GOLDLAW – West Palm Beach Personal Injury Lawyers, Car Accident, Slip & Fall – Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb

Category: Premises Liability

premises liability, like slip and falls, and what to do if it happens to you.

  • Arrest Made in 2020 Fatal Shooting at Super 8 Motel in Lantana

    On Thursday, July 29, Lantana Police made an arrest more than a year after a mother of four was fatally shot at the Super Eight Motel on Hypoluxo Road.

    Authorities say Andre Ramirez, 29, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for the death of 29-year-old Denicia Steward, a local mother of four. Ramirez is being held without bail.

    See our original story on this breaking news development here: Four Children of Murder Victim Denecia Steward Could Bring Civil Case

    Sadly, Seward was found dead in a room at the Super Eight on July 26, 2020. Her body was discovered when a motel guest went outside to smoke and noticed the door of another room was ajar. The guest then saw Seward on the floor and called 911.

    Investigators say they have surveillance video showing Ramirez running out of the room and driving away about four hours before Seward’s body was discovered.

    Businesses like motels have a duty to provide safe premises for both customers and employees. This means having an appropriate level of security. There are many ways to secure a motel, including having a guard on duty watching the surveillance camera feeds live. For example, someone tasked with watching the surveillance cameras might notice a guest running out of a room and driving away while leaving the room door open. They could then send security officers to investigate and see if anyone in the room needs help.

    When a business fails to properly secure the premises and maintain a safe environment, it may be found liable in tragic situations where a death occurs.

    A webpage set up after Seward’s death last year described her as “the type of person to give the shirt off her back and would go above and beyond to make everyone laugh. Her family was not prepared for such a brutal tragedy.”

    She left behind two sons and two daughters.

  • Surfside Towers Collapse – How Could It Have Happened?

    Surfside Towers Collapse – How Could It Have Happened?

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Determining fault in a major disaster like the Surfside Towers Condo collapse is a lengthy process, and may take months or even years. That being said, details are emerging every day since the June 24th, 2021 collapse of the condo building that point to how a failure of this magnitude could occur.

    Champlain Towers Reports from 2018 Create a Timeline That Lead to Condo Collapse

    Ironically, the building was undergoing a “40-year safety certification process” at the time of the collapse. Yet a 2018 report shows there were concerns about the building’s structural integrity even three years ago. It identifies “major structural damage” to the concrete slab the building’s ground-floor pool deck rested on.

    The report also highlighted cracked columns and a parking garage that often flooded with corrosive saltwater. Worse, the report goes on to note that many efforts to fix problems like exposed rebar in the parking garage columns also failed.[/vc_column_text][vc_video][templatera id=”5675087″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Under the pool deck, “where the slab had been epoxy-injected, new cracks were radiating from the originally repaired cracks,” the report said. The firm responsible for the report, Morabito Consultants, was later hired in 2020 to complete the 40-year safety certification and catalog repairs that needed to be done.

    “At the time of the building collapse, roof repairs were underway, but concrete restoration had not yet begun,” a statement from Morabito Consultants said.

    Theoretical Potholes, Shoddy Construction Work, Inadequate Materials All Looming at the Top of Expert’s Best Guesses

    It remains to be seen whether these issues were the cause of the collapse. Other theories include a sinkhole, which is not uncommon in Florida, opening under the building, vibrations from nearby construction affecting the condo, and concerns about erosion due to rising sea levels. Investigators are also looking into the possibility of criminal action, although Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on June 25 that so far, there was no evidence of foul play.

    Once there is more evidence of what went wrong at Champlain Towers South, the responsible parties will be liable for damages. Survivors of the collapse and the families of those who didn’t survive may all have claims for their losses, including compensation of medical bills, as well as pain and suffering.

    Founding Partner Craig Goldenfarb Offers His Best Advice to Victims and Others Living in Condos

    Mr. Craig M. Goldenfarb, Esq., founding partner of our law firm, was quoted by local CBS affiliate CBS12 on the morning on June 29th, 2021 as discussing why it was basically impossible for any resident of the ill-fated Champlain Towers condo building to anticipate that a total failure of the building had been a realistic risk. The best thing any condo resident can do, Mr. Goldenfarb said, is to “go to your HOA and demand to review recent inspection reports or structural integrity certification analysis, reviews, or audits.” While most HOAs regularly perform inspections of buildings, they do not necessarily release the results. HOA’s have an incentive to be secretive and less than forthcoming when it comes to these kinds of issues, as repairs are often costly and mean special assessments must be paid for by residents.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][templatera id=”5675092″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Was French Villas Condominium in Pembroke Pines Negligent in the Shooting Death of a 23-year-old Resident?

