Slips, Trips and Falls: Claiming for your Personal Injuries

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Fast Lawsuit Team

It comes as an unpleasant surprise. You’re walking along, enjoying your day when suddenly, wham! You trip up on a section of loose carpeting or slip due to a wet floor.

A slip, trip or a fall can be mildly embarrassing. It can also be catastrophic. While with the first you just stand up and brush it off, the latter may result in huge medical bills, lost time at work or even a lost job, considerable pain and suffering, or worse, death. Slip and falls can result to a wide array of serious injuries such as sprains, broken bones, head, back or neck injuries, brain injuries and permanent disability.

Slip and falls usually happen in places where there is a lot of foot traffic. These include department stores, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, amusement parks and the like.

Slip and Fall Lawsuits

Slip and Fall Lawsuits fall under Premises Liability. Under this principle, property owners or those that maintain or manage the property have the duty to ensure that that property is safe from hazard. Any failure to act or any direct act of the property owner and representatives that resulted in a slip and fall may result in the property owner being liable for any damages incurred.

Potential hazards that cause slips, trips and falls include:

-          Wet floor or water spills

-          Uneven, damaged or unstable flooring

-          Sidewalks that have potholes or are uneven

-          Presence of snow, ice or puddles (esp. on the sidewalk)

-          Damaged or broken stairs, handrails and railings

-          Torn or loose carpeting

-          Narrow entrances, hallways or stairwells

If you have hurt yourself in a slip and fall accident, you have the right to seek for compensation, particularly for:

-          Your medical expenses (for ongoing and future treatment)

-          Lost wages or loss of job

-          Expenses for physical therapy

-          Related medication

-          Out of pocket expenses related to the treatment and therapy (gasoline to drive to and from the hospital or clinic, hotel and food expenses of the caregiver, cost of childcare or housekeeping, etc.)

-          Cost of adaptive equipment

-          Pain and suffering

The challenges of a slip and fall lawsuit

When you have been involved in a slip and fall accident, you should go to a hospital or seek medical attention as soon as possible, even if you feel “okay” right after the incident. This is to show that you acted to lessen the damage and physical injuries caused by the slip and fall. You also need to prove that the injuries were directly caused by the slip and fall.

When you file a slip and fall lawsuit, you need to prove that the property owner/manager was negligent, that it was not due to your carelessness and that the injuries you sustained were the result of a slip and fall in that property. There is also a need to prove that the property owner/manager knew about or should have known about a hazardous condition and failed to act to correct it. The owner (or their insurer) can also fight back by showing that the incident was in fact your fault because the condition was open and obvious and you should have acted to avoid the incident.

There is also the stigma connected with slip and fall lawsuits. Due to greedy complainants and their lawyers, there is a high level of doubt linked with slip and fall cases. As a result, lawsuits arising from these incidents are usually highly scrutinized cases and thus take longer to settle. It is also harder to prove your case if your injuries were soft tissue injuries, which are generally harder to prove.

Lawsuit Funding for a slip and fall lawsuit

The injuries sustained due to a slip and fall incident may be serious enough that the victim is unable to go to work. If this is your case, you are facing challenging times ahead. Aside from your medical bills, you also need to provide for your family, pay your debts as well as cover expenses related to your lawsuit.

The financial stress you are undergoing may leave you vulnerable to low-ball settlement offers from the other party. You may be sorely tempted to accept the offer even though it is obviously less than what the case is worth had you waited for it to continue through to the end.

Legal funding can be your lifeline during this time. Often also referred to as a lawsuit loan, this provides ready cash during your time of dire need, without you having to lose out on what the case is really worth. The funding is provided based on the strength of your case, and unlike a real cash loan, you don’t have to pay it back if the case does not come to a settlement.

Going for a lawsuit settlement advance is relatively easy, especially if you are working with FastLawsuitMoney.com.  FastLawsuitMoney.com is committed to help complainants like you fight for fair and just compensation for their injuries. Upon approval, you can get your cash within 1 day.