned building staircase in a state which had a sixty day statutory notice of filing a claim, one must comply with the law or one's case would be forfeited. Consequently, it is crucial to determine ownership of the property where the staircase is located and any statutory notice requirements.

Getting Legal Help

If one has been injured in a stairway fall incident, one should retain an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible. A skilled legal practitioner can identify key legal issues, strategize to best position one's legal arguments and work to try and obtain the compensation one deserves in the case.

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