I have handled ‘trip and fall’ or ’slip and fall’ cases including one where an unfortunate client fractured her arm after tripping on a hose which was extended across a sidewalk at a prison. With the summer season around the corner, it will be likely that emergency rooms in Oregon and Washington states will be seeing more and more of these kind of injuries. Recoveries for broken arm and leg cases can often be high but depends upon the unique facts of each injury fall accident case.

Every homeowner and business is liable if the owner or adult person in charge leaves a hose or other clutter on their sidewalk and they will be responsible for medical bills and pain and suffering money. Clutter may include garden hoses, children’s toys, basketballs, pieces of wood, bikes, skateboards, and/or lawn tools.

In Portland Oregon sidewalks are a public route of pedestrian travel and the law in Portland makes the homeowner liable for injuries caused by lack of periodic upkeep and clutter.

When owning a home, there comes great responsibility. A homeowner must understand that if someone is injured through neglect like leaving a hose strewn across a sidewalk or children’s toys cluttering up a sidewalk that they could end up paying for the injured parties. Portland Oregon is a city that prides themselves with great upkeep of our neighborhoods. It’s a wonder why some homeowners take such a casual approach to the great financial risk they are setting themselves up for by failing to keep our community clean.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 8:29 am and is filed under Injury - home or sidewalk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.