Injured By An Elevator?

An odd question you may not hear often is were you injured by an elevator?  Believe it or not it does happen, and in some cases proving the that the owner of the building is at fault may not be as difficult as one may believe.  There is a concept in law known as Res Ipsa Loquitur, (let’s call it RIL) which is really just legal jargon which means that the cause of someone’s injury could not happen for any other reason than someone’s negligence.  The true translation is “the thing speaks for itself.” In typical negligence cases, like a car accident or a slip and fall in a store, in order to establish a claim, the injured party is going to have to prove that defendant acted in a certain way and that action caused the injury.  In cases in which Res Ipsa Loquitur apply, the law will sometimes infer that the defendant is negligent. In Arizona  (and other States) Courts have found that when someone is injured because an elevator door closes prematurely, that the doctrine of RIL applies. The logic being that the elevator doors do not normally close  (prematurely) without someone being negligent, typically that would be the owner of the building. So if someone you know was injured by an elevator when the elevator door closed early, you or them should consult a personal injury attorney who is familiar with these types of cases.