Legal Question in Personal Injury in Maryland

These are very difficult cases to win. To do so, your father must prove that the property managers or those responsible for maintaining the parking lot knew that the black ice was present before your father fell and failed to remove it or make it safe, or at least that they should have been aware of it. The fact that your father had been complaining about it before might satisfy this burden, especially if the particular patch he fell in had a history of icing over during bad weather. On the other hand, since your father was also well aware of the danger of the area, the other side would argue that he was also negligent in trying to traverse the dangerous area, a defense known as contributory negligence. Your father's counter argument would be that he had to park in that area and thus had no choice but to try and navigate over it, and he was doing everything possible to walk carefully over it.