    A 23-year-old woman was shot and killed at the French Villas Condominum in Pembroke Pines early on Thursday morning, March 5.

    French Villas is located on the 600 block of Northwest 79th Avenue. Pembroke Pines police report receiving several calls from neighbors who heard multiple gunshots there around 6:15 on Thursday morning.

    “I received numerous calls, and we were able to determine that several shots had been fired,” said Pembroke Pines Police Capt. Al Xiques.

    They later determined the victim was walking to her car when a person in another car approached her. The assailant then shot her more than a dozen times. When police arrived, they found the victim’s body in her car.

    Xiques said that based on their preliminary investigation, they believe the victim was targeted, and the violent attack was not random. They received many copies of Ring doorbells in the area capturing the sound of the gunshots, but are still looking for any surveillance video that shows the parking lot.

    While the police look for the shooter, French Villas resident are worried for their safety.

    “Now, I’m afraid that he would even get up in the morning and leave, going to my car and go into work because of this, so I think this community needs a little bit more security,” resident Evelyn Arguello said.

    Negligent security law requires that owners of property like apartment or condominium complexes maintain safe premises, and that includes appropriate security standards. Having good video surveillance of parking lots is usually a helpful security measure.

    Police are asking for the public’s help. If you have any information on this homicide, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. It’s possible to remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $3,000 reward.

  • Worker Injured By Falling Wall at Construction Site in West Palm Beach

    Worker Injured By Falling Wall at Construction Site in West Palm Beach

    On Thursday, January 9, rescue workers were called to a construction site at One West Palm, a two-tower project on the north side of downtown West Palm Beach, after a wall collapsed, trapping a worker.

    The wall that collapsed on Thursday afternoon was described as a “rebar wall,” in which metal bars form a skeleton and concrete is poured later. The project’s developer, Jeff Greene, said that high winds knocked over a form being used to pour concrete. The form then knocked down the rebar wall onto the worker.

    The winds also made rescuing the worker difficult. Assistant Fire Chief Brent Bloomfield said the man was pulled from under the wall, placed in a rescue basket, and lowered by crane to the ground on the northwest side of the building. Crane operators lowered the basket, with a fire rescue worker hanging on the side, fighting the winds all the way.

    “It’s extremely dangerous,” Battalion Chief Danny Colazzo said of the rescue. “The rest is what we do every day.”

    The injured worker was then taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

    Unfortunately, construction accidents are common, and often result in chronic pain or even permanent disability. Throughout the US, 20 percent of workplace fatalities involve construction. More than half a million Florida residents are employed in the construction industry. In the state of Florida, more than 300 people die in work-related accidents annually, with the construction industry leading in fatalities.

    “Because of all the construction we’ve had in the last decade, we’ve had multiple calls like this,” Bloomfield said. “Sometimes it’s a window washer or somebody working on a construction site like this.”

    Both falls from high places like ladders or scaffolding, and being hit by falling objects—such as the rebar wall in this case—are leading causes of construction site injuries. Recovery can be slow and painful, and may involve months of lost income when the injured person is unable to work. Workers’ compensation may not always be adequate to cover all the bills associated with medical treatment, as well as regular costs of living. Some injuries may leave a worker permanently disabled and no longer able to work.

  • HART Bus Driver Stabbed to Death on Bus by Passenger Had Shared Safety Concerns Months Earlier

    HART Bus Driver Stabbed to Death on Bus by Passenger Had Shared Safety Concerns Months Earlier

    In May, 46-year-old HART bus driver Thomas Dunn was stabbed to death by a passenger on his bus. Graphic surveillance camera footage shows the tragic stabbing, after which the suspect left the bus. 35-year-old Justin McGriff was arrested shortly after the incident, initially on charges of resisting arrest without violence. After officers gathered evidence in the stabbing, McGriff was charged with first-degree murder. Dunn died at the scene of his injuries.

