Slipping, tripping, or falling are all accidents that could happen anywhere, including in your home. A property owner is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that their premises are safe for all patrons.
If you or your loved one slips, trips, or falls in a New York building, you are entitled to some form of settlement. Slip accidents can cause injuries, both serious and superficial. Regardless of the type of injury, the property owner owes premises liability.
A New York slip and fall lawyer will know to what extent the premises liability applies in your case. You have a right to recourse, where the property owner is responsible for the accident.
What to Do After Suffering a Slip and Fall
Get Medical Attention
The first step must always be finding medical attention. Slips and falls might not appear serious, especially where bleeding is either absent or minimal. However, it is possible for slip and fall victims to suffer internal injuries that can either lead to hospitalization or even death.
Trivializing a fall can also result in missed fractures that only reappear later in the victims’ life when the statute of limitations already bars victims from seeking compensation. When getting treatment, it is crucial to have the hospital or clinic record the nature of injuries and what caused them. Any medical documents like scans, x-rays, and lab reports.
Report the Slip and Fall
The second step should be reporting the accident. Regardless of where the slip and fall accident happened, victims should seek out the manager, landlord, or owner and make a written report on the accident.
Ensure that you get a written report on the slip, trip, or fall before leaving the scene because it could become hard to get that report later. Accurate details of the slip, trip, and fall should be captured in the report.
Document Details
To ensure the accuracy of your account of what happened, it is necessary to carefully document what happened. Documentation for slip and fall accidents can include taking pictures, recording videos, and writing down details. By documenting the events, you make it easy for slip and fall lawyers to prepare evidence for the legal suit.
It is also important to collect the contact details of witnesses who saw the accident happen. You will want to have the phone numbers, email addresses, and full names of any witnesses willing to supply the details.
Further, you should ensure that you document the exact time, place, and nature of the accident. Any pieces of clothing such as shoes you were wearing or clothes you had on when the slip and fall happened should be stored in a safe place and remain unused until the legal suit is determined.
Do Not Give a Statement
New York landlords and property owners are experienced; commercial property is likely to have immediate access to legal help. Consequently, you do not want to sabotage your case by giving a statement. If the premises’ owner requests a statement, decline politely.
It is important not to post any details of the event or injury on social media. You want to collect all details and keep them to yourself.
Also, be careful not to get provoked into anger by the premises’ owners or managers. Refuse to speak more than is necessary, and refrain from commenting on the injury.
Additionally, decline any offers for medical help from the premises. A good lawyer knows that you should also decline any compensation made to you without following a legal process.
That stated you could fill in an accident form if the premises provides one. You are not legally required to fill such a form unless you want to. If you chose to fill in the form, be sure to accurately describe how the slip and fall accident happened.
Do not lay any blame, however. Also, do not accept any blame. At this stage, the goal is to have the events captured accurately on record.
Get Qualified Accident Lawyers
Individuals who suffer a brain injury, soft tissue injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other injuries at a residential or business property have valid reasons for a claim.
The next step, therefore, is getting a slip fall law firm. It might look like slips, trips, and falls are simple civil suits; they are not. Slip and fall cases involving possible compensation are often bitterly contested by the defendants.
Where the defendant is a commercial property, you can be sure they will have top New York city defense firms on their team. Without a qualified and motivated team of accident attorneys who have handled other premises liability cases before arguing your case, you might not only leave with no compensation but also get countersued.
Navigating the Complex Slip and Fall Injuries’ Paperwork
The best law firms know how to navigate the confusing paperwork involved in slip and fall cases. The accident attorneys know the documents needed to support such a claim, the best courts to file slip and fall accidents’ claims, and how to cross-examine witnesses for the cases’ success.
Such attorneys have the experience to understand how the defense is likely to counter. An experienced New York lawyer will also know what is at stake for the defendant. Sometimes defendants are willing to wrap up a slip and fall case if it brings bad publicity, could affect their business negatively, or is costing them a significant amount in lawyer fees.
Additionally, the lawyers will know if the defendant has insurance for compensating slip and fall victims. The personal injury attorneys will also know what compensation amount is commensurate with the client’s injuries.
Keep Honoring Medical Appointments
After getting a lawyer, keep honoring your medical treatment appointments. The hospital or clinic records could be substantial when making your slip and fall damages compensation claims case.
The willingness to commit to the treatment schedules also shows that your injuries were significant enough to warrant a treatment schedule. Attending all treatment appointments could also help you get back to healthy shape fast so you can continue with your everyday activities even as the trial continues.
While the damages will disrupt your life, it should not upset you significantly enough to cause you to change your life significantly. However, with accidents that cause spinal cord injuries, for example, you might suffer a significant destabilization of your life.
RELATED: 6 Steps to Take After a Slip and Fall Accident and Speaking to a Lawyer
Why You Need a Slip and Fall Lawyer
Expertise and Experience
A lawyer will know the difference between a case that could get you fair compensation, and one where you are likely to not get compensated.
An experienced slip and fall lawyer in the city knows what kind of amounts are consistent with certain injuries. Having been in the business for a long time, an experienced law firm like Gregory Spektor & Associates will not only have attorneys who know the law relevant to slip and fall accidents and their intricacies but also New York settlement precedents.
The slip and fall attorney, therefore, can help you raise the compensation number.
Additionally, slip and fall attorneys know what the defendant stands to lose if the case goes to trial. For some commercial property owners, litigation could lead to negative PR thereby causing property losses that are significantly lower than the cost of settling up with you before the case goes to trial.
Similarly, injury attorneys experienced in slip, trip, and fall cases know when a defendant has nothing significant to lose and can litigate according to context for your best outcomes.
Legal Know-How
The Statute of Limitations
slips and fall attorneys like Gregory Spektor & Associates understand the state of limitations on your injuries. They can, therefore, organize the case such that the litigation happens within the state’s set limit.
The lawyers will also know under what categories of civil law the premises liability lawsuits can be prosecuted. Further, during the trial, the legal team will know what legal traps the defendant’s team set for you.
The experienced personal injury lawyer from a firm like Gregory Spektor & Associates will not only guide your responses during cross-examination but also cross-examine any defense witnesses in ways likely to benefit your case. An experienced slip and fall lawyer will also know how to legally convince a jury without getting their comments or questions struck down by the judge.
Comparative Negligence
You can be denied compensation, or receive a low amount after a slip and fall accident because of comparative negligence. The interpretation of negligence within premises liability law in New York is crucial.
Essentially, if clients are in any way partially responsible for the accident leading to an injury then New York City laws allow for some blame to be attributed to them. If you were in areas where you weren’t supposed to be, wore the wrong kind of shoes, ignored an obvious risk, or ignored a warning then you share the blame.
The property owners’ defense will do all they can to shift blame to the clients; you need experienced and smart attorneys to recognize when the defense starts to shift blame to their clients for the injury.
Remember, in many jury cases, the difference between a fitting compensation and little to no compensation for slip and fall accidents can come down to how arguments are worded and presented by the lawyer.
