Robert I. Feinberg Personal Injury Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Accidents in Bad Weather

Friday, January 9, 2009 by Robert I. Feinberg

As a Boston personal injury attorney, I certainly encounter accidents relating to bad weather. These can take the nature of snow and ice, fall downs or auto accidents where the at-fault driver did not adjust for inclement conditions.

A fall down injury occurring because of snow and ice is often compensable. These usually serious injuries will result in a recovery if the condition causing them came about because of an “unnatural accumulation” of ice and snow. In contrast, a natural accumulation, the law states, is not something the landowner must remove or even treat.

The above is a confusing concept. The guiding principle is that bad weather is part and parcel of living in Massachusetts or New England. Consequently, the person suing need show that a defect was present on the property, such as a hole for example. That defect in combination with snow and ice will lead to the determination of an unnatural accumulation and, therefore, increase the chances of a liability finding/settlement.

As for motor vehicle accidents in bad weather, your attorney should ask if the driver being sued acted appropriately in the bad weather conditions. A defendant may say that skidding was inevitable; I prefer to say that the driver failed to act reasonably given the prevailing weather conditions. This is after all what negligence is all about.

View Robert Feinberg's Lawyers.com blog archive here.

Feinberg & Alban, P.C.
141 Tremont Street, Boston MA 02111

Posted at 16:57 PM

Topic: Personal Injury