Reasons to Argue Liability In A Staircase Related Slip And Fall Claim

Seemingly innocuous and an everyday part of living, stairs present a special kind of danger that isn’t made obvious to those injured by them until it’s too late.  At Eric Roy Law Firm, we make our clients who work with our personal injury attorney in Las Vegas, NV aware that as it is with any other premises liability personal injury case, if you are injured on stairs and the fault was by no means your own then you have the right to make a damage claim against the property owner or contractor who built the stairs. 

There are a couple of scenarios by which an individual could find themselves injured on a staircase and make a valid damage claim:

Improper stair height or depth: A common phenomenon when traversing a staircase is the treading of the “ghost step.” When an individual takes a step and experiences the sensation of falling because their body has physically and mentally prepared to distribute its weight onto a surface at a certain height, but the surface or “step” wasn’t there leading to the aforementioned sensation. A person can actually fall and get injured in the same way when a staircase has improper depth or height intervals. Stairs like this are common amongst older buildings and in cities with prevailing older infrastructure in general.

Uneven stair height or depth: In the same vein as the previous hazard type, an uneven surface presents a challenge in such a way that when you land your foot, it posits itself that your weight shifts backward,  forward, or to the side to a degree that one ends up falling. This is common in outdoor stairs specifically near trees where roots expand the ground beneath them causing the surface to become uneven.

Wet or icy outdoor stairs: Wet and icy outdoor stairs are hazards that can lead to slip and fall injuries. These kinds of stairs are common during rainy and snowy weather as well as coastal cities where one might find a staircase leading down to a public or private beach. When it comes to conditions like these the remedy is that these stairs must be constructed with hydrophobic materials and finishes that provide traction for the feet to prevent slips from happening. Even if time erodes the stairs and the traction itself, it’s the duty of the property owner or the city to perform maintenance on the stairs as needed so that injuries don’t occur. Failure to do so and they could be found liable if one is injured on them.