What Kinds of Damages Can You Claim if You’ve Suffered in a Slip and Fall Incident?

Slip and fall incidents occur quite often. Many people have to deal with an accident like this at least once in their lifetimes. Sometimes the whole process is smooth and trouble-free. But in other cases, you have to fight hard to get the compensation you deserve. This is especially true in cases where you’re dealing with someone who’s actively trying to evade their responsibilities. If the incident is not your fault, it’s important to pursue the situation through the appropriate legal channels. This is the only way to ensure that you will be appropriately compensated.

Assessing Your Slip and Fall Accident

The first thing you should do after the accident is to assess the situation. These are some of the questions you should be asking straight away:

• Were you seriously hurt?
• Do you need immediate medical attention?
• Were there any potential witnesses?
• Can you point out regulations or safety guidelines that were clearly not followed?

All of this needs to be noted down immediately. You might not be in the best condition to do that right after the incident. But as soon as you’ve recovered, you need to initiate that process. The more you wait, the less reliable your information is going to be. Anything that wasn’t recorded immediately cannot be trusted as evidence later on. It’s often difficult to deal with something like this immediately after getting hurt. But it’s important to concentrate and get this done. This is the best way to prepare yourself for the upcoming lawsuit.

Don’t refuse any help from the person responsible for the incident, if they offer it. Some people wrongly assume that this will weaken their cases in court. Helping you is a completely separate fact from causing the incident in the first place. However, do not accept any offers of cash compensation on the spot. Until you’ve gone over your incident with a lawyer, you don’t know what its true scale and implications are.

Determining the Damages You’re Eligible for

You should always make a claim for all damages you’ve suffered in the incident. Sometimes you might be eligible for more than you expect. This is important, because that money could go a long way towards your recovery. There are some basic expenses that you can claim in most cases. Those include your hospital bills and general medical expenses, your medication, and any ongoing treatment or therapy costs. These damages are typically not difficult to prove and are granted easily with the help of a competent attorney.

There is more than that though. There are various kinds of additional costs you might incur after an incident that resulted in your injury. It’s important to be aware of those too. Some of the additional damages you can claim may include:

• Trauma, including emotional
• Nursing care
• Transport costs
• Loss of your own income
• Loss of income for family members who have to take care of you
• Costs for remodeling the home (e.g. if you need accessibility features)

If you’re not sure what kinds of damages you might qualify for, just get in touch with us. We will guide you through the process and will explain every step to you. Our firm has extensive experience in personal injury cases, and we have dealt with various difficult situations.

Potential Traps to Watch Out for

The biggest mistake you could make in an event like this is to forego legal assistance. You can’t navigate a complex legal case like this on your own. Even if it seems obvious that you were not at fault, proving it in court may not be that straightforward. And considering you only get one chance to fight for your compensation, you must use all resources you have.

You should also do your best to limit your contact with the person you’re suing for damages. Sometimes they might try to trick you into signing paperwork that prevents you from suing them. In other cases, they might offer “compensation” to prevent you from claiming anything else in court. Accepting any money from the other person can jeopardize your case, and you should never do it.

Delaying the lawsuit too much is another common problem. In the initial period after your injury, you may want to focus on your recovery. But you must not delay the legal proceedings any longer than that. As soon as you’re in a condition to initiate the process, you must do it. Otherwise, you may miss a critical court deadline. Or, you may run into other timing-related issues. For example, the testimony of your witnesses may become inadmissible if it’s been too long. Your attorney will advise you on the best course of action, and it’s important to follow their lead on this. It may take a while before you receive your compensation. But in the end, the battle will be worth fighting.