    One witness reported that he saw the assailant stab Dunn multiple times, as well as slashing his throat. In spite of his severe injuries, Dunn managed to pull the bus over safely.

    Dunn was an Air Force veteran and former long-haul truck driver, who reportedly chose a busy route because he loved people.

    “He loved people, and that’s one of our heaviest routes with the most people,” said Tisha Jones, a friend and fellow bus driver. “He was very thoughtful about the passengers he carried, he was thoughtful about the employees he worked with, and he loved his children. That’s all he would talk about, his children.”

    Since Dunn’s death, coworkers and other bus drivers in the Tampa Bay area have called for improved safety standards for drivers and other transit workers. It was revealed that five months before his death, Dunn complained to the HART board about a separate incident that occurred on his bus, saying he feared for his safety.

    “It seems to me admin is taking care of admin and not taking care of the folks at the wheel that actually make this company work,” he told board members at the time.

    Dunn’s father, Mike Dunn, said he felt mad that his son had inadequate protection at work. “Mad because he knew something like that was going to happen and they did nothing, and it happened,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of egg on their face. I don’t know what the solution is but that route he had, I think, was particularly dangerous, and they should have a guard on that bus.”

    The bus Dunn was killed on did not have a safety partition between the driver and passengers for protection. The day the State’s Attorney released photos of attack, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and the Service Employee International Union agreed to install safety barriers for all 210 PSTA buses.

    There is a lesson in this awful tragedy for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, the operator of the multi-county public transit system, and that is: Safety should always come first. This senseless crime and loss could have been avoided had the adequate safety precautions been put in place to protect the employees of HART.

    Now, the family of Mr. Dunn may have a substantial wrongful death claim against HART and the operators of the transit authority for negligent security for failing to provide and maintain basic safety standards to protect the lives of the bus operators. This is an area of law we are particularly proficient in.

  • The Personal Injury Perspective of Flying a Drone

    Drones are one of the most popular consumer gadgets to hit the market in a decade. Whether you receive one as a gift for the holidays, or use it for business purposes, it’s an exciting technology that’s become so easily accessible by the general public, that you could order one right now off Amazon.com and have it at your door and flying in two days.

    Further, recreational drones are no paper airplane. With ranges of up to 300 feet of altitude, and upwards of 30 minutes of flight time, these devices could be dangerous in the air if handled carelessly.

    Most consumer drones cost anywhere from $80 to $1,200, with professional and commercial grade drones costing up to $20,000 or more. While we may be many years off from drones flying all around our heads like mosquitos, delivering everything from packages and groceries to even people, we are in a time of unprecedented proliferation of these airborne consumer electronics.

    With that growth comes concerns. How safe is it to fly a drone? What happens if a battery fails, and a drone comes plummeting from the sky in a crowded public space? Are the pilots of the drones, who are more often than not teenagers and young, inexperienced adults, even aware of the safety precautions and guidelines for safe recreational drone use?

    Personal injury considerations of recreational drone use

    For the typical recreational pilot, flying a drone safely requires great technical skill and practice. The dexterity needed to control the aircraft as it moves in three-dimensional space is more than you might expect – one hand controls the lift, while the other controls the direction, and both hands control the pitch. It’s a lot of work, and no one is naturally good at flying a drone. You have to learn it.

    This is the main reason why the Federal Aviation Administration, of FAA, has been slow to adopt regulation regarding the recreation flying of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The commercialization of drones has far outpaced the reaction time for federal regulators to adapt to their availability. The FAA’s primary concern, as they have states, continues to be a concern for public safety, and the lack of established flight safety standards.

    So here is something to consider from a personal injury perspective. Drones can easily lose altitude for any number of reasons – a simple miscalculation by the pilot, environmental factors like wind, or just about any other factor. What if a drone crashes into someone and injures them? You as the pilot could be held liable, though the laws regulating recreational drone use are extremely new and untested.

    What if someone unknowingly injures themselves by handling the sharp and blunt blades of the drone? What if someone suffers burns by touching an overheating battery?

    How about inadvertent negligence involving the use of a drone? What if you are flying a drone, and someone becomes distracted by it, and causes a crash? And how about the premises within which you are flying the done? What if you are on public or private property when you are flying a drone, and it injures someone?

