Types of Cases Handled by Toronto Premises Liability Lawyers

Our Toronto premises liability lawyers have experience helping clients who have been injured in accidents on or around private or public properties. Some examples include slipping on ice, slipping on water, and slipping on fruits or other things on the ground in a grocery store.

No matter the type of case, a Toronto premises liability lawyer can help you to pursue compensation for your damages suffered. Contact a skilled lawyer right away to discuss your case and move forward from your accident.

Common Premises Liability Cases

In Toronto, the most common types of premises liability cases are slip and falls on ice, particularly on sidewalks, parking lots, or other high traffic areas.

The second would include falls in a store or another commercial area like a mall or a restaurant where there has been a spill on the ground that has not been properly attended to.

The third are cases involving structural defects with the property. Stairs that do not have railings or are not built to code cause a lot of accidents. For example, these include stairs that do not have railings, or are not to code, or are not properly lit, so that people can descend them. Raises in sidewalks, like little trip ledges as a person is entering through a door that has not been marked, can cause accidents. Those are relatively common, because it is not something that most people are looking for and it is rather inconspicuous.

Unique Cases

There are less common cases following slip and fall accidents in Toronto. For example, if a portion of a roof or if a portion of a ceiling falls down and injures somebody, that is a type of Toronto premises liability case. If somebody dives into a swimming pool and the swimming pool is not designed properly, that is a premises liability case. If somebody is injured at a bar because a fight breaks out, that may be a premises liability case, because the bar owner has a duty to make sure that people who attend the bar are reasonably safe.

That means having a reasonable amount of security available to stop any altercations that could break out and having an obligation as well not to over serve people alcohol. Premises liability cases in Toronto involve any sort of case where someone is injured on someone else’s property as a result of the party in possession of the property’s negligence.

How Toronto Slip and Fall Accidents Can Occur

Slip and fall accidents can happen in various locations throughout Toronto. These include:

• Slip and falls on either sidewalks, driveways, or parking lots, are an extremely common form of premises liability, because that is an area where people are walking a lot and an area that is prone for ice to form
• Little ledges or raises in the ground, such as a piece of concrete that is shifted, raised, and created a little ledge for people to trip on, or small ledges at the front of a doorway are common, especially in high traffic areas like sidewalks, store entrances, or parking lots
• Shopping malls, stores, or commercial buildings involving spills, like water or debris on the ground, or some other form of liquid that has been spilled, coffee, for example, are very common forms of premises liability
• Stairs that are not built to code with the proper lighting, raises, predictable patterns or lighting are another common area for accidents to occur

No matter the exact type of liability case or location, a skilled Toronto lawyer can help their client to pursue damages for their suffering.

Approaching a Liability Case

Each premises liability case is unique based on who the person was and who was injured. For example, is it someone who was vulnerable before this accident, like someone elderly who might have had a limp or needed a walker, or was it a child, or a healthy adult? It is important to understand why the accident happened in some cases.

In terms of slip and fall cases involving ice, a person needs to understand what the weather patterns were leading up to the accident, how often it snowed, what the temperature was and whether it went above and then below zero to determine that ice could form and how long those conditions had been there. It is important because it will show what kind of actions the property owner had to take to make sure their premise was reasonably safe.

When it comes to cases involving structural elements, for example, stairs or ledges on properties, breaks in concrete, holes, the case has to be dealt with an eye to the building code and similar regulations in regards to keeping structural elements reasonably safe for people using the property. That case has to be dealt with a more technical lens in trying to understand what exactly the property should have looked like, why it did not look that way, and how it was a hazard for people using it.

In some types of Toronto premises liability cases, it is also important to have an eye to what are called human factors. Human factors study how people interact with their environment. Generally, most people do not walk looking at the ground all of the time. If they did, they would walk into things and it would be unsafe. What most people do is scan back and forth in peripheral vision and looking for hazards, but they are not looking at the ground. People who are designing malls or shopping centers need to be particularly conscious of that fact and make sure that there are not unintended or surprise hazards for people who are walking in the area.