Injuries from Doorway Hazards

 Posted on December 28, 2019 in Personal Injury

Everyone crosses multiple thresholds and passes through numerous doorways every day without incident. Doors and doorways are built to provide structure and access to a room or establishment and are generally safe to travel through without much if any, concern or thought. Unfortunately, slip and fall accidents do happen – leading to serious injury that could have been prevented had the proper precautions been used. Businesses in particular, but in fact, all property owners have a legal duty to ensure all aspects of the premises are safe and working for guests and visitors. This means conducting reasonable inspections and fixing problems when discovered.

For the average homeowner, not enough people come in and out to create the kind of wear and tear stores and other companies open to the public experience, meaning most will never have an issue. Businesses, on the other hand, should perform regular inspections and maintenance on all aspects of the facility, including the entryway, because there are many more opportunities for things to break and cause an injury.

A recent example of the hazards doorways can present to customers occurred in Naperville when a man slipped and fell entering a gas station because of an unsecured mat. In addition to slipping on rugs and mats, entryways can have faulty doors or hardware that compromise traversing the area. Property may have liability for these kinds of injuries, and a discussion of what needs to be proven in these cases to obtain compensation will follow below.

Property Owner’s Responsibility

As stated above, property owners have a duty of reasonable care to keep the premises in a safe condition for use by others authorized to be on the property. This requires owners to identify and fix hazards in a timely manner and to warn of known hazards that could injure someone.

Failure to uphold this standard, if and when it leads to an injury, is the circumstance that could expose a property owner to legal responsibility for the victim’s monetary recovery. How long a business knew about an issue, the efforts it put into fixing the problem, and whether any warnings provided were adequate, will depend on the facts of a case, but these issues are often the things that determine whether a company will be found liable.

In addition to the general rule of keeping the premises safe, there is an additional issue commonly encountered at many stores that could allow for recovery from another entity. Millions of stores across the country have automatic doors at the front entrance to make it easier to enter and exit.

Just like any device that runs on electricity, these doors can malfunction, sometimes due to defects, and cause significant injury. If it can be shown that a defect caused the automatic door to malfunction, the door manufacturer could be potentially liable for damages, since it put a dangerous product into the market.

Factors that Affect Liability

Two main issues often come up in slip and fall cases that drive the ultimate outcome of a claim: the foreseeability of the dangerous condition, and if the customer or visitor should have perceived the danger and taken steps to avoid getting hurt. Foreseeability comes down to whether the owner knew or should have known a dangerous condition existed.

Thus, evidence that indicates the owner had previous reports of problems in an area, or a sufficient amount of time had passed to allow for the discovery and a warning about the danger would go to demonstrating the injury was foreseeable. On the other hand, information that danger was open and obvious or that a customer saw and ignored a warning about hazards would likely defeat a personal injury claim. An experienced attorney should be consulted to assess the facts of each case.

Contact an Illinois Slip and Fall Attorney

Injuries from slipping and falling can be devastating and need to be assessed by an experienced personal injury attorney if there is any chance another party may be responsible. The dedicated Bloomingdale personal injury attorneys at the Mevorah & Giglio Law Offices know how to build successful slip and fall cases for their clients, and are available to discuss the merits of your claim. Contact us at 630-932-9100 for a free consultation.