They account for one million emergency room visits in the United States every year and are responsible for the most missed days of work and worker’s compensation claims, according to the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI). Additionally, slip and falls are the top occupational injury for workers over 55 years old.
At Friedman and Martin, Personal Injury Attorneys, we have helped clients for six decades get compensation for their slip and fall accidents. Falls can happen at work, in someone else’s home, in a store, in a parking lot, indoors and outdoors. In some instances, an inside fall may be caused by poor lighting, a wet floor, torn carpeting, poorly constructed staircases, changes in elevation or changes in flooring. Outdoors, wet surfaces, defective sidewalks, potholes and other hidden hazards can cause the fall.
Unfortunately, slip and fall accidents can cause bruises and lacerations, broken bones, sprained ankles or wrists, knee injuries, dislocated shoulder, concussions, spine and nerve damage, and even traumatic brain injury.
If your injury occurs on a property maintained by someone else, the property owner may be held legally responsible. If you are involved in a slip and fall and you suspect you are hurt on someone else’s property, immediately ask that someone in authority be made aware of the accident so an incident report can be documented. If they refuse to make an incident report, you can call the police to come to the scene and document the fall, and a police report will be made.
Of course getting the medical help you may need takes over precedence over anything else, but if you can, enlist the help of someone who can document the following:
• Where exactly did the fall take place?
• Can you determine the cause of the fall? Did it involve an obstruction or condition that caused the fall?
• What time of day did the slip and fall occur?
• What shoes and clothing were you wearing?
• Did anyone witness your fall? Did you get their name and contact information?
• Did the slip and fall take place on pavement or a wet or dry floor?
If possible go to the place where you fell, and take photos of the area you fell so that you can document this with photographs. You should also keep the shoes that you were wearing at the time of the fall. Also, there is very likely video evidence of your fall by the owner of the place where you fell, whether at a grocery store, shopping mall, retail store or big box store, or other location. You will need to hire us as soon as possible to pursue your case for you and send a letter for you to get the video of your fall. Don’t give a recorded statement to the adjuster calling your about your fall. The insurance company will likely try to use that against you at a later date. We will investigate the case for you and determine if you have a case.