The founder of realEats Consulting and RealEats.org, Dr. Joel Feigenheimer is a leader in the hospitality and restaurant business. Possessing an MBA in hospitality, a PhD in business, and more than three decades of experience in the industry, Dr. Joel Feigenheimer serves as an expert witness in court cases that involve a range of hotel and restaurant issues, including slips and falls.

1. Joel Feigenheimer

2. The founder of realEats Consulting and RealEats.org, Dr. Joel
Feigenheimer is a leader in the hospitality and restaurant
business. Possessing an MBA in hospitality, a PhD in business, and
more than three decades of experience in the industry, Dr. Joel
Feigenheimer serves as an expert witness in court cases that
involve a range of hotel and restaurant issues, including slips and
falls.

3. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, slip-and-fall
accidents are responsible for putting one million customers and
three million food service employees in the hospital each year.
However, defenses to these cases exist, including:

4. - Comparative negligence
This defense claims that the plaintiff was either partially or
entirely responsible for causing the slip-and-fall accident. For
instance, the hazard may be obvious, but the plaintiff was
distracted by something else and did not see it. If it is determined
that the plaintiff was partially responsible for the accident, the
plaintiff will receive damages only for the portion that was not
their fault. If the plaintiff is 40 percent responsible, for example,
they can seek only 60 percent of the damages.

5. - Inadequate notice
This defense holds that defendants must have sufficient
knowledge of the existence of a hazard on their property if they
are to be deemed at fault for a slip-and-fall accident. Plaintiffs are
responsible for providing sufficient evidence to back up the
existence of a hazard and state how long that hazard was present.

6. - Lack of causation
This defense focuses on whether the slip-and-fall accident was
the defendant's fault or another customer’s fault. For example, if
the plaintiff slips on a banana peel but that peel was not left by an
employee of the establishment, the defendant can fight against
claims of negligence since the hazard was not created or ignored
by them.