As much as people may enjoy the winter season, it’s also the time of the year when accidents are most prone to happen. Winter poses a lot of liability risks, and the last thing your business needs is to be held liable for compensation. Not to mention the bad publicity that may come out of the situation.
That’s why it’s important for businesses to make sure they winterize their properties as much as they can, so they can avoid any unnecessary and unwanted business lawsuits. Should you get involved in such a situation, know that you can seek help from business attorneys in Las Vegas, NV, to help you resolve the matter.
Common Lawsuit Against Businesses During Winter
The most common lawsuit filed against businesses, especially during the winter season, is a slip and fall lawsuit. It pertains to incidents when a person becomes injured as a result of a slip and fall accident within businesses’ premises.
The lawsuit would make a claim for compensation to cover the economic damages the injured party incurred. It may include medical bills for the treatments and consequent recovery and rehabilitation.
It may also include compensation for wages lost because of the injury. Time spent in treatment and recovery is time spent away from work, presenting a direct economic impact on the injured and their family.
Property damages may also be sought, such as if a mobile phone, laptop, or any other device were damaged or destroyed because of the accident.
There’s also the non-economic type of damage, which typically refers to the emotional pain and suffering of the injured.
All these can make a significant impact on your business, both in economic and non-economic ways too. Paying the claimed compensation or settling it another way have an economic impact on your business.
At the same time, you may also suffer from non-economic damage, such as in terms of reputation and credibility.
What to Prepare for Your Business Avoiding Lawsuits
Despite the common lawsuit filed against businesses during winter, the good news is that you can actively take steps to avoid being involved in a lawsuit for personal injury in North Las Vegas.
The most important thing you can do is exercise due diligence to ensure safety for as much as possible. Accidents like slip and fall may be inevitable, no matter how much preparation or warning you make.
But it does matter in a personal injury lawsuit like slip and fall that you did take the necessary steps to prevent an accident to the best of your abilities. It will show that your business was not negligent in its responsibility to ensure the safety of its guests and clients.
One simple way to keep your business premises safe, especially during winter, is by installing warning signs. Don’t wait for a track of snow to melt inside the store before a sign is installed.
Where reasonable and possible, put a warning sign on the floor about possibly being slippery. Especially if your flooring has no source of traction, like carpeting, it’s reasonable to assume that people coming in from outside, where the ground is wet from the snow, can slip and fall on it.
It is also a good time to tell all your staff to keep an eye out for any possible causes of an accident. Uneven flooring, rugs, carpets that are not properly laid out, water trails, and spills are some potential sources of an accident.
If there’s cleaning staff available, they should be able to resolve these issues immediately and then finish off with a proper warning sign. Any other damaged or insufficient safety tools and mechanisms should also be reported immediately to get it fixed.
Loose steps on stairs, broken handrails, clutter, and debris should all be fixed and cleared inside the building or out on the parking lot.
It’s also advisable that you invest in security cameras so that you can refer to them later on to make an objective assessment of what really happened.
How Can a Business Attorney Help You?
A Las Vegas business litigation attorney can help in your defense against slip and fall claims. With the other pieces of advice above and professional legal help from a skilled and knowledgeable lawyer, you can prove to the court that you are not the liable party in this situation.
Dobberstein Law Group can help prove that you’re not liable for a slip and fall accident. Get in touch with our business litigation lawyer as soon as possible to get started on your defense.