Indianapolis Slip And Fall Accident Lawyers
No matter if you want to attend a concert at the Hilbert Circle Theatre, cheer on the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, or simply hike along one of more than 59 designated trails, there is always something to do in Indianapolis, but a single misstep could turn the most enjoyable day into a major disaster.
Falling is the leading source of preventable injuries in Indiana, and it can be catastrophic for seniors, who account for 82.1 percent of fall-related deaths in the state, though even a non-fatal fall could inflict punishing injuries that few families could afford without assistance. Fortunately, that assistance may be available when somebody else is at fault, and you could improve your chances of obtaining it by partnering with the Indianapolis slip and fall lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, who have been fighting on behalf of the seriously injured since 1998.
To find out if your accident justifies a personal injury case, schedule a free case review with a seasoned Indianapolis slip and fall attorney by calling us at (317) 526-1440, chatting with us online, or completing our contact form now.
What Is an Indianapolis Slip and Fall Case?
Slip-and-fall cases are a subset of personal injury litigation concentrating on the harm associated with accidental falls.
As in any kind of personal injury claim, a valid slip and fall case needs to demonstrate both negligence, which is the failure to exercise sufficient care to avoid harming others, and damages, which are the losses incurred from that negligence. Basically, if a plaintiff sustains bodily damages because of a defendant’s negligence, that plaintiff could pursue the defendant for financial damages.
In a typical Indianapolis slip and fall case, a plaintiff will allege that he or she fell because of the negligent actions of a defendant, who is usually the owner of the property where the slip and fall occurred. For the case to be viable, the plaintiff will have to prove that:
- The defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff to keep a property safe;
- The defendant breached that duty by not keeping the property safe; and
- This breach made the plaintiff fall with subsequent injury.
Showing that negligence injured a plaintiff can be more challenging in a slip-and-fall case than in a case with a more obvious relationship between a defendant’s behavior and a plaintiff’s damages, such as a car accident. For this reason, fall victims frequently seek out the advice of our Indianapolis slip and fall lawyers, who are proficient at identifying breaches of duty by property owners that could provide grounds for a slip and fall case.
Do You Have Grounds for a Slip and Fall Case?
This raises an important question: Do you have grounds for a slip and fall case? More specifically, did a property owner actually owe you a duty of care, what was the nature of that duty, and in what way was it breached?
The answers will primarily depend upon why you were on the owner’s property. Under Indiana law, visitors to premises are classified as invitees, licensees, or trespassers, each of whom is owed a distinct duty of care:
- Invitees – A visitor who is asked onto a property for the economic benefit of its owner may be categorized as an invitee, such as a patron in a store or a diner at a restaurant.
Invitees are owed the greatest duty of care by Indianapolis property owners, who may be required to actively ensure that their properties are safe for invitees by inspecting their premises for hazards and either fixing or drawing attention to them.
- Licensees – A visitor who is allowed onto a property yet does not directly benefit the owner, like a family member dropping by the owner’s home or a hunter granted access to the owner’s land, may be considered a licensee.
Property owners in Indianapolis owe a lesser duty of care to licensees. This duty generally entails not willfully hurting licensees and taking pains to alert them about known hazards but does not mandate searching for hazards that may be on site for the sake of licensees.
- Trespassers – Technically, anybody “visiting” a property without permission could be called a trespasser, though this term could be used to describe someone as unthreatening as a neighbor cutting across a front yard or as menacing as a burglar prying open a back door.
Trespassers are owed the least duty of care by far in Indianapolis, though property owners may still have some limited obligations, such as not injuring them intentionally, though there is no obligation to point out or repair hazards.
However, it should be noted that this relaxed duty of care may not pertain to child trespassers, who are not expected to fully comprehend the risks of their misconduct. Furthermore, property owners could potentially owe trespassing minors an elevated duty of care with respect to “attractive nuisances” that are particularly appealing to the young. Under Indiana Code Title 34, Section 31, Chapter 11, a property owner who knows of an attractive nuisance and believes children may be lured and harmed by it yet does nothing about it “may be subject to liability for physical injury or death to a child trespasser.”
As you can imagine, a property owner’s insurance company may have a vested interest in casting doubt on the legitimacy of your presence on the premises, so it is critical to go over the facts of your accident with a knowledgeable Indianapolis slip and fall lawyer as soon as you can.
Why Do Slip-and-Falls Happen?
Whether or not you can be compensated for your slip-and-fall will be heavily influenced by why it happened in the first place. Each slip-and-fall is unique, but property owners are likeliest to be fiscally liable for falls that are linked to defects on their premises, such as:
- Overly slick surfaces
- Loose floorboards
- Uneven or broken stairs
- Unfastened or bulging rugs or mats
- Dim lighting
- Unsalted ice
- Unnatural accumulations of water or fluid
These sorts of conditions could indicate negligence on the part of property owners, who must take precautions to minimize slips, trips, and falls whenever possible, either by their visitors or their employees, such as:
- Wiping up spills immediately
- Removing ice, grease, or other slippery substances
- Restoring crumbling or unsteady stairs
- Installing handrails on staircases and platforms
- Securing or replacing unattached or buckled carpeting
- Cordoning off dangers with signs or cones
- Boosting light levels
- Tidying the property and its pathways
- Training employees to watch where they walk, carry loads so as not to impede their vision, dress to increase their traction, and regain their balance in the event of a slip or trip
Property owners who implement precautions like these could significantly curb the number of slip and falls on their premises – and Hensley’s Indianapolis slip and fall lawyers will be ready to hold them responsible if they don’t.
Retaining Our Indianapolis Slip and Fall Lawyers Can Make a Difference
A slip-and-fall can overwhelm you with mounting medical bills while undermining your ability to earn the money necessary to cover them, but this is where retaining the Indianapolis slip and fall lawyers at Hensley Legal Group can make a difference.
If you hire Hensley, we will begin by launching a thorough investigation into your slip-and-fall and everyone who contributed to it within the time allotted by law. We will also amass the materials to construct your claim, moving swiftly to stop relevant defects from being remedied before they can be documented if the circumstances warrant it.
After putting together a rock-solid case against each of the defendants, our tenacious Indianapolis slip and fall lawyers will enter into negotiations with their insurance carriers, working tirelessly to reach a settlement that reflects the totality of your losses, such as:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Psychological trauma
- Mobility restrictions
- Diminished quality of life
- Loss of consortium
- Punitive damages (if applicable)
And unlike many of our competitors, who seldom, if ever, venture into a courtroom, we are not afraid to proceed to trial if we do not receive an offer that is worthy of your case.
We realize that agreeing to more expenditures may be last thing you are eager to do at this moment, though our firm works on a contingency basis, which means that you won’t have to pay us a penny until our Indianapolis slip and fall attorneys win your case.
You may be reluctant to trust anything in the aftermath of your fall, but you can trust Hensley to do whatever it takes to make you whole again.
Our Indianapolis Personal Injury Lawyers Will Be Here for You
Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for the men and women of Indiana for more than a quarter century. If you have been badly hurt by a property owner’s carelessness in the Indianapolis area, our Indianapolis slip and fall lawyers will be here for you.
You can call us at (317) 526-1440, chat with us online, or complete our contact form to arrange a complimentary consultation with a dedicated Indianapolis slip and fall accident attorney today.
Available 24/7
Free Case Review
You won’t pay any fees until we win your case.
It’s easy - you can: