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A fall inside a store, restaurant, hotel, or other business does not automatically make the business responsible for the resulting injuries. However, Colorado law can allow an injured person to pursue compensation when a dangerous condition on the property contributes to a fall and the legal requirements for holding the property owner responsible are satisfied.
For someone injured in a slip and fall in Denver, determining liability often requires examining what caused the fall, how long the hazard existed, and what the business knew or should have known about the condition. At Walker Law, we help injured people investigate dangerous property conditions and determine whether they may have grounds for a claim.
Colorado premises liability law generally governs claims involving injuries caused by conditions on another person's property. The duties owed by a landowner can depend in part on why the injured person was on the property.
Customers entering a Denver business are commonly considered invitees because they are on the property to conduct business that benefits both parties.
Under Colorado law, an invitee may be able to recover for injuries caused by a landowner's unreasonable failure to exercise reasonable care to protect against dangers the landowner actually knew about or should have known about.
That means a business does not necessarily escape responsibility simply by claiming that no employee personally saw the hazard.
Our Denver slip and fall attorneys can investigate how an accident happened and whether the available evidence supports a premises liability claim.
Slip-and-fall accidents can result from many different property conditions. Some hazards develop suddenly, while others exist because of maintenance problems that have continued for an extended period.
Potential hazards at Denver businesses can include:
The existence of a dangerous condition is only part of the analysis. The circumstances surrounding the hazard and the business's knowledge of it can also be critical.
A common issue in a Denver slip-and-fall claim is whether the business had constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition.
A business may argue that employees did not know a spill or other hazard was present. However, liability can potentially arise when the condition existed long enough that reasonable inspections or maintenance procedures should have discovered it.
Consider a grocery store where a liquid spill remains in an aisle for an extended period. If employees fail to inspect the area and a customer falls, questions may arise about whether reasonable care would have led to the spill being identified and addressed earlier.
The length of time a hazard existed can therefore become important evidence.
Unfortunately, injured customers rarely know exactly when a spill began. Surveillance footage, employee records, witness statements, and inspection logs may help answer that question.
Some slip-and-fall claims involve hazards allegedly created by the business or its employees.
For example, an employee might mop a floor and fail to place warning signs nearby. Merchandise could be left in a walkway. A leaking piece of equipment might repeatedly create water on the floor.
When the business itself created or contributed to the condition, the question of notice may be evaluated differently than when another customer suddenly creates a hazard moments before the accident.
A Denver premises liability investigation should therefore examine not only how long the condition existed, but also how it originated.
Maintenance records, employee testimony, cleaning schedules, and surveillance video can help establish what happened before the fall.
Not necessarily.
Imagine a customer spills a drink in a Denver store, and another customer slips on it seconds later before any employee reasonably could have discovered or cleaned the spill.
Those facts would present a different liability question from a spill that remained on the floor for an hour.
Businesses are not automatically liable for every dangerous condition created by a third party. The question may be whether the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition and had a reasonable opportunity to address it.
This is why evidence showing the timeline before a fall can be so important.
Snow and ice are common concerns for businesses in Denver, particularly around sidewalks, parking lots, ramps, and entrances.
A winter slip-and-fall case can involve questions about snow removal, ice treatment, drainage, refreezing, property maintenance, and the timing of changing weather conditions.
Evidence may include:
Responsibility may also depend on who controlled or maintained the area. A commercial tenant, property owner, management company, or snow-removal contractor could potentially be relevant depending on the circumstances and applicable law.
The fact that snow or ice was naturally occurring does not, by itself, answer every liability question.
A warning sign can be relevant, but placing a sign somewhere on the property does not necessarily eliminate liability in every situation.
The effectiveness of a warning may depend on where it was placed, whether it was visible, what it warned customers about, and whether the warning reasonably addressed the hazard.
For example, a "Wet Floor" sign positioned where customers can easily see it before entering a recently cleaned area may be meaningful evidence. A sign hidden around a corner or placed far from the actual hazard may raise different questions.
In some circumstances, fixing or blocking access to a dangerous condition may be more appropriate than simply warning customers about it.
Each Denver slip-and-fall case must be evaluated based on the specific facts.
Evidence can disappear quickly after a fall.
A spill may be cleaned within minutes. Snow can melt. Ice conditions can change. Surveillance footage may eventually be overwritten. Employees and witnesses can forget important details.
After a slip and fall at a Denver business, useful evidence may include:
If physically possible, taking photographs before the hazard is cleaned or altered can be particularly useful.
An injured person should also report the incident to the business and seek appropriate medical care.
A business or insurance company may argue that the injured person was partly responsible for the fall.
Colorado uses a modified comparative negligence system. An injured person who is less than 50 percent at fault may generally recover damages, although the recovery is reduced according to that person's percentage of responsibility. If the injured person is 50 percent or more responsible, recovery may be barred.
For example, an insurer might argue that a Denver customer was looking at a phone instead of watching where they were walking.
Whether that actually contributed to the fall is a factual question. The injured person should not assume an insurance company's initial allocation of fault is correct.
Photographs, video, witness statements, and the characteristics of the hazard can all be important when responsibility is disputed.
A serious fall can result in much more than temporary soreness. Some victims suffer fractures, head injuries, spinal injuries, torn ligaments, or other conditions requiring extensive treatment.
Depending on the circumstances, compensation in a Denver premises liability case may include damages for:
The amount depends on the severity of the injuries, their effect on the person's life, and the evidence supporting the claim.
A Denver business may be responsible for a slip-and-fall accident when a dangerous property condition causes an injury and the requirements of Colorado premises liability law are satisfied. Determining fault can require examining how the hazard developed, what the business knew or should have known, and whether reasonable precautions were taken.
If you are dealing with injuries from a slip-and-fall accident in Denver, our attorneys are here to help. Call us today or connect with us online to schedule a consultation.
