If you have sustained injuries in a slip and fall accident, you may have been left with serious and life-long injuries. Like many slip and fall accident victims, you may be struggling to keep up with your medical bills, missed time from work, and lingering discomfort. If this is the case for you, you could be entitled to compensation from those responsible for your accident. According to Florida’s premises liability laws, all property owners have a responsibility for keeping their property safe. If they fail to do so, and someone is injured in a slip and fall accident on their property, the injury victim can hold them accountable.
Even though slip and fall cases are relatively common, they can also be very complex. If you’ve been injured in an accident and are looking to file a claim, it is important that you speak to a lawyer who can assist you with your case. Our team of personal injury lawyers at The Law Place has many years of experience in helping slip and fall accident victims secure the compensation that they deserve. For more information about how we can help you, call us today for a free consultation. Our telephone number is (941) 444-4444 and our phone lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
How a Lawyer Can Help With Your Slip and Fall Case
If you have been injured due to an unsafe hazard on someone else’s property, our law firm can handle your personal injury claim from beginning to end. We will:
- Review your slip and fall case in a free consultation – We will not charge for your initial case review and will provide you with valuable information like what damages you can claim and what your legal options are.
- Begin an independent investigation into the incident – For a personal injury claim to be successful, it will need to be established that the property owner was negligent, and this will require evidence. A lawyer will collect this for you during their independent investigation.
- Identify all sources of compensation – Most accident victims don’t have a good idea of the amount of compensation they are entitled to, and insurance companies take advantage of this. A lawyer can identify all the types of damages that you are owed and work to ensure that you are compensated in full.
- Document the damages you suffered – Not only will you be required to prove someone else was negligent, but you will also need to provide evidence of all of your losses. An injury lawyer will collect all of the necessary medical evidence, pay stubs, travel expenses, and other evidence you may have that supports your slip and fall case.
- Consult with experts – Our law firm has its own network of experts that we work with on personal injury cases. This includes vocational experts, medical experts, and accident reconstruction experts. These professionals can be vital when it comes to substantiating your claim.
- Negotiate a settlement on your behalf – Insurance companies will avoid paying slip and fall accident victims what they are entitled to. An injury lawyer will aggressively negotiate with insurers and demand a fair settlement that reflects the full extent of your losses.
- Argue your case in court if necessary – If the property owner’s insurance company refuses to award you a fair settlement, we will take your case to trial to get the compensation you deserve.
These are just some of the ways our personal injury attorneys can support you with your slip and fall injury claim. Our team will take care of everything, leaving you free to focus on your recovery.
When You Can Sue for a Slip and Fall Injury
Of course, your slip and fall accident will need to meet certain criteria when it comes to filing a personal injury lawsuit. In the State of Florida, you will be required to prove three elements to successfully sue for a slip and fall injury:
1. You Were Owed a Duty of Care
You will need to prove that a duty of care was owed to you by the property owner. Were you invited onto the premises and legally allowed to be there? Or were you trespassing? If the property owner claims that you were a trespasser and your presence on the property was not foreseen, this can make things more complicated. However, if you had a legal right to be there, the property owner has a legal obligation to keep the premises safe and free from hazardous conditions that could result in your slip and fall accident.
2. The Owner Did Not Use Reasonable Care
You will also need to prove that the owner of the property did not use reasonable care in maintaining their property. This will involve establishing how long the dangerous condition existed and if the property owner knew about or should have known about it. You will also need to determine if the property owner had a sufficient amount of time to correct the hazardous condition. For example, if the hazard came about just minutes before your slip and fall accident occurred, they would not be expected to have prevented it.
3. This Negligence Caused Directly Caused Your Injury
You will also need to prove that your injuries were caused directly by the property owner’s negligence and the fact that the property was not properly maintained. A slip and fall lawyer would be able to use their evidence to establish this and ensure that the cause of your injuries is not questioned.
Damages in a Slip and Fall Accident
It is impossible to say how much your slip and fall claim is worth without looking at the facts of your individual case. However, we can give you an idea of the common types of damages that you can expect to claim. For example:
- Past and current medical bills.
- Future medical bills for ongoing treatment.
- Loss of income.
- Loss of future earning capacity.
- Property damage.
- Non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and mental anguish.
- Other expenses such as travel to and from any doctor’s appointments.
An experienced lawyer will be able to give you an idea of what your case is worth during a free consultation. Call us today to find out more.
Florida’s Comparative Negligence Law
Florida’s comparative negligence law as laid out in Florida Statute 768.81 could affect your slip and fall claim. According to this law, if you were partly liable for the accident, the insurance company and the courts can take this into consideration when determining your settlement amount. A percentage of fault may be assigned to you, and any compensation you are awarded could be reduced by that percentage. A lawyer can help you understand how this law could affect you and how they could reduce your total percentage of fault.
Call The Law Place Today
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, you need a lawyer. A slip and fall attorney can do things that you cannot do on your own. They can consult with expert witnesses, subpoena evidence, and accurately determine the full amount of damages you are entitled to.
A slip and fall lawyer from our law firm knows how to handle these types of claims and how to prove that the property owner was negligent. Contact The Law Place today to learn more about how we can help you.
Our telephone number is (941) 444-4444, and our phone lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.