Tripped Over a Raised Threshold at a Store

If you trip and fall over a raised threshold at a store and are injured, you might have a strong personal injury claim against the store owners. A successful claim could provide you with money to pay for medical expenses and income you lost missing work due to your injury.

What You Must Prove

This type of case falls into a broader legal category called a “slip-and-fall accident claim.” In these types of cases, the injured person must prove to a judge and jury three things. First, the injured person must prove that the store where the injury occurred was not maintained in a reasonably safe condition. When a raised threshold caused the injury, the injured person must prove that the threshold made the store unsafe.

Second, the injured person must prove that the store owner was negligent in failing to keep the store in a reasonably safe condition. Negligence is defined as “the lack of ordinary care.” A negligent store owner fails to use the kind of care that a normal store owner would use in a similar situation. Simply, the injured person must prove that the store owner should have fixed the raised threshold.

Substantial Factor

The last thing an injured person must prove for a successful slip-and-fall claim is that the raised threshold was a substantial factor in the injury. The raised threshold is considered a substantial factor in the injury if a reasonable person would concluded that the raised threshold caused the injury. The injured party must prove that actually tripping over the raised threshold is what caused the injury and that the injury was not sustained in some other manner.