A stair accident could take place on a long flight of stairs, or on a short step, such as one that has separated 2 areas of a room, or has separated a porch from the surrounding yard. In either case, the plaintiff would need to learn how to prove that the property owner was to blame.
In an effort to prove that the property owner was to blame, the plaintiff would need to prove at least one of the following:
Had the property owner caused creation of the dangerous situation that existed on the stairway? What were the property codes? Had the owner followed those codes?
Stairways are supposed to have handrails, both indoors and outdoors. There is at least one mall in Californian where some outdoors stairs have no handrail. One of these days some shopper is going to fall, while walking up or down that handrail-lacking stairway.
Had the property owner known about the dangerous nature of the stairway on his or her property? Suppose that the mall mentioned above were sold to a new owner. If that new owner were like most new owners, then he or she would have made a point of touring the purchased mall.
In other words, he or she would have known about the dangerous nature of the outdoors stairway. That could have been corrected by paying for the erection of a handrail. A property owner’s failure to finance such a correction could be pointed to as proof of the same property owner’s liability, in the event of an accident. The property owner should have known about the existence of a danger on one or more stairways. For example, maybe one stairway was made of stone, such as marble. Marble can be slippery. Alternatively, perhaps one stairway had been constructed using polished wood.
Both marble and polished wood can become slippery. A smart property owner would take steps to diminish the slippery nature of those dangerous stairways. Those property owners that were not so smart might get charged with negligence, if someone were to slip on the marble or polished surface.
Personal Injury Lawyer in Fergus know that property owners do have the ability to claim that a given plaintiff had been careless when using the stairway on which an accident had taken place. Hence, a plaintiff must produce evidence that makes it obvious that the plaintiff’s behavior did not qualify as careless. For instance, the plaintiff could show that he or she had been standing at a logical and reasonable spot. Alternately, the plaintiff’s evidence would need to show that the plaintiff’s approach to that same spot had not been made in a careless manner. In the absence of such evidence, the plaintiff would have a weak case.