Slip and falls fall into premises liability cases because the party at fault that owns the establishment must be held responsible. This means that the person responsible of the establishment will be held liable for any damages if proven that he had previously known about the dangerous condition prior to the accident happening.
Slip and falls are personal injury accidents that are infamous for their degree of surprise and lack of expectancy. In other words, an individual can suffer a very unsuspecting impact on the floor. The aftermath of these accidents will unfortunately leave you with an immense amount of physical and emotional trauma.
Having said that, you will also, unfortunately, endure financial burdens such as medical bills and out-of-pocket costs that will arrive as you begin your recovery process. Due to these issues, it is more than normal to feel overwhelmed and even hopeless.
However, we are here to inform you that there is an effective way to deal with these issues while also receiving rightful compensation for your injuries. To achieve this, you will need to seek the assistance of a slip and fall accident lawyer.
He or she will guide you through your legal battles and will vehemently fight to protect your rights. Join us throughout this account so that you can learn more about the legal standards of slip and falls, and why it is crucial to hire an attorney when dealing with them.
Legal Standard of a Trip and Fall in Florida
As we mentioned before, these types of personal injury accidents are deemed to be incidents caused by negligence. This is an incident that reflects a lack of responsibility and breach of duty from the owner of private property, place of business, or public establishment to all who were present. Be advised that liability can also be placed on the owner of a private residence. Just because it is not public property does not mean that it cannot be held responsible.
If the person who is injured happens to be an intruder, the owner will not be held liable. However, this does not allow anyone to intentionally place hazards as a form of “protection” from uninvited people.
Proving Culpability from Slip and Fall Injury in Florida
The most important task at hand when being a victim of slip and fall is to prove that your accident was caused by any of the hazardous conditions named in the sections above. Further details needed to prove fault are the following:
- The owner legitimately created or enabled the hazardous condition,
- The property owner knew that the dangerous condition already existed for an extended period of time but yet still chose to not fix the issue knowing that it would eventually cause harm to others.
Commercial Versus Residential Areas and Their Legal Implications
Be advised that slip and fall accidents have different consequences depending on the severity of the injuries and the property on which they happen.
Commercial liability will follow if the owner or any employee of a store or restaurant committed the following acts of negligence:
- Precipitated by a spill or any other slippery or dangerous surface or item to be available and possible to affect any unexpecting customers,
- Knew about an already present dangerous surface and chose to not do anything about it,
- Should have known that the hazardous condition on the surface of the establishment would have posed a threat. In comparison, a more responsible proprietor would have taken the time to inspect the property and remove debris or repair damages.
Residential liability will be initiated if landlords or homeowners allow for the following acts of negligence to take place at the time of the accident:
- The landlord or homeowner did, in fact, have the power and ability to fix the conditions that caused the slip and fall of the victim.
- Failing to immediately repair the dangerous condition, especially if it would have been not expensive to do so.
- Poor decision making by neglecting the ongoing hazard.
The Value of Your Injuries and Qualification for Compensation
Your injury attorney will be able to add monetary value to your injuries via your deserved compensation. That is why we say that your injuries will not go in vain. Let’s review the qualifications:
The amount of financial trouble caused by your accident: This would include medical bills such as hospital visits, treatment, physical therapy, recovery, and mental health therapy.
Loss of wages and income due to injury: A fair compensation will amend the difficulties caused by a loss of income and inability to work.
Compensation for disability: Instances when your injuries resulted in permanent disabilities impeding you from doing even the simplest of tasks. Such things include taking care of yourself, working, and communicating.
Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering: These include mental trauma and the inability to have peace of mind due to the accident.
Legal Representation Achieves Eventual Compensation!
Your slip and fall attorney will deliver you the compensation you deserve on the basis of a couple of factors:
- An attorney will be able to prove liability: In the initial stages of your claim, your lawyer will effectively provide evidence such as eyewitness accounts, photographs, and physical evidence of your injuries pertaining to the accident scene. By doing so, they will create a strong argument that portrays your injuries and highlights the owner’s negligence.
- Add value to your claim: All injury lawyers possess effective strategies that will analyze the characteristics of both your physical and emotional injuries. This means that your interests and needs will be taken care of because their representation will be given within your claim. Your injuries will thus form part of the future monetary settlement.
- Aid you from the insurance companies: Remember that insurance companies are businesses driven to protect their own interests, not yours. This is even more unfortunate when your own insurance tries to lessen your coverage. Fortunately, your attorney will have vast experience in dealing with cases identical to yours. They will know how to deal with their undermining strategies to ensure that your rights are protected. Whether these are coming from your own insurance or the party at-fault’s.
- Will represent you in court if need be: If your case goes to trial, your attorney will know exactly how to present your case to the jury with factual evidence. Oftentimes, if your lawyer threatens litigation before a hearing, the insurance companies will opt to treat you more respectfully. This with the purpose of avoiding going to court because juries and judges tend to rule in favor of the plaintiff.
We are now quite confident that you are better educated on slip and fall accident injury law. Furthermore, we hope that you remember that the only way to correctly deal with this issue and receiving the compensation you deserve is by acquiring the services of a slip and fall accident attorney. Having said that, we are pleased to inform you about the services of the Law Offices of Scott J. Senft.
You see, Scott and his team are a set of trained legal professionals that will work day in and day out to ensure that your rights are protected at all times. Scott is truly empathetic to your own specific situation, one has total urgency and is in need of expediency. With locations in Dania Beach, Scott J. Senft is ready to represent you in your slip and fall case. Stop hesitating and call him right now!
