The California Slip and Fall Guide was created by our attorneys to help residents obtain maximum compensation from the negligent party. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured, contact our office for a free consultation.
If you have been seriously injured in a slip and fall, you may be feeling embarrassed for falling, frustrated that you hurt yourself, and worried about how this is going to affect your life. We see these cases all the time and your injuries might have really thrown your life off course. We are here to help you get back on your feet.
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How an Attorney Can Help You
We are full-time injury attorneys dedicating our life to helping injured victims like yourself. We can set you up with excellent doctors who will help you make a full recovery if possible. You don’t have to worry about figuring anything out on your own.
When you first come in the office to meet with our Los Angeles slip and fall lawyer, Mindy Bish, you will feel supported in your journey to seeking full recovery. She will take over communication with the insurance company who will most likely be calling and looking for a statement. She will make sure they do not have the opportunity to ruin your claim by getting incriminating statements from you.
If you call right away after your accident, our lawyer will guide you through the necessary steps to make sure you are well informed and know what to do.
Steps After an Accident
Most of the time, after a slip and fall accident, you are going to be able to get up and walk away without needing an ambulance. If you do, however, because you have sustained and injury to your head or neck, please take that ride. Don’t worry about the cost, as we can include that in your full and fair compensation.
If you are able to, we highly suggest you collect as much evidence as possible. You can do this in a few ways. First would be to take pictures of what made you fall. What is a liquid on the floor? What is a tile jutting out of place? Having photographic evidence makes our job much easier when we tell the owner of the property that they were negligent and did not do what they needed to do to prevent this accident.
You should also document your injuries. If you have a visible injury, perhaps an obviously broken bone, try to capture that on camera. You can also document your injuries by getting to the doctor right away. This is a vital step in any injury case. The worst thing you could do for a slip and fall injury case is to not take care of your injuries. You might be really terribly hurt, and if you have a broken bone, waiting is not a good idea. They may have to reset the bone and your healing time will be much longer. That goes for any injury. The longer you wait for treatment, the worse you’re going to feel.
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Obstacles the Insurance Company Presents
Like mentioned before, not seeking a medical professional is going to be detrimental to your case. The insurance adjuster is not your friend and will find any possible reason to end your case. If you wait weeks to get your injury checked out, they will not let that slide. They will say that you were not truly hurt and that you don’t have a claim to compensation. To them that is evidence that you are fine. Even if you were writhing in pain for two weeks before you finally gave in to see a doctor, they will use that fact against you.
Fortunately, in California, it is much harder for the insurance companies to throw your claim out. We follow pure comparative negligence rules which means you can receive compensation for any percent of fault. You could be 90% at fault and still receive some compensation. In some states in this country, you will be barred from getting compensation if you were 50% at fault.
While it is good news to hear that you can receive compensation so long as you are not fully at fault for your accident, there is a downside with this. You are not going to be able to walk away with the full award if you are 90% at fault. The way pure comparative negligence works is that your award will be reduced by the percentage of fault you were at. If you were to be awarded $100,000 but you were 90% at fault, you are going to be able to get $10,000. The insurance company knows this and wants to make you as at fault as they can manage. We also know this and will fight them and their bullying tactics. You should not miss out on huge portions of what you deserve and we want to make sure of that.
Frequently Asked Slip and Fall Questions
How Do I Choose the Right Attorney?
When deciding who to select as a slip and fall attorney in California to represent you, it’s important to look at the experience of that attorney. We call it the experience factor. You’re looking for an experienced personal injury attorney who has taken cases similar to yours to trial. It is that trial lawyer, who is well-versed in that particular practice area, who will package your case best for potential settlement or trial in front of a jury of your peers.
What Mistakes Can I Avoid After a Slip and Fall?
Some of the common mistakes that are made by people who’ve been involved in slip and fall incidents and have been injured are as follows. One, they may not begin the paper trail or document that the incident ever occurred. That means that they may not tell the manager or the owner of an establishment, “I was injured on your property.” A second mistake, and also in the same vein as documentation, would be not taking photographs of the incident that caused your condition. A third would be not seeking out witnesses or people who have seen the incident. Additional mistakes have to do with not seeking immediate medical attention, not following doctors’ advice, speaking to insurance representatives before having consulted an attorney, and sometimes waiting too long in which to retain an experienced personal injury lawyer.
