If you have recently been injured due to slipping or tripping and falling due to dangerous conditions at another person’s property, you may be wondering what your legal rights are. Particularly, you might be wondering whether you should pursue a lawsuit. While many south Florida personal injury attorneys offer consultation, it is a good idea to know what to expect.
Litigation to cover the costs of a slip and fall injury falls under the broader category of personal injury lawsuits. Unlike lawsuits for dog bites or medical malpractice, however, slip and fall injuries often recover less money, due to the fact that the individual who fell usually bears responsibility for the fall. However, if you believe that you can show that your fall was due to negligence on the part of a property owner or tenant, you may be able to receive compensation for costs such as medical bills (including transportation costs for treatment and therapy), lost wages, pain and suffering, potential future medical expenses, and what is called “loss of consortium,” which refers to damage to your relationship with your spouse or family.
Lost wages that can be recovered not only apply to those wages you lose in direct consequence of the injury, but also may apply to future wages that you are no longer able to earn, if you receive injuries that cause a permanent disability. In addition, even if you have a pre-existing condition, you may be able to recover medical expenses related to it if the fall demonstrably exasperated your condition.
In order to win a slip and fall lawsuit, you and your personal injury lawyer must demonstrate that the property owner or tenant was negligent in their responsibility to ensure that the property was safe. This means that by acting in a certain way—or by failing to take reasonable action—they allowed conditions to exist which caused your fall. With slip and fall incidents, time is the key factor; for example, how long the hazard was there contributes to the determination as to whether or not the property owner should have discovered the situation and remedied it.
In some states, the degree of care that a property owner is reasonably expected to take varies depending on the person who fell. For example, Ohio requires property owners to take the least amount of care for the safety of potential trespassers; however a child trespasser is more deserving of care than an adult trespasser in that state. On the other hand, in California, there is no difference in the amount of care that a property owner is expected to take, no matter who fell. All visitors to the property, under California law, are to be accorded the same amount of care and due diligence from the property owner or tenant.
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, your best course of action is to get in contact with a personal injury attorney, such as Fort Lauderdale personal injury law office Zimmerman & Frachtman. An experienced and professional lawyer will be able to provide you with the expertise and knowledge to receive the best possible outcome. Zimmerman & Frachtman take pride in offering free consultations, and we do not receive payment on your case unless we win. We also maintain relationships with a variety of nationally-known experts who can help us demonstrate the events that led to your injury.