Articles Posted in Slip and Fall

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…

No business owner wants to be sued, but most understand that the possibility of being held financially responsible for a customer’s injuries is part of doing business. That’s why liability insurance exists, after all. Unfortunately, one Massachusetts business owner was apparently so zealous to avoid a possible premises liability lawsuit that he is now facing…

As difficult as this may be to read, do not yet put away the snow shovels. The recent snow storms and bitter cold show that Cape Cod still has some winter left. Even Punxsutawney Phil predicted another six weeks of winter. Property owners have a duty of care to maintain their property in a safe…

Recently in Dos Santos v. Coleta, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts further defined the role of the “open and obvious” rule in premises liability cases. Under the “open and obvious” rule, the defendant in a negligence case is relieved of their duty of care if the hazard is open and obvious. However, a property…