Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents
Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents
Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyers with Over 30 Years of Experience
What Causes a Slip & Fall Accident?
There are many possible reasons that an incident of slip and fall can happen. Any one of the following can be hazardous and cause injury to those around them:
Lack of Warning
If the owner or employee of a premise is currently in progress of repairing or cleaning a surface, then they are responsible for giving the proper warning signs to alert people to the danger. Cleaning often causes floors to be slippery and wet, making it easy for individuals to fall. Likewise, reparations often involve sharp objects that can cause harm to passerby. In addition, if an owner is aware of an existing hazard, then they should indicate that through signs, tape, or blockage so that people can clearly see the danger.
Lack of Maintenance
Owners and employees who do not regularly maintain their premises by thoroughly examining all areas can be held liable for accidents on it. Property managers need to make sure that there are no spills, loose tiles, broken stairways, uneven surfaces, or anything else that could potentially injure another. They should also check visibility to make sure that people can see properly, so they don’t get injured by something that they were unaware was there in the first place.
Hazardous Objects
When an owner or employee places an object in a certain place, it is assumed that it was a safe place to place it, or it was the best place to put the object. If an object such as a box full of goods, or a ladder is in a place that is insensible, then they could be held accountable if someone is injured by that object. Owners and employees should give careful thought to where they put objects that could be unexpected for those on the premises.
If you have been injured because the owner was guilty of one of these things, then there is a good chance that our personal injury lawyers can help you file a claim. Get in touch with our office today at 954-268-1160.
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What Should I Do After a Slip and Fall Accident?
After an accident, see a doctor. They are the only ones that can fully make sure that they treat everything that is wrong with your body. Injuries are not always apparent, so they may need to take tests or x-rays to check. Next, take pictures of the area in which your accident happened, and see if there were any witnesses to the fall. If so, get their contact information such as their name, address, and phone number. If you are unable to do this because of your injury, then have a friend or family member do it for you.
Personal injury attorneys Craig Posner and Eric Feingold are both excellent attorneys, but more importantly, they are excellent people. I have seen first hand their hard work and dedication to clients. I would not hesitate to recommend their services to others.
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After gathering your own evidence, make a report to the owner or manager of the premises. Include the date, time, and circumstances surrounding your fall, as well as any weather conditions and what caused your fall. Make sure to obtain a copy of this report for your reference. Lastly, you should obtain advice from an attorney at our firm. We can give you the support you need during this difficult time.
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Plantation Personal Injury FAQs
When Is It the Right Time to Call a Personal Injury Lawyer?
The right time to call is as soon as possible after your accident. There are many reasons why you need to begin the legal process as quickly as you can. The legal process may even begin without you, with many calls from the insurance company trying to either rush you or to pressure you to give a statement. They may try to catch you unaware and trick you into compromising your legal rights. Hiring an attorney could prevent this from happening.
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Equally important, as time passes from the time of your accident, the evidence that could help your claim can become harder to find. People might quickly clear the scene of the accident, and you may lose the ability to contact witnesses. The witnesses that you have may begin to lose their recollection of what they saw. When you hire a personal injury lawyer, they will get to work immediately to gather the evidence before it is lost.
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Calling a lawyer to get started on your case is a crucial step in the legal process. Knowing that you have someone on the job with the experience and tenacity to fight for you can give you at least some peace of mind during an undoubtedly difficult time.
How Do Insurance Settlement Negotiations Work?
An insurance claim is just like any other negotiation. You have a number in mind for what you think that you should receive for your injuries, and the insurance company has a much lower number in mind for what it wants to pay. Your insurance claim begins when your Plantation personal injury attorney files a demand letter with the insurance company. This is when the adjuster goes to work to try to save money for their bosses.
The insurance adjuster may outright deny your claim or question liability. They may come back with a settlement offer. When the number seems low, and it will, know that this is just their opening offer. Your Plantation injury attorney will likely reject the offer and respond with your own demand.
Eventually, you will lower your number, and the insurance company will raise theirs, and you could meet somewhere in the middle. This is a time-honored dance that personal injury lawyers have been doing with insurance companies since the advent of courtrooms. Even when you seem very far apart from the insurance company, most cases eventually will settle.
What Happens After I File a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Filing a personal injury lawsuit is an early part of the claim process. Most cases will never go far enough to see the inside of a courtroom. Statistically speaking, a vast majority of personal injury cases are settled out of court. However, if your case does make it to court, you should expect going into it that the trial process may take one to two years to complete. The legal system is far from rushed, as courts and judges have busy schedules and full dockets.
In the short term, you can expect motions and attempts to obtain evidence. Many people associate a lawsuit with a trial, but that only happens after many months of the nuts and bolts of the legal system. The phase of your case that will take the longest time is discovery. This is when the two sides obtain evidence that the other has in their possession. At this point, you may even need to sit for a deposition.
Filing a lawsuit will not cut off settlement negotiations. As was previously mentioned, most cases will settle without a trial. If anything, litigation may give each side more incentive to settle. The two parties usually continue negotiating right up until the point when the jury is seated.
What Evidence Can Prove My Injury Claim?
Negligence is the basis of every personal injury claim. When you file a lawsuit in court, you have the burden of proof. It will be up to you to show that what you say is more likely than not to have happened. You need to back your claim up with evidence.
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Your Plantation personal injury lawyer will work to gather things that can backup your side of the story, including:
— Witness statements from people who say your injury or accident
— Pictures of the scene of your accident
— Security camera footage
— Expert witness testimony that could reconstruct the accident
— Maintenance logs of the area or vehicle involved
— Medical records that can help prove damages
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These are things that can be difficult to get on your own and piece together to tell the story of what happened. Injury lawyers in Plantation, Florida, know how to both get the evidence and use it to prove that someone else was responsible for your accident.
What if I Cannot Work Due to My Injuries?
Your personal injury damages include both economic and non-economic compensation. Economic compensation aims to pay you back for the actual money that you lost. This includes bills that you paid and earnings you lost. This specifically pays you back for lost wages from your job when you are unable to work. Since you would have worked, this is money out of your pocket.
Lost wages in a personal injury settlement are much broader than you think. Of course, this includes the time that you have already missed from work. It also encompasses time that you will miss from work in the future. You do not need to outright miss work to receive compensation for this. For example, if you were qualified for a promotion but cannot get it now because your injury limits you in the type of work that you can do, you can get compensation for the reduction in your earning capacity.
Lost wages are often a very contested part of your personal injury claim because you can bet that the insurance company will see things differently to try to lower its bill. They may dispute what your possible earnings are or use a lower rate of inflation to calculate what they may be in the future.