A slip and fall accident claim in Nevada is a specific type of kind of premises liability claim. It is a legal cause of action that arises when a person sustains injuries from slipping, tripping, or falling due to unsafe conditions on someone else’s property. Nevada law mandates property owners must maintain a reasonably safe environment for visitors. If they fail to do so, they can be held legally responsible for any injuries that occur as a result, including injuries that happen in a slip and fall accident or a trip and fall accident.
A business or property owner in Summerlin is not automatically responsible for a slip and fall/trip and fall accident that occurs on its premises. Instead, Nevada has very specific criteria that must be met by an injured victim who is seeking to bring a slip and fall accident injury claim. All of the following four elements must be established:
Property owners in Nevada have a legal obligation to ensure their premises are safe for visitors. The duty varies based on the visitor’s status: invitees, licensees, and, to a lesser extent, trespassers. Invitees, such as customers in a store, are owed the highest duty of care, requiring owners to inspect for and fix or warn about dangerous conditions. Licensees, who are on the property for their own purposes, are owed a lesser duty, while trespassers are generally only protected against intentional harm.
If a property owner fails to maintain the property safely, resulting in hazards like wet floors, uneven surfaces, or poor lighting, this negligence constitutes a breach of duty. The owner must have known or should have reasonably known about the dangerous condition and failed to address it adequately. Every slip and fall accident in Summerlin should be carefully investigated to determine exactly what went wrong.
It must be demonstrated that the property owner’s breach of duty directly caused the accident. Put another way, the injured victim will need to show that their slip and fall was a foreseeable consequence of the unsafe condition on the premises.
Finally, you must prove that you suffered actual harm in the slip and fall accident to bring a successful claim. With limited exceptions, your financial compensation for a slip and fall will be directly to the amount of damages that you suffered. A Summerlin premises liability attorney can help you prove your damages.
Under Nevada law (N.R.S. § 41-141), premises liability claims are subject to a modified comparative negligence standard of liability. A slip and fall accident victim can still recover compensation if they are partially at fault for their own fall—unless their degree of culpability rises above 50 percent. For example, imagine if a person falls on a wet floor at a Summerlin business. However, they were looking at the phone while walking. They are deemed 30 percent at fault for their own accident. In this scenario, the victim would be liable for 30 percent of their own slip and fall injuries
