If you have had any type of trip, fall, slip, stumble, hit or injury at any type of business such as bars, restaurants, offices, shopping centers, or any other type of premises including someone else's home you are likely not responsible, your can get compensated for your injury, but you will need a slip and fall attorney or slip and fall lawyer. John Colan is a slip and fall lawyer that has handled these types of personal injury cases all across Northeast, Ohio, Cuyahoga, County, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Westlake, Ohio, Elyria, Ohio, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Euclid, Ohio, Parma, Ohio, Lakewood, Ohio, and Strongsville, Ohio just to name a few areas.
You will need a slip and fall attorney because the business will often argue that the slip and fall was your fault and the condition that lead to your trip and fall was open and obvious. An experienced slip and fall attorney like at ColanLaw, however, knows how to defeat this based on Ohio law which is as follows:
“An owner or occupier of land owes a business invitee a duty to exercise ordinary care in maintaining the premises in a reasonably safe condition, in order to ensure that the invitee is not unnecessarily and unreasonably exposed to danger.” Johnson v. Southview Hosp., 2012-Ohio-4974, ¶ 8 (Ct. App.).[1] [2] A property owner’s duty to exercise ordinary care is only terminated if the danger is open and obvious. Id. Whether a danger is open and obvious is determined by a “fact-specific inquiry and must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis." Skowronski v. Waterford Crossing Homeowners' Ass'n, 2011-Ohio-3693, ¶ 22 (Ct. App.). Moreover, “although the Supreme Court of Ohio has held that whether a duty exists is a question of law for the court to decided, the issue of whether a hazardous condition is open and obvious may present a genuine issue of fact for a jury to review.” Klauss v. Marc Glassman, Inc., 2005 Ohio 1306, ¶17 (8th Dist. Ct. App. 2005). The determination of whether a hazard is open and obvious “depends upon the particular circumstances surrounding the hazard.” Green v. China House (1997), 123 Ohio App.3d 208, 212.
You should, therefore, be able to defeat what is called a motion for summary judgment and get your case to a jury. Even if there the condition that caused your trip and fall was open and obvious, however, there is an exception in Ohio law for what is called attendant circumstances. Attendant circumstances would preclude summary judgment and allow your trip and fall case to get to a jury. Attendant circumstances may create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether a danger was open and obvious. While there is no precise definition of attendant circumstances they generally include any distraction that would come to the attention of a pedestrian in the same circumstances and reduced the degree of care an ordinary person would exercise at the time. Moreover, the phrase attendant circumstances refers to all facts relating to the event such as time, place surroundings or background and the conditions normally existing that would unreasonable increase the normal risk of a harmful result of the event. Klauss v. Marc Glassman, Inc. 2005 Ohio 1306, ¶20 (8th Dist. Ct. App., 2005) (Internal Citations Omitted).
If you have been involved in a trip and fall call an experienced attorney at ColanLaw.