Houston Slip and Fall Attorney

According to The National Safety Council falls have been the third leading cause of preventable injury-related death almost every year since 2002, and the leading cause of preventable death for those 65 and older.

If you’ve fallen and been injured on someone else’s premises in Harris County, you need to report your accident and seek medical attention.  After that, your next step should be to reach out to a Houston slip and fall lawyer to discuss your rights.

While these incidents might seem minor at first glance, they can result in serious injuries that have long-term impacts on victims. From broken bones and head injuries to spinal damage and emotional trauma, the consequences of a slip and fall can be life-altering.

Slips and falls can happen in a wide variety of settings, including workplaces, public spaces, and private properties. If you’ve suffered a catastrophic injury, like a spinal cord injury (SCI) or traumatic brain injury (TBI), in a slip and fall accident, you’re not alone.  Find out how the legal team at Barrera Law Group LLC can assist with your case.

How Slips, Trips, and Falls Happen

Regardless of where you live in the U.S., the following factors are commonly to blame for these preventable accidents:

• Poor lighting: This could include the non-existence of lights or ones that are just not as bright, burnt out, or as well-placed as they should be, whether near entryways, in hallways, bathrooms, stairwells, and other places.
• Insufficient or ineffective maintenance: This can be things like leaking pipes, loose railings on staircases, or malfunctioning escalators that cause users to lose their footing, for example.
• Lack of warning of potential hazards: A grocery store’s failure to post a sign letting customers know a defrosting freezer is causing pooling of water in front of it or that an office building floor was recently waxed without warning signs are examples of these.
• Inadequate fall protection provided: This is a common concern on construction sites, for example, where contractors may be working at a significant height without being provided with any harnesses to keep them safely suspended in the air.
• Inadequate or inattentive staffing: This is particularly a factor in nursing homes and hospitals, where residents or patients may feel compelled to attempt to get up and retrieve something themselves despite them not being well enough to do so, perhaps because they’ve called for assistance and not had those requests answered.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that falls just by the elderly led at least 3 million older Americans to seek treatment in emergency rooms in 2023, and represented more than one million hospitalizations.

Did one of these factors, or something else, contribute to you suffering a slip and fall?

Whether you were injured in one of these scenarios or another, a Houston slip and fall lawyer can help you pursue a claim for the compensation you deserve.

Where Slips and Falls Typically Occur

Slip and fall accidents can happen anywhere, but there are certain locations in the U.S. where these accidents are more common due to specific environmental factors or high foot traffic.

Some of the most common places for slip and fall accidents, each of which has the potential for a premises liability lawsuit include:

• Retail Stores and Malls: Shoppers often experience slip-and-fall accidents in retail spaces. Spilled liquids, freshly mopped floors, or items left on the floor create hazards. Large crowds in these locations also make it difficult to avoid slipping or tripping hazards.
• Restaurants and Bars: Restaurants and bars are common sites for slip and fall accidents due to spilled food or drinks, greasy floors, and crowded spaces. In fast-paced environments like these, hazards can appear quickly, putting patrons and staff at risk.
• Hotels and Resorts: Guests in hotels and resorts frequently slip and fall in hallways, lobbies, or near swimming pools. Wet floors, poorly maintained walkways, and inadequate lighting contribute to the risks in these spaces.
• Hospitals and Nursing Homes: In healthcare settings, patients and visitors are vulnerable to slipping on wet floors, loose cables, or poorly maintained surfaces. Older individuals, especially in nursing homes, face higher risks due to their limited mobility and physical fragility.
• Public Sidewalks and Parking Lots: Outdoor areas such as sidewalks and parking lots are common locations for slip and fall accidents. Cracks in sidewalks, icy patches in winter, and uneven surfaces can cause individuals to lose their footing. In parking lots, spills from cars, debris, or weather-related hazards like rain or snow further increase the risks.
• Schools and Playgrounds: Schools and playgrounds are places where children and adults alike may experience slip and fall accidents. Slippery gym floors, spills in cafeterias, or uneven surfaces on playgrounds contribute to accidents in these settings.
• Residential Properties: Homeowners are responsible for keeping their properties safe. Slip and fall accidents can occur on poorly maintained driveways, wet staircases, or in cluttered areas inside a home. In apartment complexes, common areas such as stairwells and hallways are frequent sites for accidents.
• Airports and Train Stations: High-traffic areas like airports and train stations are prone to slip-and-fall incidents. Wet floors from cleaning or weather, as well as rushing crowds, create a higher potential for accidents.

