How Your Shoes Could Affect Your Slip And Fall Case

In a slip and fall case, there may be something in your case that could become a larger legal issue, which you probably didn’t expect to ever be an issue: your shoes. Yes, it’s true; the shoes that you wore at the time of your fall, could impact whether you recover damages after your slip and fall accident, or whether you do not.

Are Your Shoes Dangerous?

While rare there are cases where a Defendant, in defending a slip and fall case, claims that the victim is partly at fault for the accident, because of the shoes that he or she was wearing.

In some cases, victims may be blamed because they wear shoes that inherently carry some risk; imagine a woman’s high heeled shoes. It isn’t uncommon for a woman to have trouble walking or balancing, even under the best of conditions, in higher heeled shoes. So when a woman in high heeled shoes does fall or trip on a dangerous condition, you can bet that the Defendant will make an attempt to blame the woman’s shoes.

In other cases, the shoes that we wear are very appropriate and safe, but they may have wear and tear, which opens the door for the Defendant to place blame on the victim. Imagine a man in sneakers, but the soles of the shoes have worn down, flattening out the tread on the soles, and thus, making them more prone to be slippery and less able to grip the floor below them.

In that case, a Defendant may claim that even if there was a slippery or dangerous substance on the floor, the victim would have been fine had he or she been wearing newer or properly maintained shoes.

What Were You Doing?

Defendants can not only point at a victim’s shoes, but also may point to the victim’s activities in the shoes.

So, for example, a victim who may be running or shopping in a crowded area in high heeled shoes, may get blamed for causing her own fall. Or, the Defendant may say that the victim wouldn’t have fallen on the dangerous substance or condition, had the victim been in normal shoes.

Causation and Comparative Negligence

The role of shoes, or bad or inappropriate shoes, plays two roles in an injury case.

On the one hand, it can be an argument against causation: the Defendant can argue that the fall and resulting injuries aren’t a result of any dangerous condition on the property, but rather, were caused by the shoes that the victim was wearing.

The other argument has to do with comparative negligence, which is the reduction in the victim’s recovery, by the percentage that the jury finds the victim was responsible for his or her own accident or injuries.

We’re ready for whatever defenses the Defendant may try to throw at you. Let us fight your court battles for you. Contact our Rhode Island injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help .

Source:

newscentral.exsees.com/item/2ecbed4b2a0225113b368e24253a7381-00acbb7a1058c26ab80911ad8263d03a