    The obvious implication here is that flying a consumer-grade drone without proper liability insurance and proper safety training could be a bad idea. You could be held personal liable for negligence for any accident or injury that occurs as a result of you flying your drone.

  • Drones: The Potentially-Dangerous Holiday Gift

    Drones are one of the hottest gadgets on the market right now, so it’s likely that many people will either give or receive them as a gift this holiday season. While your first instinct may be to take it out of the box and jump right into the air, it’s important to slow down for a second and familiarize yourself with a few best practices for operation and general safety to avoid either running into trouble with the law or injuring yourself or someone else.

    Drones Can Be a Major Safety Risk

    All drones can be potentially extremely dangerous. The most common type of drone is known as a quadcopter, which has four propellers that spin at high speed in order to generate lift. These propellers may seem small and aren’t even sharp to the touch when stationary, but at high speed they can cause serious injury, including potentially taking off a finger. Additionally, many of these drones have some significant weight to them, particularly camera drones, so suddenly falling out of the air can result in some serious injuries if it were to land on someone.

    The best way to avoid this? Always keep your drone in your line of sight and never fly near people, especially over large crowds. This way if the drone were to go down for some reason, you can see where it lands and minimize the odds of it landing on someone.

    Battery Dangers

    The most common battery that powers these drones is a lithium-polymer (LiPo) type battery. These batteries, while powerful, can be extremely dangerous to charge. Do not under any circumstances leave one unattended while charging. After every flight, be sure to test the voltage and check it for any dents, cracks, puffiness, or excessive heat emission, as these are all signs of serious battery damage. Do not attempt to charge a damaged battery, as they can explode and cause fire, injuries, and more.

    Legal Trouble

    Drones have been the subject of a lot of recently-enacted laws federal, state, and local levels. Before you set off on your first flight, find out where you need to register and look up any flight restriction areas (such as near airports). This can help you stay out of trouble with the law, keep you clear of dangerous locations to fly, as well as prevent you from being held liable in the event you cause any injuries.

    If you are injured by a gift this holiday season, either through the negligence of another or a product defect, call the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, P.A. Our West Palm Beach injury attorneys have helped hundreds of clients recover the substantial compensation they are entitled to after they are injured in an accident. Since 2002, Attorney Craig Goldenfarb has served Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties with all types of cases, including head trauma, loss of digit, and many other types of potentially catastrophic cases.

  • Whose Fault Is It When You Slip and Fall?

    A slip and fall is not entirely your fault

    Businesses have a responsibility to keep their floors safe, clean, and free of hazards for their customers and anyone else who is on their property. This is Florida law. While some people might think of a slip and fall case as a frivolous or silly lawsuit, these cases are very serious.

    One of the ways a Jury determines how much of a slip and fall is the fault of the business, and how much is the fault of the person who fell, is a legal doctrine called “Comparative Negligence”. A Jury in a trial is asked to split up the fault by percentages. For example, a Jury could find that the business is 50% responsible, and the person who fell is 50% responsible.

    Comparative negligence is applied in cases that go to trial (which includes general negligence, auto accidents, and slip and fall injuries). Good lawyers will rarely accept a case where it’s not apparent that the accident was substantially the fault of the Defendant.

    How comparative negligence works

    Comparative negligence is determined by the Jury during deliberations at the end of the trial. The Jury uses a standard Florida verdict form to render their decision. The Jury’s job while in deliberation is to determine which of the parties in a lawsuit is at fault, and to what degree. They also determine the monetary award to the Plaintiff.

    There is no “most of the time, this happens” or rule-of-thumb when it comes to how a Jury decides the allocation of fault. Every single case is different. Over the 20 years we’ve been representing many thousands of clients, some Juries in our trials have determined our client to be 0% at fault, while other Juries have determined them to be more than 50% at fault. The bottom line is that there is simply no way to predict how a Jury will interpret the facts.

    How comparative negligence reduces monetary rewards

    After the Jury determines the percentages of fault, they then determine the monetary compensation for the Plaintiff. Then the Judge (not the Jury) reduces the monetary award by the percentage of fault allocated to the Plaintiff.

