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Notice in SF

Michael Agruss

Written and Reviewed by Michael Agruss

  • Managing Partner and Personal Injury Lawyer at Mike Agruss Law.
  • Over 20 years of experience in Personal Injury.
  • Over 8000+ consumer rights cases settled.
  • Graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law: Juris Doctor, 2004.

In proving liability in a slip and fall case, one aspect that must be proven is that the property owner or occupier acted negligently. This includes answering the question of if they knew or should have known about the hazard that caused the accident. There is an important factor in considering this, called the “notice standard”. It is divided into “actual notice” and “constructive notice”. It is essentially just that – notice to the property owner of the hazard. The idea is that if a property owner or occupier had no notice of the hazard, the case may not be viable for the plaintiff since they could not have known about it at all.

Actual notice is fairly straightforward. It accounts for the “knew” aspect of whether a property knew or should have known about the hazard. This proves that the owner or occupier knew of the hazard by directly seeing it or being told of it.

Constructive notice accounts for the “should have known” factor. To determine constructive notice, one must take other factors into account, including how long the hazard was present. A spill on the floor for seconds is different than a spill on the floor for hours. The owner probably would or should not have known about the spill seconds in. The location is also important. The more conspicuous the hazard was, the more likely they should have known about it. Also, the nature of the accident is another key factor. This recognizes if a hazard was minor or not dangerous enough to warrant a warning sign or some warning of similar nature.

In either case of actual or constructive notice, all factors taken into account, once you can prove that the property owner or occupier had either one, you have a much stronger case and can likely proceed with the lawsuit.

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