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When a property owner’s failure to maintain safe premises harms another person, the owner is liable for any financial damages due to a serious fall.
Sometimes injured people prefer to handle fall claims themselves, erroneously believing their claim is straightforward and the insurance company will deal with them fairly. It rarely works out that way. People who work with an experienced personal injury attorney typically receive larger settlements with far less hassle.
If you suffer injuries in a preventable fall, you could recoup the losses for your medical costs, lost time at work, incidental expenses, inconvenience, physical pain, and emotional suffering. An East Brunswick slip, trip, and fall lawyer could use their legal experience to demand compensation for all your damages and force the owner’s insurance company to give your claim the respect it deserves.
The owner of a business or any property open to the public must inspect the premises regularly to find conditions that could be unsafe. If they discover a hazard, they must repair it as soon as they can and prevent customers and others from encountering it. The owner is liable for damages if someone sips or trips and falls due to the owner’s lack of reasonable care.
A private property owner has less responsibility to their guests than a commercial owner does. A homeowner must warn guests of dangerous conditions they know of, which the guest is unlikely to observe or notice. The homeowner is liable if a guest suffers an injury because of a failure to warn of a hidden hazard.
An East Brunswick attorney representing someone who suffered injuries in a slip, trip, or fall on another party’s property could investigate the circumstances. If the owner failed to meet their duty toward the injured person, the lawyer could initiate a civil lawsuit.
The stereotypical slip-and-fall accident occurs when someone loses their footing because of a wet floor. Owners are liable if they do not warn visitors of the wet floor and mop it dry within a reasonable time. However, numerous other conditions could lead to a slip and fall accident:
Falls could also occur when elevator doors open when the carriage is not level with the floor, at the entrances and exits of escalators and moving sidewalks, and in revolving doors.
Someone who falls in a commercial or public space should seek immediate medical attention and take an ambulance to the hospital if the property manager offers one. A person who delays in seeing a doctor or drives themselves to seek medical attention weakens an eventual claim. An East Brunswick slip, trip, and fall attorney could build a case using an ambulance attendant’s notes, and emergency room or urgent care center records generated immediately after an incident.
When a fall in a commercial space causes an injury, the insurer for the property owner often approaches the injured person soon after the event. They might seek a recorded statement or even offer a cash settlement in return for surrendering the right to sue. An injured person should avoid these contacts if possible, and should not record a statement or sign anything before speaking to legal counsel.
Insurers want to speak with accident victims to collect evidence the injured person is responsible for the accident. New Jersey Statutes Annotated § 2A:15-5.1 reduces the damages an injured person could collect by a percentage equal to their degree of fault. If an insurer could prove an injured person’s conduct was the primary cause of an accident, they could reduce their liability to zero.
The best strategy is to contact a lawyer after a slip, trip, or fall so they could act as a liaison between the defendant and the plaintiff.
If a fall in a public or private space caused an injury that required medical treatment, led you to miss work or school, or prevented you from engaging in your usual activities, you might have a claim against the property owner for damages. Do not allow an aggressive insurance company representative to discourage you from asserting a claim.
An East Brunswick slip, trip, and fall lawyer could hold the negligent owner accountable for the harm you suffered. Discuss your situation with our team.