Can You Still Sue for a Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Accident If There Was a Wet Floor Sign?
Yes. A “wet floor” sign does not automatically protect a Kentucky business from all slip-and-fall accident liability. A wet floor sign may reduce some responsibility, but victims should still secure injury compensation.
You could walk down a Walmart aisle and never see the wet floor sign until you’ve lost your footing, fallen backward, and suffered a serious injury. Lawyers for a business or corporation may immediately claim that the store isn’t responsible for a dime of your recovery costs.
But store owners and operators have a legal duty to do more than just stick a sign down by a dangerous puddle to protect customers. They can still be forced to provide financial support to an injured victim, no matter how many wet floor signs were out.
Schedule a Free Consultation with a Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Lawyer
You should never face the medical bills stemming from a slip-and-fall on a wet floor at any business alone. This is true even if you feel partially to blame for your mishap and injury.
You may feel you were not paying attention and missed a wet floor sign, but it’s a property owner’s duty to make sure you see that sign. The sign also doesn’t erase a business’s legal duty to clean up spills and leaks before you can come along and receive a serious injury.
Contact a Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Accident Lawyer to discuss how to earn a slip-and-fall settlement, even if a wet floor sign was present. It’s a free consultation that comes with no obligation to you or your family. Find out what your case may be worth and why you shouldn’t just accept the blame for a slip-and-fall accident.
Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Dangers
Wet floor signs are used in a variety of settings. They may be used in your workplace after a leak in the bathroom makes the tile slippery. You may see a caution sign out at your Kentucky apartment complex after someone drops a smoothie in the rental office. A janitor at a government building may place a yellow sign next to a leak from a water fountain.
The property owners and operators of these facilities all want to show that they tried to warn people about a risk in case someone gets hurt. If they don’t, they can be even more liable for potential injuries victims might suffer if they take a hard fall on a shiny and slick floor.
A fall on these hazards might leave victims with traumatic and expensive injuries. Patients may be diagnosed with a hip or tailbone fracture. Victims may lose their mobility and suffer even further health hazards due to inactivity. Patients may break an elbow or wrist while trying to catch themselves. Victims could hit their heads on a shelf or chair and endure a traumatic brain injury.
The frightening consequences of a simple fall at a grocery store or a business property can’t be wiped away by the presence of a small caution sign. Injured fall victims will need substantial help in recovery. A Kentucky Slip-and-Fall Lawyer works to collect the evidence needed to win full injury support to pay hospital bills and replace lost wages.
Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Dangers and Wet Floor Sign Liability
In each case mentioned above, the landlord, business owner, property owner, employer, or city department wants to demonstrate a “duty of care” towards customers and visitors. They try to keep visitors away from potential harm by placing a visual reminder near a puddle.
They also want to be able to point to the sign when someone takes a tumble. They hope the victim won’t try to sue them after missing the sign. The wet floor sign can reduce a property or business owner’s liability in some cases, but that liability depends on much more than if a sign was nearby.
Business proprietors aren’t just required to place a sign down near a puddle. They are responsible for trying to clean up a hazard in a reasonable amount of time. They can place a wet floor sign at the scene, but if the hazard is left to sit for too long and you are hurt, an owner may have to cover 100% of the recovery costs and other damages.
Fall victims will have a strong case if a sign had fallen down or was in a spot that wasn’t visible. The sign won’t provide any legal protection to the owner.
A wet floor sign may also be far too little action taken by a proprietor to cover the hazard. For instance, a floor may be slightly wet, but the real reason you fall to the ground is because of a hole in a floor or a rolled-up rug. A wet floor sign isn’t intended to warn customers of other types of risk.
Your Kentucky slip-and-fall attorney will go on the offensive for you if a negligent party tries to hide behind a yellow sign. The reverse is also true. If there were no signs at the scene of your slip-and-fall, your attorney will use that negligence to show that a property owner, employer, or the City of Louisville must pay you compensation.
Kentucky Comparative Negligence and Slip-And-Fall Wet Floor Signs
Kentucky is a pure comparative negligence state. That means the fault in a slip-and-fall can be split between a building owner and a victim.
The victim may have been looking at a cell phone and missed the wet floor sign. A judge may assign 30% of the blame to the injured party. The owner may have placed a sign down but left the puddle untouched for too long. A judge may assign the company or corporation 70% of the liability.
In this example, the injured victim could be awarded compensation, but the final check would be reduced by the 30% of the victim’s responsibility.
The presence of the wet floor sign may protect the merchant or your employer by a small percentage, but you’d still be able to earn support and apply it to your medical bills.
How Long Do I Have to File a Slip-And-Fall Injury Claim in Kentucky?
Kentucky personal injury victims have one year from the date of the slip-and-fall injury to file a claim. This doesn’t give victims or their families very long to consider if they want to file a claim.
It’s always best to begin working on your case as soon as possible to give yourself the best chance of finding evidence and tracking down the witnesses to your fall for testimony.
If you plan on using a personal injury lawyer to get the most out of your claim, you’ll want to allow your lawyer to begin work on building a strong case for you as soon after your incident as you can. Evidence is always easier to secure in the early going. Witnesses can also be harder to locate or become unreachable if you wait too long to call them. Security footage showing your accident may get erased if you don’t alert a personal injury lawyer to your case in the first week after an accident.
What Can I Do After a Kentucky Slip-And-Fall to Strengthen My Injury Claim?
Getting fresh evidence is always a plus for your case. There won’t be any better evidence to be found than in the moments after your slip-and-fall. In fact, some evidence may disappear moments after you leave the scene. The puddle will be cleaned up to look like there was never a hazard there.
With this time crunch in mind, it’s important to gather all the proof you can on the scene of your slip-and-fall if you are feeling up to it:
- Dial 911 if you are hurt and need assistance. Let paramedics document every pain. Ride with them to the hospital if necessary.
- Take photos. Getting photographic evidence of the hazard that sent you to the ground is the most important piece of evidence. Also, use your phone to get images of any wet floor signs or warning tape stretched across the scene (or the lack of these precautions). Get images of any visible injuries and damaged personal items.
- Talk to witnesses. Get their contact information.
- Alert a manager about what happened. Cooperate with managers as they prepare an incident report. Your Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Lawyer will use this report as evidence in your injury claim. Don’t accept blame or speculate on how serious your injuries might be.
- Don’t throw out the evidence. Keep the shoes that you were wearing at the time of the fall. Lawyers for corporations like to claim that a fall was your fault because you were wearing shoes with worn-out soles. Keep any damaged items like cracked glasses or torn clothing.
- Make an appointment to see your own doctor. Detail every pain, especially injuries that appear a day after the accident. Follow your doctor’s orders. Keep all medical invoices.
Contact a Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Accident Lawyer
Slip-and-fall victims often wonder if they need an attorney, and the answer is almost always yes. A major grocery store chain or a corporation will likely have teams of lawyers all trying to blame your accident on you. You need an attorney looking out for your interests, especially when a negligent party is trying to escape blame by pointing to a wet floor sign.
Your Kentucky Slip-And-Fall Lawyer gathers evidence to show that a business owner’s lack of caution wasn’t erased by a small yellow sign. Your lawyer fights until you earn what’s fair for your physical, emotional, and financial hardships.
Talk to a skilled local law firm you can trust to be on your side and fight for your fair compensation. The attorneys at Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, have that knowledge and a combined 100 years of experience in helping clients get the compensation they’ll need to make a full recovery. To discuss your case, contact Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC today, by clicking here and scheduling a free and confidential consultation.