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Do I Have a Claim for a Faulty Handrail Injury?
The other day I spoke with a client and he was injured as a result of a faulty handrail on some steps at a mall. He was leaning on the handrail, and the handrail effectively gave way, causing him to sustain some pretty significant injuries. His first question was, “Do I have a claim?”
The answer, in light of the information that he provided to us was yes. A landowner has a duty to all people on their land to ensure that their premises are safe.
Do I Have a Claim for a Faulty Step Injury?
The answer is, if you feel or believe you have fallen as a result of defective stairs, it is important that you seek and retain an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible to find out. Additionally, it is important that you document or take photographs of the stairs upon which you fell as soon as possible.
There are a myriad of bases for liability for a landowner as a result of defective stairs. It may well be that the stairs were in disrepair. It may well be that the depth differential of the stairs are not up to the relevant building code. Again, it’s important that, if you feel you have sustained injury as a result of defective stairs, you retain an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible. That experienced injury attorney will have access to experts who can ascertain whether the staircases were indeed dangerous as a matter of law.
Does a Caution Sign Affect My Case?
We had a client come in who had slipped and fallen at a grocery store. He was concerned because, after he slipped and fell, he noticed that somewhat close to the location where he fell there was a sign. It was a “CAUTION: WET FLOOR” sign. His question was, “Does the presence of that sign close to the area where I fell mean that I don’t have a claim?” The answer to that question is, not necessarily. It’s important that the location of a sign indicating some sort of dangerous condition, be it a wet floor or something otherwise be visible and readily apparent. If it is not, your claim may very well survive.
Do I Have a Claim for a Slip and Fall on City Property?
I recently spoke with a client who was injured on a sidewalk. Her question was pointed and simple: “Who do I sue, and can I sue the city or the county?” The answer to that question is, more often than not, yes. It depends, of course, on who the owner of that land was and who was responsible for maintaining that sidewalk.
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Do I Have a Claim for a Slip and Fall on Residential Property?
It’s important when you slip and fall at a residence that you try to alert the landowner or whoever is occupying the residence that you were injured. Also, document the location that caused your injury. Next, get as much information as you can with respect to the actual land on which you were injured. You may not be able to get that information on your own, but if you seek an experienced injury attorney and you are armed with the address of the location of where you were injured, that attorney should be able to assist you in getting the ball rolling on your claim.
How Long Will My Case Take?
The answer to that is very nuanced and it depends, in large part, on one’s treatment and the nature and extent of one’s injuries. Once you have concluded your treatment and we have an idea of what we call the damages picture, then the resolution of the claim becomes that much more attainable. The short answer to the question is it depends. It depends on your injuries. It depends on how easy it is to prove that the incident occurred and that you were injured as a result of the incident. You can rest assured that, when you’ve retained our offices, we will expedite and move the claim forward as soon as possible.
How Long Do I Have to File a Claim?
The general answer is, you have two years from the date of the incident in which to bring your claim and initiate what we call litigation. If you should slip and fall on city property or on some sort of governmental entity grounds, the time limit in which to bring that claim is shortened to six months. It’s important, be it a six-month statute or a two-year statute, that you do not wait until the end to bring the claim and you seek the counsel of an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible.
How Much Will My Case Be Worth?
In determining the value of one’s case, there are several factors. They range from the nature of your physical, amount of medical damages, to your emotional damages and to how this injury impacted the nature and the quality of your life. Once you’ve undergone your medical treatment, and the nature of your injuries and damages are apparent and identifiable, the value of your case becomes more apparent.
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Call Our Office Today
Don’t allow the insurance company to hassle you out of getting the compensation that you deserve. Call our office today to meet our dedicated California slip and fall lawyer, Mindy Bish, and see how she can be a champion for your case. We want you to get full and fair compensation. Call us today!
