Slip and Fall Trip and Accidents can be dangerous. An injured person should protect themselves by retaining the help of a lawyer as soon as he or she can. Contact P&M Personal Injury Law for attorneys in North York and Toronto.
When the temperature drops below 0º, Ontario residents brace for the inevitable onset of snow and ice. The winter weather also brings hazardous weather conditions to municipal sidewalks. Ontario’s Municipal Act outlines some of the rules and tenets of slip and falls on municipal sidewalks.
An injured person should be aware of the strict notice period found in the Municipal Act. An injured person has 10 days to provide written notice to the municipality. This notice should include the injury, identity of the injured person, the date, the time, and location of the fall. An injured person who does not put the city on notice within the timelines prescribed by the Municipal Act may be barred from starting an action for the recovery of damages.
There are exceptions to this 10 day notice period. According to section 44(12) of the Municipal Act, failure to give notice is not a bar to the action if a judge finds(a) a reasonable excuse for the insufficient notice or (b) the municipality is not prejudiced in its defence. There is also an exception under section 44(11) for an injury which causes death.
Although legal action will be low on the list of priorities when a serious injury occurs, the Municipal Act imposes strict timelines on an injured person that should be heeded.
In the case of an injury occurring on a snowy or icy sidewalk, the municipality is held to a standard of “gross negligence” according to section 44(9) of the Municipal Act. The idea is that municipalities cannot be expected to keep all sidewalks clean and clear at all times.
What the courts would consider gross negligence, or very great negligence, is fact specific. Typically, courts will look at factors like speed of the clean-up, the seriousness of the weather conditions, and the regularity of the sidewalk inspections.
A snowy or icy sidewalk is not the only walking hazard. Sidewalks with discontinuities, or differentials, can cause trip and falls. Pedestrians expect a flat sidewalk and an unexpected differential can cause a serious fall.
What about a slip and fall in a grocery store? Or at a restaurant? An injured person should look to the Occupier’s Liability Act for Ontario’s laws regarding slip and falls on private property.
An occupier has a duty under section 3(1) “to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.” An occupier is a person with possession control over a premises.
Similar to slip and fall cases involving municipalities, determining the standard of reasonableness is fact-specific. It is important to note that occupiers are NOT strictly liable if a person is injured in a slip and fall on a premises. The fact that a fall occurred on a premises does not mean that the occupier will be automatically liable for causing the fall. The courts will consider factors such as whether an occupier has an effective system of maintenance when determining whether the property is reasonably safe for persons entering on the premises.
Early investigation of a fall is recommended. It is important to:
