SLIPPING AND FALLING IN WINTER

Winter is upon us. Ice and snow abound. What happens if you slip and are injured?

If you slip and fall on commercial property (e.g. a supermarket parking lot), the business responsible for the parking lot might have to compensate you for your injuries. The courts generally hold such businesses to a high standard of safety. After all, businesses solicit you by advertising, and they intend to make a profit from you.

If you slip and fall on a City sidewalk or in a City parking lot your case may not be so easy. Most municipalities have a specific priority program in place for the maintenance of streets, sidewalks and parking lots. Courts are aware that municipalities have limited budgets and that they are funded by money from taxpayers. So long as the City's priority policy is a reasonable one, and so long as City employees carry out the policy reasonably, the City will not have to compensate you for your injuries.

However, sometimes the City's priority policy is flawed. Or sometimes the City's maintenance, pursuant to that policy, is performed carelessly. In such a case, the City (or its insurance company) may have to pay you for your injuries.

Recently, Mr Robertson achieved a settlement of over $100,000.00 for a pedestrian who had fallen on a mid-Thursday morning on a downtown sidewalk wheelchair ramp which had not been salted or sanded that day. The client asserted that the priority given by the City to such sidewalk areas was flawed; alternatively, the priority policy had not been carried out in a timely way.

Slip and fall cases can be complex. Very brief limitation periods can apply, particularly where municipalities are concerned. If you have been injured in a fall, see a lawyer without delay.

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