Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Trial Attorney and Partner, Justin B. Shapiro, recently resolved a case involving a woman who fell on an unstable concrete stepping stone, causing her to lose her balance and shatter her ankle in three places.
The unstable slab was part of a walkway in a common area of the townhome community where the woman was injured. It was the responsibility of the community association to oversee any modifications to the area. In fact, under the community’s association declarations, anyone who was not a part of the community’s staff or a groundskeeper directed to change a certain area was barred from making any repairs or modifications. As a result of her fall, three bones in her ankle were shattered and displaced, categorizing the incident as the “most severe and gruesome ankle fracture known to medicine,” according to official court documents.
Before her devastating fall, the woman was an active community member, a devoted wife and mother, and a beloved special needs teacher for high school students. Following the incident, the daily 2-mile walks she and her husband used to take were impossible as was interacting with her students or standing for long periods in her classroom.
In Florida, it falls under the duties of a property owner to keep its premises in a reasonably safe condition. If the property is not, the owners must warn guests before remedying the situation. These unsafe conditions can range from uneven walking spaces to wayward umbrellas that may have been improperly secured to staircases that do not meet Florida building code standards.
A $525,000 settlement was secured for the injured woman in that case.
Leesfield & Partners Past Cases
Thousands of premises liability cases have passed through the hands of Leesfield & Partners attorneys, all with devastating effects on the lives of the vulnerable clients who were injured by the negligence of property owners and corporations alike. The law firm has represented premises liability clients against cruise ships – a practice area in which Leesfield & Partners attorneys have extensive experience – hotels and rental properties, condo associations, nightclubs, and grocery stores.
A case recently settled by the law firm was that of a man who fell down a non-code-compliant staircase at a rental property. In addition to the uneven risers that varied in height, the property owners had also installed a boat oar instead of an actual railing which hindered the client from catching himself as he fell. That case was handled by Leesfield & Partners Trial Lawyer, Evan Robinson, and resulted in a $350,000 award for the injured client.
Past Leesfield & Partners premises liability cases include that of a man who was paralyzed from the shins down after a fall on a friend’s balcony and an incident at a home that left a client as a paraplegic. Those cases resulted in a $7 million settlement and an over $5 million settlement, respectively.
