Slip and Fall Accidents Involving Building Code Violations...
Slip and fall accidents that involve building code violations can often be open and shut cases. It’s the slip and fall accident equivalent to a car accident where the other guy ran a red light.
When you have an accident on someone else’s property it's always a good idea to see if the relevant part of their building is up to code. If you find something wrong and can show that it contributed to your accident then the insurance company won’t have much choice but to make a settlement offer.
The tricky part about discovering building code violations for you is the same thing that makes it tricky for the builder to avoid them. The rules of building any kind of structure can differ a lot between states and even within them.
Each and every county has some of its own rules and these can sometimes be drastically different from the county just next door. Sometimes these codes can in no way effect a slip and fall accident but other times they are specifically designed to avoid them.
There are several places you can go to investigate if a building code has been ignored. The easiest ones are your local law library or the county building permit office. If your slip and fall accident happened on the stairs then check into everything about stairs you can find. This is the most common instance where a code violation will help you.
The more common rules for stairs have to do with the evenness of stair depth. The distance from one step to the next has to be consistent, to a certain degree, throughout the whole staircase. Your local code will define exactly what this variance can be.
Not only does there have to be consistency in stair depths but the depth and height also has to fall into a certain measurement. Measure the stairs that you tripped on and see if they exceed the local standard. Even if the variance is only a little bit it will work in your favor.
Another common thing to look at after slipping on the stairs is the handrail. Your local code will outline just how high a handrail should be. It will also set out rules as to when they are required.
If you have a slip and fall accident and any of these or other rules were broken then the first thing you should do is spell that out in your demand letter. No one expects you to use technical language when talking about building codes. Just explain it as clearly as you can.
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