Sample Personal Injury Demand Letter Template - Slip/fall Stair Accident (Page 2 of 4) in pdf

Dear Mr. de la Rue:

I was injured on January 13, 20xx in the West Hollywood Broadmart store. I fell

coming down some stairs in the women’s shoe section, where I had been

shopping. I landed on my right arm, shattering my elbow. [NOTE: Wanda

describes her elbow as “shattered” rather than simply broken, establishing the

seriousness of her injury.]

Liability

Two weeks after the accident, I had the stairs on which I fell carefully examined.

In at least four separate ways, the stairs present an unreasonable hazard to a

customer. First, the lack of handrails is a violation of law. The Los Angeles County

Building Code Section 1225 requires that all commercial sets of stairs have

handrails every 88 inches. Because this open stairway is more than 11 feet wide,

it should have had handrails on each side and one in the middle. It had no

handrails at all. At my age, 76, I always use a handrail when one is available, and

in this case a handrail would have prevented a serious fall.

Also, the county building code requires that riser heights be the same to within

one-quarter inch. The riser heights of the second and third stairs, on which I fell,

differ by a full inch (6−1÷8 inches to 7−1÷8 inches). This violation of the code

proved dangerous because when I came down the stairs, the third step down did

not meet my foot at the same point as did the previous step, throwing me off

balance. [NOTE: Wanda specifically explains why the violation of the

building code caused her accident.]

As the enclosed photographs show, the color of the carpeting contributes to the

danger. The third step is covered with the same dark red carpet as on the bottom

floor, while the platform and the first two steps down are covered in white carpet.

Looking down onto the red third step, it is difficult to see that it is a step at all

rather than the beginning of the floor. [NOTE: Photograph is explained

instead of merely included.] The third step should have been white like the

other two. And finally, display spotlights set up around the stairs shine directly

into your eyes as you come down, making it extremely difficult to see the steps

clearly.

For all these reasons, the stairs presented a hazardous condition and caused me

to fall. The building code violations alone establish the store’s liability. When the

Sample Personal Injury Demand Letter Template - Slip/fall Stair Accident Page 2