Who Can Be Held Liable After an Elevator Accident?

By Grant Law Office on October 4, 2021

When you choose to use an elevator, the last thing on your mind may be the risk of serious injuries – but elevator accidents occur far more often than most of us realize. The types of elevator accidents that can lead to serious injury or death include:

• Elevator shaft falls
• Caught between floors
• Struck by elevator
• Elevator platform collapses
• Mechanical breakdown
• Faulty wiring
• Power failures
• Defective elevator doors
• Free falls
• Unbalanced leveling
• Electrocutions

Types of Injuries in Elevator Accidents

If you or someone you love was seriously or fatally injured in an elevator accident, seeking full compensation is a critical aspect of achieving justice. The negligent parties must be identified, and held accountable for what occurred, whether in civil court or by seeking compensation through a negotiated insurance settlement. The types of injuries that could occur in an elevator accident include:

• Broken bones
• Amputations (arm, leg, hand, foot)
• Spinal cord injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Back and neck injuries
• Internal injuries, organ damage
• Soft tissue injuries (lacerations, bruises, tendon and ligament injuries)
• Wrongful death

What Constitutes Negligence in an Elevator Accident Injury Case?

An elevator is supposed to safely transport people from one area to another, without incident. When something goes wrong, leading to serious or fatal injuries, the liable parties must be identified. The elevator may have failed because of several factors, and pursuing full compensation requires a careful and thorough evaluation of the facts surrounding the accident. Negligent acts may include a failure to maintain an elevator as required by law, faulty elevator manufacture, design, or defective parts or systems. Negligence must be established, which is proving that one or more parties failed to act in a manner that protected other people from harm.

Proving Negligence – What’s the Process?

To prove that another party or several parties acted in a negligent manner will require a thorough evaluation of the accident. Experts in the industry may be needed to perform a comprehensive investigation into what occurred. Once the cause of the failure is identified, negligence can be proven with factual information, diagrams, photographs, expert testimony, and other data.

What Types of Compensation Can be Recovered?

In an elevator accident, several types of compensation can be sought by your attorney, including:

• Economic damages: These damages are the economic losses associated with the injuries sustained, such as medical and hospital costs, ongoing medical care, transportation, rehabilitation, wage loss, loss of future earning capacity, and other hard costs.
• Non-economic damages: An elevator accident may change a person’s life forever, or leave a family devastated. Pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, emotional anguish, and other more personal losses are given a dollar value and may be the highest portion of a settlement or jury award.

Legal Representation in Elevator Accident Cases

Contact an attorney who can help in gathering evidence about an elevator accident case and obtain full and fair compensation through a premises liability claim or other appropriate legal action. Call our husband-and-wife team of attorneys at Grant Law Office today for a free case consultation at (404) 995-3955.