According to the Workplace Safety Insurance Board, slips, trips and falls account for some 20 percent of all injuries in Ontario each year. While they can cause serious injuries, they do not seem to be a high priority for either accident prevention consideration or on-the-job health and safety education and training. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety estimates that approximately 60,000 workers are injured each year due to slip and fall accidents, accounting for 15 percent of lost-time injuries that are accepted by workers’ compensation boards across the nation. In addition to workplace slip and fall accidents and injuries, many more people sustain injuries with falls in public places, such as city streets, municipal buildings, stores, malls, restaurants, theaters and even, hospitals. Your Toronto slip and fall lawyer will help you. Many factors contribute to the cause of falls, but the majority are caused by obstructions, uneven or improper floor surfaces, wet and slippery floor surfaces, or the action or inaction of others. Canada’s climate leads to additional risks, as wet leaves, snow and ice add to hazards and significantly increase the risk of trip and fall accidents, both indoors and outdoors. Common injuries include fractured hips, broken bones, musculoskeletal injuries, back injuries, head injuries and brain trauma, and some incidents result in death. With the average slip and fall injury costing approximately $22,000 in direct and indirect costs, it makes sense to consult a Toronto slip and fall lawyer and seek compensation, if you have sustained such an injury through no fault of your own. Local municipalities, businesses and owners of private property are all responsible for ensuring the safety of those people who are on their property. This means that they must make all possible efforts to minimize injury risks.
Your Toronto slip and fall lawyer will help you to determine if you have a viable case to litigate. Slip and fall injuries fall into four general categories
- A person loses traction and slips and falls as a result. This is known as a “slip and fall” incident
- A person stumbles over an obstruction and falls. This is known as a “stump and fall” incident
- A person loses balance and falls due to an uneven surface or hole in the floor surface. This is known as a “step and fall” incident.
- A person trips over a foreign object and falls. This is known as a “trip and fall” incident.
Regardless of the cause of the injury your Toronto slip and fall lawyer is to prove that the owner of the property is liable for the accident and your injuries. He must do this by demonstrating that the owner acted negligently, did not demonstrate reasonable care or had constructive notice of the unsafe condition that was the cause of the accident. In law, constructive notice means that even if the owner was not actually aware of the hazard, it is plausible to assume that he should have had knowledge of it.