"Slip and Fall" Fakers and Fraud Artists.

Faced with an episode of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” someone unfamiliar with the States would probably conclude that we are a nation obsessed with infants, humorless voiceover, and serious personal injury.  But intentional personal injury—that’s a strange one.

Yet we see this kind of damage (or people faking it) all the time. We’re extremely familiar with the car-accident “victim” and his convenient case of whiplash, and we laugh about the shady stranger faking a dog bite wound.  But these aren’t just popular images from a syndicated sitcom. Occasionally, the insurance fraud artist becomes a feature in the very real, very modern news.

 

This “slip and fall” faker made the news last year after security cameras caught her pouring olive oil on a store’s tile floor. Returning later to “slip” on the pre-planned slick, the Florida woman made her cunning plan a little too obvious, and the store owner’s his $30,000 surveillance system caught the entire fraud on film. Unluckily for that woman, the film caught the internet by storm too.

Despite the glut of popular images about fake victims and insurance fraud criminals, dangerous property and building laws were put in place for a good reason: to protect. For property owners who don’t conform to the safety rules, the consequences can be serious. In this recent Texas case, over $75,000 is at stake because of a puddle of wax on a WalMart floor. Even a New York inmate is taking a stab at the pie with her case against the prison system, claiming that a “slip and fall” injury resulted from her shower-cleaning duties.

 

With so many cases to thumb through, how can we tell which ones are legit?

The legal system generally uses three criteria to determine whether a property owner is at fault:

1. The property owner caused the spill, worn or torn spot, or other slippery or dangerous surface or item;
2. The property owner knew of the dangerous condition but did nothing about it; or
3. The property owner should have known of the dangerous surface because a "reasonable" person taking care of the property would have discovered and removed or repaired it.

So, owners—keep your property in good repair, keep your customers safe, read up on personal injury laws, AND—

…consider installing a surveillance system.

by Kate Beall