By Kristen Rodman, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer
January 25, 2016; 4:47 AM ET

As winter unfolds, spills on frozen sidewalks and slippery parking lots will commence legal battles across the nation.

“Weather-related, slip-and-fall cases are extremely common,” President of the Massachusetts Bar Association Douglas Sheff said.

Notably frequent in the Northeast and Midwest due to the area’s high average wintry precipitation, slips and falls can result in everything from minor injuries to serious head injuries, brain injuries and even death, according to Sheff.

Each year practitioners and forensic meteorologists work on numerous slip-and-fall cases, but because the laws regarding these cases vary by state, there are significant gray areas within the legal statues.

So how can someone know when they are liable if someone falls on their property or outside their business?