According to CDC research, slip and fall accidents make up 1 million hospital emergency room visits. This is 12% of all kinds of falls.
However, if you were in one of the slip-and-fall accidents, you may want to consider filing a slip-and-fall lawsuit.
Keep reading to discover the common causes of slips and falls and whether or not you should hire a lawyer to pursue your case.
Common Causes
There are many common causes of slip and fall accidents, but most of them are due to different conditions that are dangerous or hazardous.
Some of the bad conditions that can cause it include uneven floorboards, wet surfaces, loose floorboards, broken or missing steps, bad lighting, staircases that don’t have handrails, broken sidewalks, cluttered floors, or a buildup of snow or ice on walkways.
Who’s Responsible?
When you are considering pursuing a slip-and-fall settlement, you’ll need to determine who’s responsible. Defendants will normally pursue property owners, employees, or management companies.
However, if an accident happens on public property, then the city or the Metropolitan Authority could be held responsible. A slip-and-fall attorney can help you determine who should be held liable so that you can build the strongest possible game.
Should You File a Claim?
Once you’ve determined who is liable, you’ll need to determine if it’s worth it to file a claim. For the owner of the property to be liable, they had to have created an unsafe condition that would cause someone to fall.
Just tripping or stumbling on someone else’s property isn’t enough to sue them. They would need to have one of the unsafe conditions that we mentioned above. And if they didn’t create it, they had to have allowed it to stay that way and not make it safe for others.
For example, if there is a snowstorm on someone’s property in Memphis, they should clear the ice and snow away to the best of their ability. If they don’t, then someone could slip and fall, and they might be held liable.
If they know that some of the conditions are dangerous but don’t have time or money to fix them yet, then they need to warn other people of the dangerous conditions.
Slip and Fall Compensation
Each case is different, but you could get compensation for things like all of your medical expenses due to the fall.
If you were injured and couldn’t work, then you could also get back any lost income or wages. If you had any out-of-pocket expenses, they should cover those as well.
If there was a loss of life quality, then a lawyer will help estimate that and include it in the case too.
Discover More About Slip and Fall Accidents
These are only a few things to know about slip and fall accidents, but there are many other things you’ll need to know before you can win your case.
Thankfully, if you hire the right lawyer, they will handle all of that for you so you don’t have to worry about it.
If you need a good lawyer who can pursue your case in Memphis, check out our website!