When you pursue legal action based on a slip-and-fall accident, you and your personal injury attorney need to acutely anticipate any strategy that the defendant will take to shift the blame to you. A common strategy in slip-and-fall cases is to argue that you were acting dangerously, and this often means that you were running before you slipped.
The defendant's legal team will suggest that because you were running, you weren't being cautious — and this means that the accident and injury, and their associated costs, are your responsibility and yours alone. An effective defense to this argument is to stipulate that you had a good reason to be running. Here are some examples that might apply to your situation.
There Was A Disturbance
One reason that you might have been running in a store or another type of building is that you heard a disturbance. For example, you might have heard two or more people arguing loudly and threatening acts of violence, and this would have understandably made you worry about your safety. You may have chosen to run as a way to get out of the danger zone as quickly as possible, and that's when you fell. Your personal injury attorney will argue the legitimate reason for your haste and refocus the blame on the defendant.
You Were Keeping Pace With Others
Sometimes, everyone in a location will begin to run, and you'll have to start running in order to avoid being trampled. This can happen in retail settings on popular sales, such as Black Friday sales. It can also happen in sporting or concert venues when fans run into the venue the moment the gates open to secure good general admission spots. Your attorney can suggest that while you were running, the negligence still belongs to the defendant for not creating an environment in which people could walk slowly and safely.
You Had A Specific Need To Do So
Your choice to run in the location prior to your slip-and-fall accident may have been related to something about yourself, rather than the environment around you. For example, you might have been in the mall when you received a phone call about your sick, elderly parent taking a turn for the worse. Obviously, hurrying through the mall toward the parking lot is normal behavior in such a situation. As long as your personal injury attorney can confidently defend your reason for running, your case can be successful.
For more information, contact a lawyer like Jack W Hanemann, P.S. today.