Slip And Falls in the Workplace

As mentioned above, slips and falls can occur virtually anywhere.

Data published by the Texas Department of Insurance cites falls as the number one cause of death among construction workers in our country. Fall injuries in the construction industry are common, but that’s not the only workplace they happen in.

Slips and falls occur on a wide range of job sites due to:

• Lack of access to safety equipment
• Faulty equipment (like stairwell handrails in an office building)
• Use of scaffolding or ladders
• Slippery surfaces (such as water on a bathroom floor)
• Cracked or uneven flooring
• Violence (i.e., inadequate security protocol in workplaces)
• Insufficient training or supervision

What To Do After a Slip and Fall Accident on Someone Else’s Premises

There are a few key steps you should take no matter how serious you perceive your slip and fall to be, including:

#1: Report the Incident

You should do this to the business owner, landlord, property manager, or facility management right away whenever possible. If the fall renders you unconscious and unable to do so, you will want to do so (or have someone else do so) on your behalf as soon as possible. Calling the police to make a report is also an option.

Why is reporting the slip and fall incident necessary? It documents what happened, which can come in handy if you opt to file a liability claim or lawsuit against any responsible parties.

#2: Photograph or Video the Scene

Like any incident report created, photographs or videos of the hazards that existed that caused you to fall or your injuries can prove invaluable in building a strong case. If possible, take this photographic or videographic evidence to make a report.

#3: Call Emergency Services or See a Doctor Right Away

A slip-and-fall accident can take you by surprise, leading you to experience a burst of adrenaline immediately after the incident. This can mask the true severity of any underlying injuries it may have caused you to suffer.

Thus, even if you don’t feel like you’re hurt, you must seek medical attention right away.

Getting professional medical care is especially important if you hit your head on anything as you fell to the ground, or had a particularly hard fall. However, you should visit an urgent care facility or emergency room no matter what.

It’s also important that you are amenable to any testing that your healthcare provider recommends and that you continue any treatment until they release you from their care.

Step #4: Take Down Eyewitness Contact Information

Scan the scene as you wait for paramedics to arrive to see if anyone in the area saw what happened.

If they did, be sure to take down their contact information, so that they can be called upon to provide a deposition or testify at trial, if necessary, about what they saw.

Step #5: Speak With a Houston Slip and Fall Lawyer

Serious injuries from slips and falls can have a long-lasting impact on victims’ lives, especially if they cause TBIs or spinal cord injuries. Falls like these can also take a person’s life under a specific set of circumstances.

Speaking with a lawyer following a catastrophic injury is particularly important, as you’re likely to have significant medical bills, lost wages, and other economic and non-economic losses that you’ll need to secure compensation for.

You can expect an experienced legal team to know which legal avenues you can pursue to recoup some of the losses you’ve already had as well as those that you may face in the future.

Texas Slip and Fall Laws

The same Texas laws that apply to almost any other dangerous property situation are also applicable to slips and falls. Put quite simply, these laws allow victims to hold property owners liable for injuries and associated damages if they’re hurt on someone else’s premises.

This is especially the case if it occurs because there was a hazard, like a broken pipe in a bathroom, that went unaddressed and created a hazardous situation where a slip and fall might occur, and property ownership ignored it, as opposed to fixing it.

How Long After a Slip and Fall Can You Sue?

The section of state law that outlines the statute of limitations for civil actions like slip and fall lawsuits is Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §16.003. The deadline for injury victims is generally two years to file a lawsuit or they may forever forfeit their right to do so.

Compensation Available to Injury Victims

Injuries are both costly to treat and can significantly impact your quality of life. While no amount of compensation can take away the fact that you suffered harm, any settlement recovered by filing a claim can at least help you address all the past and future expenses you have or are expected to incur, plus other accident-related noneconomic ones.

These losses may include:

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish

Slip-and-fall cases like these are particularly complex to prove, and you better bet that most defendants who are businesses are going to be backed by a team of lawyers to push back on liability and minimize the potential of having to make a payout.

This is why having a strong legal team to back you is critically important if you want to secure a financial settlement in your case.

Reach Out to Our Houston Slip and Fall Lawyer

At Barrera Law Group LLC, you can count on a personal injury attorney to conduct an exhaustive investigation and compensation assessment, before filing any claim or lawsuit.

Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss how we can build you a strong case that seeks top-dollar compensation for your losses. Our Houston slip and fall lawyer would be happy to discuss your case.