    Here’s an example of how this actually plays out:

    Jane suffered injuries at a big-box grocery store after a jar of pickles fell off the shelf, smashing on the floor. Before a store clerk could clean it up, she slipped and fell on the mess. At trial, she sought recovery for economic and non-economic damages of $500. After deliberations, the Jury returned a verdict: they awarded her $500, but determined that she was at fault for 20% of the accident. The Judge applies the calculations to the award, and awards the $500, less the 20% comparative fault (which is $100), for a total net recovery of $400.

    Analyzing comparative negligence is an important part of slip-and-fall cases. It is a consideration our lawyers must keep in mind while preparing for trial. If you are a client of our firm currently in litigation, our lawyers are here to explain in much greater detail how comparative negligence works at trial. If yours is one of the cases that we have set for trial, you will learn more about comparative negligence from your lawyer as the trial draws closer.

    If you are not a client, but have a question about comparative negligence, or you have a potential slip and fall accident case, call our office. You can speak to one of the personal injury lawyers in our firm.

  • Slip and Fall Accidents in Retail Stores

    A person can slip or trip and fall anywhere; but when it occurs in a store, the store may be responsible for the accident. Under Florida law, if you sustain an injury in a slip and fall accident on someone else’s property, you may be able to recover compensation from the store or the property owner under the legal theory of premises liability.

    When You Slip and Fall in a Store

    A customer in a retail store is categorized as an invitee. An invitee is a person who enters the property for a business purpose. The store, consequently, has a duty under the law to use reasonable care to prevent accidents. This means that the store must routinely inspect areas accessible to the public for dangerous conditions. When someone sustains an injury because of a dangerous condition, the store may be held liable for the following reasons: if the store was responsible for the dangerous condition, if the store was aware of the dangerous condition and failed to correct it, or if the store should have been aware of the dangerous condition.

    Florida Law Allows Recovery Even When You Are Partly At Fault

    Although property owners and possessors owe a duty to use reasonable care to protect you from harm, Florida law also imposes a duty on customers. Customers must also use reasonable care for their own safety. This, however, does not mean that it will bar you from recovering damages if you were partly to blame. Even if you bear some fault for the accident, you may still be able to recover under Florida’s comparative fault system. This means that your damages are reduced according to your percentage of fault. If, for example, you were 50 percent at fault for the accident, you would receive $50,000 of a $100,000 award.

    When to Call an Attorney

    Every slip and fall case is different. If you sustained a slip and fall injury in a Florida store, you may be entitled to compensation. If you think that the accident was partly your fault, do not be discouraged. You still may be able to recover compensation. Contact Craig Goldenfarb, a West Palm Beach slip and fall attorney, to learn more about your rights.

  • Florida Liability Lawyer Explodes Three Myths about Falls

    A good West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer should seek to educate people about premises liability law in Florida. Many people are confused: how might slip-and-fall law apply to your situation? In this essay, we will consider three widely believed myths about Florida slip-and-fall accidents and help you to start to think right about them.

    Myth #1: It’s easy to tell a serious slip and fall injury from a minor one.

    Reality: Not necessarily.
    If someone hit you on the thumb with a hammer, you would “not feel good” immediately. There would be no gap between the stimulus (the hammer blow) and your recognition of the injury (“Ow! My thumb hurts!”). But slip-and-fall injuries can be more challenging to identify. For instance, say you fall off a stepladder and bump your head slightly. You get a headache, but this goes away after a few hours. Unfortunately, the bump could have caused a minor concussion: you may not even notice the impact of your brain injury for a few days or even weeks.

    Myth #2: If the property owner has no money, you can’t obtain compensation.

    Reality: Other sources of money may be available.
    This is another example in which our intuition fails us. Say you visit an acquaintance’s home. The person is going through foreclosure. As you leave, you step through a rotted step and break your leg. The property owner has no money. So how can you rely on her to compensate you?

    The short answer is that other sources may be available. For instance, the homeowner might have homeowner’s insurance. If so, her insurance company should pay for damages. Alternatively, maybe she has access to a family trust or other assets that can be leveraged to pay for your care. A canny Florida liability lawyer knows that it’s important to overturn every legal rock.

    Myth #3: The only expensive injuries are ones that are painful and acute.

    Reality: Even “minor” injuries can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    Say you suffer whiplash after a fall down a flight of stairs. You might not be in that much pain. But over time, if the pain doesn’t recede, you may wind up visiting chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, orthopedists, neurologists, and other medical professionals. The bills mount up.