Injuries are one of the most annoying situations to experience in New York City. They are excruciating, and depending on the damage, may need treatment for a long time. We can get injuries in New York City due to many reasons, but one of the most common are slip and fall accidents.
The injury you sustain is highly dependent on your posture, walking direction, and the substance that caused you to fall. However, one thing is sure; you’re bound to be in a lot of pain if you don’t do something about it.
You can sustain different injuries, but each of them is just as painful and as annoying to deal with at the time. Most of these accidents are caused by the building owner’s neglect of an occupant’s safety.
Although some slip and fall accidents don’t require an attorney’s services, there are many others that do. Here is what you must know about the common injuries sustained after a slip and fall and why you need a slip and fall lawyer in New York to take care of things for you.
Common Locations To Sustain Injuries
There are many places and mediums that can cause your fall, which might include:
Slippery Floors:
This is arguably the most common way in which people slip and fall.
When constructing buildings, many building owners neglect how safe the building materials they’re using are. At that moment, their ultimate goal is to complete the building so it can start being utilized.
As a result, many people fall due to this neglected factor. For example, slippery floors can make individuals up to ten times more likely to fall quickly.
Slippery falls can either be due to wetness from water or oil spillage. Sometimes, it may even be due to floor materials that are naturally smooth, such as stone or glass.
Staircases:
For the most part, staircases are safe. They’re practically used in almost every building in New York City, with not many casualties or injuries sustained by people.
Nonetheless, when people get injured from falling down a staircase, it can be catastrophic, especially when they are already at a high point on the stairs.
A prevalent cause for staircase accidents is stairwells with broken handrails and stair treads. Using these substandard staircases could pose a threat to your physical health, and it can even lead you to sustain a fatal injury.
Poorly Spaced-out Items in a Building:
Although as a property owner you may think that filling up your building in New York City is necessary, it will prove to be an enormous danger to anyone who enters your building.
Cluttered buildings in New York City always lead to a slip and fall injury. Some of the most common cluttered areas in a facility are hallways, aisles, and other walkways.
More often than not, New York City building owners fail to take responsibility for this, as they tend to blame the accident on the victim’s carelessness.
Uneven Surfaces:
When something breaks in a building, many New York building owners and managers tend to ignore it, deeming it less critical. However, it is an essential factor that contributes to many slip and fall accidents, which is why it should not be ignored.
Some of these uneven surfaces include chipped carpets, broken floors, potholes, and broken floorboards. If the owner leaves it as is, it will cause a lot of avoidable injuries. Some of these injuries are mild, but many others can be life-threatening.
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Common Injuries You Can Sustain
Something frightening to know about slip and fall accidents is they can occur in any situation and at any time. They can happen in your New York stores, business buildings, in your own home, and a host of other places.
There are several significant injuries you can sustain from a slip and fall accident, and they are:
Bruises
Bruises happen when you lightly bump against a surface. You make enough skin contact to leave a mark, but not enough to deeply injure you. However, don’t be fooled; bruises can be just as dangerous.
Sometimes, bruises can be large, which increases the surface area for infection. Subsequent infections can be mild or severe. Sometimes, it may even be life-threatening. You can get bruised by any hard surface, which includes stairs, floors, and so on.
Cuts
Generally, sustaining a cut on any part of your body can be one of the most painful things you can experience. These cuts can be mild, and thus, can be treated relatively easily.
However, some cuts can be extremely deep, which increases the likelihood of getting an infection or other diseases.
Scientifically speaking, a cut is a skin wound that involves the separation of connective tissue elements. Unlike bruises, none of your skin tissues are missing when you get cut.
You can get cut by several sharp objects in a building, such as staircases. The first course of action to do before you consider suing is to get medical attention.
Concussions
Concussions are very dangerous because they are not very noticeable immediately. A concussion is an internal injury to the head. Its internal nature means that someone may sustain such an injury without realizing they have a concussion.
It typically occurs when you hit the floor relatively hard, and people that experience this will often lose consciousness.
In some others, it can lead to a temporary or extended period of inhibited cognitive function. Some people’s brains even get damaged in extreme cases. If you suffer a brain injury in addition to other personal injury aspects like bone fractures, remember that we at Gregory Spektor & Associates in New York are here to provide consultation, assess the damages, and understand your slip and fall case today.
Punctures to Delicate Body Parts
This is arguably one of the deadliest things that can happen to you when you fall. The delicate body parts could be the organs such as the heart, the lungs, and the liver.
