South Bend Slip and Fall Accident Lawyers

No matter if you are taking the kids to Potawatomi Zoo, having fun with the grownups at Four Winds Casino, or cheering alongside fans of all ages at Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend offers so many reasons to venture away from the comforts of home. But the most enjoyable outing can take a turn for the worse when an unforeseen danger causes an unexpected fall.

Falling is the leading cause of preventable injury in the United States, and it can be catastrophic for Indiana seniors, who account for 71.8 percent of fall-related hospitalizations and 82.1 percent of deaths from falls statewide. Even non-fatal falls can inflict punishing injuries that require extensive treatment at significant expense.

If you have suffered a bad fall on someone else’s property, you might be able to receive compensation for your injuries, though a favorable outcome is never guaranteed. To overcome any challenges you may face, get in touch with the South Bend slip-and-fall accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group, who are committed to ensuring that the average Hoosier has the same access to justice as the rich and powerful.

Schedule a free consultation with a South Bend slip and fall accident lawyer by calling (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form.

What Is a Slip-and-Fall Accident Case?

Any valid slip-and-fall accident case needs to include two core components: negligence and damages.

Negligence is a party’s failure to meet a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid causing harm, otherwise known as damages. A plaintiff who sustains physical damages because of a defendant’s negligence could pursue that defendant for financial damages.

In a slip-and-fall accident case, a plaintiff is claiming that he or she suffered injury from a loss of footing caused by a property owner’s negligence. To have any chance of success, the plaintiff needs to prove that:

● The property owner owed the plaintiff a duty to exercise care to maintain reasonably safe conditions on the premises.

● The owner breached this duty by not taking care to keep the premises safe.

● This breach directly caused the plaintiff to suffer a fall with injury.

Demonstrating that a breach of duty caused harm can be harder to do in a case based on a slip and fall accident than in one based on a car accident, where there is a more obvious link between a defendant’s behavior and a plaintiff’s injuries.

Fortunately, the South Bend slip-and-fall accident attorneys at our firm are highly proficient at uncovering actionable breaches of duty by property owners.

How Do Slip-and-Fall Accidents Happen?

A fall can happen for a variety of reasons, though there are certain hazards that can increase the likelihood of slip-and-fall accidents, including:

● Overly slick surfaces

● Uneven or loose floorboards

● Accumulations of water

● Holes in the ground

● Unfixed or bulging mats, rugs, or carpets

● Poor lighting

● Obstructions in pathways

● Unsalted ice

If defects of this nature are found in a private residence, a commercial establishment, or a public facility, they could indicate negligence on the part of the property owner, which may provide the basis for a slip-and-fall claim. Hensley Legal Group can assess the causes of your injury and decide how to proceed.

Are You Eligible to Pursue a Slip-and-Fall Accident Case?

You need to establish that you were injured because a property owner breached a duty of care you were owed in order to be eligible to pursue a slip-and-fall accident case. But did the property owner really owe you a duty of care, and what did that duty actually entail?

The answer depends on why you were on the owner’s property. The State of Indiana classifies visitors to premises as invitees, licensees, and trespassers, each of whom is owed a different duty of care under the law.

● Invitees – An invitee would be a visitor who is invited to a property for the monetary benefit of the owner. Classic invitees would include customers at a store or guests at a hotel.

Invitees are owed the greatest duty of care by property owners, who must take active measures to keep their premises safe for this group. An owner may need to regularly inspect the premises to identify dangerous conditions and either repair or warn about them in order to meet this duty.

● Licensees – A licensee is a visitor who has permission to enter a property but does not provide a direct benefit to the owner. Family members visiting an owner’s home or hunters allowed on an owner’s land would be considered licensees.

Property owners owe a lesser duty of care to licensees. They have to avoid willfully harming licensees and alert them about known dangerous conditions, but owners do not have to conduct inspections to find dangers for the sake of licensees.

● Trespassers – A trespasser is anyone on a property without permission, a term that could apply to a wide range of individuals. Trespassers may be as innocuous as neighbors taking a shortcut across an owner’s front lawn or as pernicious as burglars breaking into an owner’s cellar door.

Trespassers are owed the least duty of care under Indiana law, though property owners still have some limited obligations. Owners who are aware of the presence of trespassers are not allowed to hurt them intentionally, but they do not have a duty to warn trespassers about concealed dangers or fix them.

This reduced standard of care may not apply to child trespassers, who are not expected to fully understand the risks on another’s property, particularly “attractive nuisances.” These are hazards that would be especially appealing to minors, such as unfenced pools. According to Title 34, Section 31, Chapter 11 of the Indiana Code, property owners “may be subject to liability for physical injury or death to a child trespasser” if the owners know about attractive nuisances on their premises and expect children to trespass and sustain injury because of them but do nothing to address them.

As you can see, what you were doing when you fell will heavily influence the viability of your case. Our South Bend slip-and-fall accident lawyers are ready to discuss the circumstances leading up to your injury and determine if you have cause for a claim.

How Our Slip-and-Fall Accident Attorneys Can Make a Difference

A serious fall can be a life-changing event, potentially leaving you overwhelmed with mounting medical bills and unable to earn a living.

To stave off disaster, you need attorneys who can support you during this unstable period and guide you toward a steadier path. In short, you need the South Bend slip-and-fall accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group, who have been standing with the everyday people of Indiana for more than 25 years.

If you choose to hire our firm, we will launch a comprehensive investigation into the causes of your fall and everyone who may be responsible for it within the time allotted by law. Our South Bend slip-and-fall accident lawyers will also act quickly to secure the evidence needed for your claim, even taking action to prevent property defects from being repaired before they can be documented.

Getting You Compensated for All Your Losses

Once we have put together the strongest case possible against the at-fault parties, we will attempt to negotiate a settlement that gets you compensated for all your losses, including:

● Medical expenses

● Lost wages

● Pain and suffering

● Mental and emotional anguish

● Diminishment of daily living

● Punitive and wrongful death damages (if applicable)

And if we do not receive an offer that reflects the true value of your case, we are not afraid to go to trial for a verdict that does.

You Will Never Pay Unless We Win

Additional expenditures might be beyond your means right now, so you may be pleased to learn that our firm works on a contingency basis. You will never have to pay us unless our South Bend slip-and-fall accident attorneys win your case.

One wrong step was all it took to turn your world upside down, but you can trust Hensley to get you back on your feet again.

Talk to a South Bend Slip-and-Fall Accident Lawyer Today

Since 1998, Hensley Legal Group has devoted its practice to protecting Indiana’s innocent victims of negligence. Talk to a South Bend slip-and-fall accident lawyer today to explore the options available to you after a major fall.

Please call (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form for a no-cost case review with one of our South Bend slip-and-fall accident attorneys.