When you enter a commercial business, such as a grocery store, the owners of the business have invited to you in for a commercial reason. They want to sell you groceries or products for a profit — to sell to you as a consumer they want your attention focused on their products and not on the floors while you walk.

Since it is their goal to make a profit when they invite you into their store, they are guaranteeing the floors will be safe. If they have not done their job, and they fail to ensure the floors are safe, consumers can slip or trip and fall down.

Similarly, when you walk on public sidewalks or in shopping center parking lots, you expect the ground to be reasonably safe to walk on.

In our country, we ensure the sidewalks, grocery stores, and other commercial businesses are safe to walk on by having strong laws to protect people who are seriously injured when they unexpectedly trip, slip, or fall as a result of some hazard the owners allowed to exist. The owners become liable by allowing a hazard to remain on the ground after the owner knew or should have known about the danger posed to the public.

A fall can cause very serious injuries, especially when the person falling is elderly or has pre-existing osteoarthritis. These falls can break ankles, knees, wrists, and other parts of the body. Damage to joints is particularly serious as joints, once disrupted, may never fully recover, and affected individuals may be in for a life of pain from a single fall.

If you have slipped or tripped and you were seriously injured because of a dangerous condition such as a liquid or unexpected deviations in the level of the ground, call our office immediately and speak with a knowledgeable slip and fall attorney in Northern California.