A nasty fall can be a devastating life event. Suddenly, you may find yourself with mounting medical bills, physical rehabilitation, a great deal of pain and no ability to work to help you make ends meet. When a fall happens under certain circumstances, it may not be your fault --it may be the fault of the person who owns the property where you were hurt.
If the above scenario sounds like your situation, you might have a valid slip-and-fall case. Contact the Crestview personal injury attorneys at Powell, Powell & Powell to learn if we can help you recover damage for losses and expenses related to your injury.
What Happened During Your Fall?
A slip-and-fall case means you lost your balance or footing and fell, which resulted in an injury.
In some cases, there may have been something obstructing your path to cause you to trip, or you got stuck in or on something and fell. Other times, ice, water or other liquids, gels or cleaning products might have made the surface slippery, causing your fall.
Even something as simple as uneven ground can cause serious injuries. Gaps in floorboards or steps, uneven doorways, dips in the floor that should have been fixed or cordoned off for your safety and other types of oversights can hurt you when it’s not your fault.
Damages for Slip-and-Fall Cases
The reason these injuries may become legal claims is because your expenses can increase very quickly. Hospital or surgery costs may severely damage your family finances. We are able to help you bring a claim to recover damages for emergency care, medical expenses, prescriptions, medical devices, rehabilitation, in-home care, lost wages and property damage to your personal property.
The law in Florida supports the idea that the party responsible for your fall is the party who pays these expenses and losses.
Premises Liability
Slip-and-fall incidents generally lead to a special kind of personal injury case called a premises liability case. The person who is responsible for the premises — or place where you got hurt — is the person who is usually responsible for your injury.
At Powell, Powell & Powell, our job is to show that the property owner or business owner had a duty to care for your safety and they failed in that duty, causing your injury.
Determining who is responsible for the premises may vary from case to case. Please note: If you get hurt on the premises at work, you may not have a strict personal injury case. While we may have to fight on your behalf with insurers or your employer, these cases often start out as workers’ compensation cases.
If you are at a business, though, there may be several liable parties. We may seek damages from a franchise owner, the franchise itself, any other business owner, a property management company, the property owner and/or their insurance companies.
Contact our attorneys today to discover who might be responsible for damages related to your slip-and-fall accident.