Articles Posted in Slip and Fall

The Massachusetts recreational use statute, also known as the Massachusetts public use statute, shields from liability those who make their land available to the public for recreational use in certain situations. Of course, this exemption is not automatic, and a landowner must prove that he, she, or it is entitled to immunity under the circumstances…

Premises liability lawsuits can arise from a number of circumstances: negligent maintenance, defective design, and debris left in walking areas, just to name a few. In these types of cases, sometimes referred to as slip and fall or trip and fall accidents, an injured person can potentially recover damages for medical expenses, lost wages, pain…

Business owners are supposed to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. This includes performing necessary maintenance, regularly inspecting the property for dangers, and taking other, related steps to keep patrons from being injured. If a property owner or business operator breaches the duty of care owed to a patron, he or she can…

While negligence law generally serves to hold those who owe and breach a duty of care to others responsible for any resulting harm proximately caused by the breached duty, this is not always so for governmental entities such as cities, towns, and states. Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity (sometimes expressed as “rex non potest…

You may already be aware that certain filing deadlines, called statutes of limitations, limit the time that an injured person has to file suit against the responsible party. What you may not know is that there are other time limits that must be complied with in certain situations, and the failure to comply with such…

The basic concept of negligence law is that those who breach a duty of care owed to another should be held financially accountable for any resulting damages that proximately result from the breached duty. While the idea is simple, proving a particular case can sometimes be difficult. In premises liability lawsuits, for instance, there can…

When someone is injured and the responsible party does not have liability insurance coverage, the injured person still has a legal right to file suit and obtain a judgment, but collecting the judgment may prove to be a long, arduous, and perhaps impossible task. Contrariwise, difficulties can also arise when a defendant is insured by…

In 2007, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts adopted the so-called “mode of operation” approach to premises liability lawsuits. Under this doctrine, a person who is injured as a result of an allegedly dangerous condition on someone else’s property does not have to prove that the property owner had notice – either actual or constructive…

There are some cases in which liability is clear cut and the only real decision is the amount of the check that one party will write the other. In other cases, the issues are multiple, including who was at fault and to what degree. Recently, a Massachusetts appellate court was called upon to determine whether…

It may be cliché to talk about the weather, but in a winter like the one we are currently experiencing, it is unavoidable. The Bay State has been hit by one blizzard after another, with accumulations measurable not just in inches but in feet. Such extreme weather is bound to affect our lives in many…