At other times, it could be external body parts such as the eyes. This is a critical condition that needs immediate medical attention. Failure to tend to this puncture wound immediately could provide fatal consequences.
Whichever slip and fall injury you sustain, it is vital to seek medical attention immediately. That should be the first course of action, and then you should seek the services of a slip, trip, and fall lawyer next, to obtain proper compensation for your trip and fall incident.
Why Hiring A Slip And Fall Lawyer Is Important
Before you go off bearing the consequences of your injury alone, here are a few reasons why hiring a slip, trip, and fall lawyer for your slip and fall accident case in New York is essential.
They Can Help you Determine the Fault
Admittedly, on some slip and fall accident occasions, the fault of the fall lies in the hands of the individual. However, more often than not, it is the fault of the building owner.
Many people fail to understand this and end up getting no settlements or compensation from the owner. Hence, hiring a slip, trip, and fall lawyer means you would have a professional who can determine the reason behind your fall. They would help you answer questions, some of which include:
- Did you fall due to carelessness?
- Was there some slippery substance on the floor? Greasy substances on the floor would mean that the property owner in charge of the building is to blame.
- Were any of the building components defective, which led to your fall? If this is the case, your chances of winning in court are high.
- Did you trip over something you’re wearing? If it’s something you tripped over, then the building isn’t responsible.
- Did the property owner of the building forget to put up warning signs? Sometimes, maintenance or construction can be going on in a building, which makes it mandatory for the building owners to put up signs to warn about slippery substances on the floor. Not putting it up means neglect on their part, which can help build a robust case against them.
- Were the steps of the staircase regularly spaced, making you fall? During construction, hiring an inexperienced construction worker would mean irregular shapes of facilities in the building, including staircases. If you suspect that one step was far ahead of the other, a slip and fall lawyer can make an investigation based on this and confirm or deny your claim.
A slip, trip, and fall lawyer can help you answer these questions, which would tell you all you need to know when you’d decide to take the building owners to court. Going without one could mean you risk being waved off by the judge or other lawyers as unprofessional.
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A Lawyer Can Assess What You Lost Following Your Fall
Due to your inexperience, you may not be able to fully explain the circumstances surrounding your fall and explain what you’ve lost in court.
A slip, trip, and fall lawyer can help with that, touching on several topics like:
Loss of Time
When you fall, you’re bound to lose some time as you may be disoriented and injured. Thus, your lawyer can fully explain your activities of the fateful day and how that fall disrupted your plans. This can be a strong point when making your case. You would most likely be clouded by emotions and sentiment, which means you may not be the best person to present your case.
Damage to Body Parts
As mentioned earlier, a fall can cause damages such as punctured body parts, concussions, bruises, and cuts. When presenting your case, getting injured is a crucial point to include. Judges and juries will take injury very seriously, especially if it had the potential to be life-threatening.
However, statements of these injuries have to be backed up by facts. If you state that you had a concussion and had to get rest for a week, then it is essential that your employment and medical records show that. If it doesn’t, you would be putting yourself into more trouble than you think.
Discomfort
Discomfort is something you will most likely feel when you fall. Discomfort can prevent you from participating in regular activities, which helps your case against them.
Again, if you want to include this statement in your case, make sure you have the evidence to back it up. If it is physical discomfort, it will help if you have a medical record to document that.
Similarly, if you feel some mental discomfort, such as feeling disoriented, you would also need to present a medical history to confirm your statement.
Reach Out to Us Today for a Consultation
Lawyers in places like New York are a robust set of professionals committed to helping you out with all sorts of legal problems, which include a slip and fall incident. In the event of a slip and fall occurrence, these lawyers are ready to help you present your case to court and get substantial settlements from the defendants. You can sleep soundly knowing that you have a slip and fall lawyer by your side that can deal with property owners in New York.
In addition to obtaining settlements for victims, this would also deter other property owners from neglecting their buildings, helping to minimize the risk of slip and fall accident victims and provide a safe environment for millions of other people.
However, before deciding to take various property owners to court, make sure you answer all the slip and fall accident lawyer’s questions honestly. Also, make sure you bring concrete evidence that will back up all your statements.
If you are looking for expert assistance with a slip and fall incident in New York, remember to reach out to us today. We are here to help victims in these slip and fall situations and get them the compensation they need to move on with their lives. Reach out to us today for a slip and fall injury consultation and case review.
