Can A Sign Prevent Your Personal Injury Claim?
After your injury, the person responsible for your injury may have pointed to a sign that says they're not liable. The truth is that those signs don't mean much. Here's what you should know.
Can a Sign Waive Liability?
A sign claiming that a party isn't liable doesn't mean much. There's no law that says you can put up a sign and not be liable for anything that happens. What a sign does affect is whether you had warning of a hazard. If you had a warning and should have been able to avoid the hazard, the other party might escape liability but not in every case.
What About Wet Floor Signs?
Wet floor signs are one of the most common types of signs where this kind of liability might come up. If you slip and fall, the other party might say you shouldn't have been walking there because a sign was up.
This is going to depend on the facts. For example, a grocery store might have a wet floor sign right at the entrance but you find that the floor seems completely dry until you slip on a puddle on the corner of one of the aisles. This sign probably isn't enough warning since it would be fair to assume that the floor was now dry if the area near the sign was dry. On the other hand, if a sign is on top of a spill, it might be considered enough warning that you might not be able to make a claim.
What About Construction Signs?
Another common type of sign is a sign around a construction site. For example, the sign might warn of men working overhead. That sign might not be enough warning if many people are still allowed to walk through and someone gets struck by a falling object. It's reasonably safe to assume that people wouldn't be allowed to walk by if there was a more serious hazard, so you could still have a claim.
What About Signs on Trucks?
Signs on trucks driving down the road rarely mean anything if something falls off of the truck and injures someone. Even if there was a sign, there are still laws that a truck must secure its load, and the truck can't legally prevent access to the road.
To learn more about how a personal injury lawyer can advise you on your case, contact a local law office.