Slip and fall accidents can be very painful, but a skilled personal injury attorney can get you compensation. Find out how to tell if you have a good slip and fall case.
Slip and fall accidents can result in severe injuries and financial consequences. You’re also likely to miss time from work, deal with insurance companies, and receive treatment for your injuries.
If it’s your property, then you have to handle all expenses yourself. However, if you fell on someone else’s property due to hazardous conditions, you might have a slip and fall case on your hands.
If you slipped on someone else’s property, you probably wonder how to recover compensation. Although victims can file a personal injury claim against the property owner with the help of a personal injury attorney in New York, there’s no guarantee how the case will turn out.
Luckily, there are some pointers about whether you have a good slip and fall case. This article will explore these factors.
When Should I Pursue a Slip and Fall Case?
Several personal injury laws guide slip and fall situations to protect accident victims. Due to the property owner’s negligence, victims often suffer severe injuries like traumatic brain injuries or a concussion from hitting their head.
If someone else’s negligence caused your injuries, you shouldn’t have to cover your medical expenses alone; you can file a legal claim against the property owners for compensation. The laws concerning slip and fall accidents are fair to both property owners and the victim.
Some of the requirements include:
- The property owner invited the injured party to the property. This means you weren’t trespassing or someone specifically invited you to the property. It could also be an open invitation for customers or visitors to a commercial property.
- The injured party slipped or tripped and suffered injuries due to dangerous conditions on the property.
- The property owner should have noticed and addressed the dangerous conditions resulting from the fall.
Many unsafe conditions could result in slips and falls. For example, it could be flooring issues like broken floor tiles, worn carpets, wet floors, uneven floor surfaces, and debris on walkways that result in a slippery surface.
Factors like poor lighting, lack of handrails, and inadequate warning signage could also increase the chance of a slip and fall. Luckily a personal injury attorney in New York can ensure that you don’t have to suffer for a property owner’s negligence.
Signs You Have a Good Slip and Fall Case
Now that you know when you should file a slip and fall case, you need to know if you have a good chance of getting compensation from the at-fault party’s insurance company. Below are some signs your slip and fall case is solid.
The Fall Happened Because of a Preventable Unsafe Condition
Premises owners can prevent many slip and fall accidents if they take care of their property. Unsafe hazards like slippery surfaces, neglected spills, trip hazards, and uneven surfaces could result in a slip and fall accident.
If you prove that a preventable unsafe condition resulted in your fall, your chances of a successful personal injury claim increase. A personal injury attorney in New York can assist you in understanding how negligence affects your claim and the next steps to take.
You Visited the Doctor Immediately
If you didn’t suffer any injury from the slip and fall, you might not need to seek medical attention. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to seek compensation.
However, if you suffer any injury, you should schedule a doctor’s appointment immediately. Apart from ensuring you receive medical treatment, a prompt diagnosis can help reduce your chance of disputes with the insurer.
Without seeking medical attention within a reasonable timeframe after the slip and fall accident, the insurance adjuster might claim that you failed in your duty to prevent damages. They could also claim that your injuries are not so severe because you didn’t seek immediate medical treatment.
You Documented the Evidence
Injury victims are advised to document as much evidence as possible, especially about the accident scene. For example, you should take photos immediately if you slip on wet floors, misplaced equipment, or due to defective hand railings.
The property manager or owner might try to repair or clean up the hazard after the accident. This would erase the vital evidence that could help prove your premises liability claim.
Your personal injury attorney in New York can use these pictures to determine who is liable and ensure you get a fair settlement. Additionally, you should take photos of your injuries as these could help connect your injury to the incident.
You Collected Witness Statements
If witnesses are at the accident scene, their testimony could help prove your legal claim. Therefore, you should collect the contact details of eyewitnesses so you can share this information with your personal injury lawyer. Your lawyer might also want to interview the eyewitnesses to decide how their testimony could prove who the liable party is and strengthen your slip and fall case.
How do You Prove Negligence in a Slip and Fall Case
It’s essential to prove that the responsible party for the injury is the property owner. This means proving that the party responsible created a dangerous condition on their property.
An example is a slippery floor surface. You would have to prove that the party responsible should have known the flooring was unsafe for people to walk on.
There are varying ways a property owner can create unreasonable, dangerous conditions on their property. Below are some factors you must prove when making a compensation claim.
- Liability: This involves proving that the defendant had a duty of care to keep the property safe. This means exercising the same level of care a reasonable person would in such a situation.
- Negligence: Injury victims also have to prove that the defendant didn’t meet their duty of care, resulting in injuries for the plaintiff.
- Cause: As an injured person, you must prove that the hazardous condition resulted in your injury. If you can prove that other factors like inadequate lighting made it difficult to avoid the hazard, you may have a good slip and fall case.
- Damages: You also have to demonstrate that the fall resulted in damages. This means documenting expenses like medical costs, lost wages, and other damages that resulted in financial losses.
Plaintiffs have a good slip and fall case if they can prove that the property owner didn’t take the necessary steps to fix dangerous conditions on the property. This means you can seek financial compensation for damages even if the property owner didn’t create the hazardous condition but failed to take the proper steps to fix the issue.
For example, if someone spilled a drink on the floor and the property manager had enough time to clean it but didn’t. If this resulted in injuries, that’s a breach of duty, and you can prove they didn’t take ample steps to correct the danger before the fall.
Common Injuries in Slip and Fall Accidents
As mentioned, slip and falls result in many injuries that a personal injury attorney in New York can help you seek compensation for. Although falls are common, they can result in severe and permanent wounds. Injuries like hip fractures and head injuries are quite common.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), slip and fall accidents are responsible for the hospitalization of more than 800,000 patients.
Some traumatic injuries that could result from a slip and fall accident include:
- Broken legs
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Back, spinal cord, and neck injuries
- Fractured pelvis
A severe injury usually requires extensive medical attention after a fall. Additionally, it could result in permanent injuries requiring surgery and physical therapy.
Again, you can seek different types of compensation after a slip and fall accident. Contacting a personal injury attorney in New York may increase your chances of financial recovery.
A Personal Injury Attorney at McDonald Worley May Be Able to Help
Even as a cautious person, you can fall on someone’s property if there are hazardous situations not taken care of by the property manager. Depending on the extent of your injuries, your personal insurance policy might not be able to cover medical treatments and other expenses. Contacting a personal injury attorney in New York might be a good idea.
An injury attorney understands personal injury laws and can help you file an insurance claim to recover compensation for economic losses and other damages. They can also determine if you have a good slip and fall case, and help to ensure you recover compensation before the time limit for filing a claim is over. Also, we offer free case reviews, so contact us today to get started.