Sometimes many factors may lead to a fall injury, and it isn’t always easy to tell who may be legally responsible for injuries. Consider, for example, a situation where there was a bad lighting but the person who fell was distracted by a cell phone, or a situation where there was a loose railing but the person who fell also had an untied shoelace.
If You Were the Person Who Fell, Could You Recover Damages?
The answer is maybe. Wisconsin law may allow you to recover if you were partially responsible for your fall—as long as you were no more than 50% responsible for your fall. This modified comparative negligence law allows a person who was hurt in a fall accident to recover damages if the person who was hurt was not primarily responsible for the fall. However, the amount of damages may be reduced by the percentage of fault attributable to the person who was hurt.
How Do You Know What Percentage of Fault Is Attributable to You?
You, alone, cannot decide how much of the fault was your own. Instead, that is something that would need to be decided in court or through settlement negotiations.
If, however, you believe that someone else was primarily responsible for your accident then you can put yourself in a strong position to argue for your fair recovery by gathering evidence to prove your argument. This evidence could include:
- Eyewitness testimony.
- Expert witness testimony.
- Pictures or video from the accident scene.
- Other evidence related to liability.
An experienced slip and fall attorney can help gather evidence and analyze it for you so that can make strong arguments and fight for the recovery that you deserve. To learn more about your potential recovery, please browse the free resources available on our website or contact us today to find out how a slip and fall case works.