Slip and fall accidents sometimes appear to be the fault of the person who fell. In reality, many slip and fall injuries are the fault of negligent property owners and businesses.
If you have suffered injuries in a fall, our team can help determine the exact cause and who should be held responsible. In some cases, the cause of your accident might be obvious, like slipping in an old spill that a store you were shopping in should have cleaned by then. In more challenging cases, we will need to investigate what happened to determine if faulty maintenance was the cause of your accident. Our attorneys can also help you tackle any added difficulties in your case, such as overcoming the barriers to suing a government agency if they were liable for the conditions that caused your slip and fall.
For your free case assessment with our slip and fall attorneys, call Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C., at (201) 777-1111.
Common Reasons for Slip and Fall Accidents in Hoboken, NJ
Slip and fall accidents can happen for any number of reasons in Hoboken. However, most of them result from a property owner or manager’s negligent or willful behavior. Determining how your accident was caused is typically the first step our slip and fall attorneys take when litigating these cases, as it can tell us who should be held liable. We will then find the evidence we need to show the court that the defendant was responsible for the dangerous condition. The following are the most common causes of slip and fall accidents in Hoboken:
Wet Floors
Wet floors are probably one of Hoboken’s leading causes of slip and fall accidents. While it might not seem like slipping in a substance could cause much damage, these accidents can be far more catastrophic than people realize. Victims often break bones and tear critical ligaments trying to catch their fall.
Slip and fall injuries from wet floors can happen nearly anywhere but are most common in businesses like restaurants and supermarkets, where liquids are more likely to be left uncleaned. Many other slip and fall accidents are caused by water building up in entryways and lobbies.
Ice and Snow
Winter can also be a dangerous time to walk around Hoboken, as ice and snow can easily cause a slip and fall accident if it is not cleaned within a reasonable amount of time. While snow buildup is relatively easy to avoid, icy surfaces often go unnoticed until suffering a devastating slip and fall injury.
These accidents are especially common at New Jersey transit stations, where “black ice” can form a layer on the stairs or platform, causing people to slip before they realize they are walking on ice. Many businesses, including public government organizations like NJ Transit, usually have an affirmative duty to clear snow and ice from their property after they have had a reasonable time to clean it.
Poor Lighting
Poor lighting might also have contributed to your slip and fall accident. If an area you are walking around in is poorly lit or the lights have not been maintained, you might miss debris littered on the ground or other dangerous conditions that you could have avoided had the area been properly lit.
For example, bad lighting on stairwells often contributes to slip and fall accidents. If the lighting is low or nonexistent, you could miss a step or trip on garbage left on the stairs. Like slip and fall accidents from snow and ice, accidents caused by poor lighting commonly happen at Hoboken train stations.
Poor Construction and Maintenance
Hoboken has countless ongoing construction and maintenance projects that have contributed to many of the slip and fall accidents in the area. Construction sites are typically inherently dangerous and are made more so when equipment, debris, and excavations are left exposed without any warnings to the public or those working on the site. For instance, you might have fallen into a hole that was dug out in the middle of the sidewalk, or power cables were laid out, but the construction crew did not cut off the area or put up warning signs.
Your slip and fall accident could also have happened because the place you were in had not been properly maintained for some time. For example, you might have tripped on rotted wood stairs in your apartment building that should have been replaced years ago or tripped on a raised sidewalk that the city had more than enough time to address.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Slip and Fall Accident in Hoboken, NJ
Determining who should be held liable for your accident makes slip and fall lawsuits challenging. Many accidents happen in businesses that are open to the public, so the business owner might be responsible for the accident or the tenant using the property to operate its business. In other cases, the fault might lie with an independent contractor working on the premises. In many other cases, a state government agency is liable for the condition that caused your injuries.
Property Owners and Business Tenants
Most lawsuits are against commercial property owners and business tenants, where most slip and fall accidents happen. The accidents could happen in a number of businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, bars, dance clubs, music venues, and transit stations.
In some cases, the business owner might also own the property. Most of the time, the business is just renting the premises, so the responsibility for keeping it safe usually falls on them.
Contractors
In rarer situations, the person responsible for your accident does not work for the business you were injured in but is an independent contractor. If an independent contractor caused the dangerous condition that you slipped and fell in, you could file your claim against them personally. However, we can also see if they contracted with a company that was also responsible for maintaining the area.
Government Agencies
In many cases, a state or local Hoboken government agency will be sued for a slip and fall accident. Cases involving the government are often much more challenging since “sovereign immunity” makes it harder to sue the government for its negligence in some cases, as per N.J.S.A. § 59:2-2.
Our Hoboken, NJ Slip and Fall Lawyers Can Help
Contact Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C., by calling (201) 777-1111 and get a free case analysis with our slip and fall lawyers.