Slip and fall accidents often result in serious injuries. When you fall, the body parts most likely to be injured include your head and back, and any damage to your brain or spinal cord could be life-changing. If you’re injured after slipping and falling, you should consult a slip and fall accident lawyer.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking the accident was your own fault. Property owners have a responsibility to keep their premises safe. When a wet floor or icy sidewalk leaves you injured, you need an experienced slip and fall lawyer fighting for justice.
Why You Should Consult a Lawyer After a Slip and Fall Accident
One of the biggest mistakes people make after slip and fall accidents is to assume their own clumsiness is to blame. Much of the time, this simply isn’t true. Assuming you are to blame for a slip and fall accident means you’re choosing to foot the bill that someone else is legally responsible for.
A common variant of a slip and fall accident is a trip and fall accident. In either case, a person slips or trips on something, falls, and suffers injuries as a result. These accidents are so common that an entire area of personal injury law is dedicated to helping injured people gain fair compensation after a slipping or tripping injury.
Understanding Slip and Fall Accidents
Property and business owners have a legal obligation to keep their premises reasonably safe. When a store, business, or other location has blatant safety hazards, the party responsible for maintaining the property can be held financially liable for the damage that comes out of an accident.
Some of the most common examples of safety hazards that lead to slip and fall accidents include:
- Wet or slippery floors
- Icy sidewalks or parking lots
- Uneven or cracked flooring
- Broken or uneven stairs
- Stairs with broken or missing railings
- Dim lighting
- Cluttered walking areas
When a safety risk causes an individual to slip or trip, a slip and fall lawyer can help build a case proving that if the space had been safely maintained, the accident wouldn’t have taken place.
How Can a Slip and Fall Lawyer Help Me?
It can be very difficult to recover any money at all, let alone the amount you deserve, if you don’t have a lawyer working on your claim. A slip and fall lawyer helps you by building a case to prove negligence and seeking maximum compensation.
The sooner you consult a lawyer, the greater the chance that you can build a strong case. If you postpone seeing a lawyer, you risk losing the evidence you need to recover compensation.
A successful slip and fall case depends on proving that the property owner acted negligently by failing to keep their property safe. To do this, a lawyer needs to document the state of the accident scene.
For example, suppose that you injured your back badly by falling down an unsafe staircase. The lawyer would need to collect photographs of the stairs. If you wait to contact a lawyer, you could give the negligent property owner time to cover their tracks by having the stairs repaired.
Much of the time, successfully recovering compensation in a slip and fall accident depends on having a quick response. The sooner you act, the sooner your lawyer can start gathering strong evidence.
Can a Slip and Fall Lawyer Increase My Case Value?
One of the biggest reasons you should always consult a slip and fall lawyer is that a lawyer will know how to calculate your case value accurately. Your slip and fall accident case value depends on providing proof of the accident’s impact. A lawyer will review your situation and identify areas in which you can claim damages.
Some of the most common areas in which a slip and fall lawyer could ask for compensation include:
- Medical bills
- Ambulance bills
- Assistive devices
- Therapy bills
- Lost wages and benefits
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional anguish
- Diminished quality of life
Navigating a slip and fall accident claim without a lawyer is already a complicated process. Without legal expertise, it’s hard to know how much your case should be worth and even harder to get an insurance company to pay what you owe.
As a result, if you manage to recover any compensation at all, it could be far lower than the amount a slip and fall lawyer would fight for.
What Is the Process for Recovering Slip and Fall Compensation?
If you’ve been involved in a slip and fall accident, it’s a good idea to contact a lawyer right away. During your initial consultation, the lawyer will explain your options and identify a likely case value. If you decide to move forward with the claim, your slip and fall lawyer will immediately begin an investigation to collect evidence.
Once you hire a lawyer to take on your case, there isn’t much that you need to do. Your lawyer will collect documentation, like your medical reports and photos of the scene. They may also work to collect additional evidence, like accident reports, eyewitness testimony, and security camera footage.
Your slip and fall lawyer will use what they’ve collected to build a case showing that the property owner’s negligence was the reason for your accident. At the same time, they’ll also itemize your losses and expenses as proof of the compensation you should be paid.
Once your slip and fall lawyer has finished preparing the evidence they need, they’ll submit a claim with the property owner’s insurance company. Your lawyer will go through negotiations with the insurance company until they arrive at a settlement amount that both sides agree to.
Once in a while, an insurance company refuses to come to a fair settlement. If this happens, your lawyer might advise taking your case to court for a verdict. However, this only happens in a small percentage of cases. The vast majority of slip and fall accident claims are successfully resolved during the negotiation stage.
Don’t Wait to Consult a Columbus Slip and Fall Lawyer
Schiff & Associates has been serving clients in Columbus for over 40 years, and our track record speaks for itself. Our experienced attorneys know what it takes to recover fair compensation for slip and fall injuries. We offer free consultations and contingency arrangements, so you don’t have to pay unless we win your case.
Contact Schiff & Associates today and learn what you stand to gain by speaking with an experienced Columbus slip and fall lawyer.