Were you injured in a slip or fall and have questions about our 3 slip and fall tips? Read this article and then call our Tampa lawyers today.
Medical Payment Coverage
Oftentimes individuals that are injured in commercial establishments will have a very difficult time proving that their fall was the result of the carelessness or negligence or a dangerous condition on the property, and yet they have in some cases substantial medical bills. Oftentimes commercial businesses and buildings will have what’s called medical payments coverage which will provide benefits, insurance coverage that will pay for your treatment for a specific period of time and up to a certain limit regardless of whether you can prove any responsibility on the part of that business. Oftentimes, there is insurance that will cover your medical bills up to a certain amount and for a certain time after an injury or in commercial building.
Injury on an Unsafe Sidewalk
If you get injured on a sidewalk, in most residential areas that I can think of in our local area, those sidewalks are appurtenant to or adjacent to or next to the landowner’s property, so they’re probably owned by the county or municipality. If there’s a dangerous condition that’s not open and obvious, you may have a claim against the municipality or the county. Those two entities are governmental entities, so they’re considered sovereigns, which means that there are limitations on your recoverable damages, $200,000 per individual, $300,000 for you and your spouse, and there are certain requirements that you have to give notice to the governmental entity before filing suit.
What Should Be Your First Steps After Injury
Slip and fall accidents are one of the more difficult claims that an attorney can prosecute. The reason is that in effect you are saying that there was a dangerous condition that would or should’ve been obvious to the landowner that should’ve been corrected that caused a slip and fall and an injury. Unfortunately, the comeback to that point of view is if the defect or the problem was so obvious and so visible, why didn’t the person that was injured see it and avoid it?
If you are involved in a slip and fall accident, there’s several things that you need to do that are very important. The first thing you should do is ascertain on what you slipped and fell. Was it water? Was it coffee? What was the substance that you fell on? Was it a vegetable or a fruit in a supermarket perhaps? You want to discern on what you slipped and fell. Many times we’ll handle slip and fall cases where the client’s asked, “What did you slip and fall on?” “I don’t know.” “Was there any wetness on your clothes?” “I don’t remember.” “What kind of shoes were you wearing?” “I don’t remember,” or “I do remember, and I’ve worn them for the past year, and they’re totally worn out, and I’m about to throw them out.”
If you’re involved in a slip and fall accident, you want to first, if possible, take photographs of the scene of the accident, and that can be done on your cellphone. We all have cellphones nowadays. You want to find out if there are any witnesses, and if there are, you want to get their names, addresses, and phone numbers. You want to give notice to the store or the property on which you fell. If there is a report that’s done, you want to get a copy of the report. Lastly and probably most importantly, you want to contact an attorney early on because he may need to get an expert involved to look at the information, to look at the property. There may be code violations. There may be, for example, faulty handrails. The steps may be unequal. They can be too small or too large according to applicable codes.
Have you been injured in a serious slip and fall accident? Check out these 3 slip and fall tips, then contact our experienced Tampa Personal Injury Attorneys, we will fight for you and your family.
