SLIP AND FALL INJURY CASES arise when a person is injured as the result of slipping on a foreign substance, whether ice and snow or a foreign substance on the floor in a grocery store.
TRIP AND FALL INJURY CASES arise when a person trips over an uneven surface or a foreign object that causes the injury victim to trip and fall.
Many people think that a landowner is automatically at fault if someone trips and falls, or slips and falls, on the landowner’s property. That thinking is absolutely false. Under Minnesota law, any person who trips and falls, or slips and falls, has the burden of proof of the negligence of the landowner.
Many SLIP AND FALL cases arise because the injured person slips on ice and/or snow. The burden of proof applies. The injury victim must prove that the landowner had a reasonable time period after the end of the storm to clear the ice and snow. The Minnesota law give the landowner protection of a reasonable period of time AFTER the storm stops to get out and clear the ice and snow. If the storm is still in process OR if there has not been a reasonable time period to clear (as determined by a jury), there is no liability on the part of the landowner.
Another defense that is available to claims of SLIP AND FALL or TRIP AND FALL cases in Minnesota is that of the “open and obvious” defense. The general rule is that if the hazard is “open and obvious” to the injury victim and the victim proceeded in the face of the “open and obvious” condition, the landowner is not liable. The SLIP AND FALL lawyers on the Schmidt Salita Law Team want you to know that there are exceptions to that rule. They want you to know that they have successfully defended against that rule in many cases.
Most recently, the SLIP & FALL INJURY LAWYERS have successfully prosecuted a number of cases with settlement well over $100,000.00 of both SLIP AND FALL and TRIP AND FALL CASES.
“PERSONAL INJURY WITH PERSONAL ATTENTION TO EACH CASE”.
The Schmidt Salita Law Team has locations throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as Minnetonka, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Osseo, Anoka, Coon Rapids, Brooklyn Center, Fridley, Blaine, Shoreview, Woodbury, Falcon Heights, Columbia Park, Stillwater, Hastings, Inver Grove, Cottage Grove, South St. Paul, Apple Valley, Eagan, Burnsville, Savage, Shakopee, Richfield, Bloomington, Chaska, Chanhassen, Edina, Eden Prairie, and Hopkins.