How Would You Describe a Slip and Fall Accident?

As a type of personal injury practice, slip and fall accidents cover a wide variety of incidents in which a victim loses balance and falls to the floor or ground. Most slip and fall accidents involve a victim slipping on a slick surface, whether the surface is located on a floor indoors or the ground outside. Slip and fall accidents also include tripping over an object, such as bunched carpet and a loose electrical cord. Victims of slip and fall incidents sustain a wide range of injuries, from minor cuts and bruises to severe brain trauma and spinal cord damage.

Data gathered by the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) demonstrates the potential seriousness of the injuries caused by slipping and falling to the floor or ground. American healthcare facilities report an average of one million emergency room visits each year as a result of slip and fall accidents. Although slipping and falling typically impacts customers and visitors of an open-to-the-public venue, such as a business or government agency, this type of personal injury incident also negatively impacts workplaces where employees file workers’ compensation claims to receive compensation.

If you sustained one or more injuries as a result of a slip and fall incident, you should consider contacting an experienced personal injury attorney to determine the value of the compensation you should receive to treat your injuries, as well as cover the value of lost wages and property damage. You have the right to file an insurance claim to recover financial losses, as well as a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages against another party that committed one or more acts of negligence. An experienced personal injury lawyer gathers physical evidence, interviews witnesses, and files the proper paperwork before the deadline required by state law.

At Morgan and Morgan, our team of personal injury attorneys has spent more than three decades representing clients that required legal support to recover the financial losses generated by slip and fall accidents. We have recovered more than $14 billion in monetary damages for clients that filed civil lawsuits seeking compensation for the costs associated with personal injury cases. Slip and fall accidents constitute a substantial percentage of the compensation our clients have received for filing personal injury lawsuits.

Schedule a free case evaluation today with one of the highly-rated personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan to determine the most appropriate way to proceed with your case.

What Are the Most Common Reasons for Slip and Fall Accidents?

The free case evaluation scheduled with one of the personal injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan covers several topics. One of the most important topics concerns discovering the cause of your injuries. After revealing the reason or reasons why you slipped and fell, the Morgan and Morgan attorney assigned to your case then determines whether another party should assume legal liability for causing you harm.

Here are the four most common causes of slip and fall accidents in the United States.

Wet Floor

By far the most common cause of slip and fall accidents, wet floors develop for several reasons. Businesses and government structures open to the public owe customers and visitors a duty of care to prevent wet floors from developing. If a venue experiences an incident where a surface becomes slick for any reason, the management team responsible for running the venue must take action to eliminate the safety threat as quickly as possible.

Wet floors typically develop because of the accumulation of liquid such as water or a beverage. A venue also can experience a wet floor caused by another substance, such as the grease that accumulates inside a restaurant. The most effective strategy to reduce the safety hazard posed by a slick surface is to place a Wet Floor sign over a slick surface before acting with a sense of urgency to dry mop the area until it turns dry. A wet floor also can develop near the front entrance of a building where ice and snow have melted into a pool of water.

Electrical Cords

Venues run electrical cords across an area for several reasons, including powering a fan that air dries a wet floor. If not properly secured, an electrical cord presents a safety hazard that can lead to a dangerous trip and fall incident. Tripping and falling has the same negative impact as slip and fall accidents, with victims sustaining severe injuries such as brain trauma, spinal cord damage, and internal organ bruising.

The most effective way to reduce the safety hazard of an electrical cord is to secure it with industrial-strength tape or by placing red or yellow tape around the perimeter.

Loose Tile/Carpet

Another trip and fall hazard involves a victim tripping over bunched carpet or displaced flooring materials. Venues accessible to the public owe visitors a duty of care to replace defective flooring, such as tiles and floorboards. Failure to address defective flooring materials can result in the filing of a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages for committing an act of negligence. Proving negligence for a trip and fall incident caused by bunched carpeting is more difficult to do because it can be nearly impossible to discover a section of carpet that has turned into a safety hazard.

Other Factors

Lack of employee training can be the sole or contributing reason for slip and fall accidents. Employers and government agencies have access to a training guide published by the National Institute of Occupational Safety (NIOS) to train workers on how to prevent slip and fall accidents. Employees should receive comprehensive safety training during orientation, as well as through ongoing sessions conducted during their tenures with both public and private sector employers.

Insufficient lighting represents another factor that contributes to slip and fall accidents.

What Steps Should I Take After a Slip and Fall Incident?

How you handle the aftermath of a slip and fall incident determines the strength of an insurance claim and a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Although a slip and fall incident can generate a wide variety of negative emotions, you need to channel your focus on following a series of steps to build a strong enough case to receive just compensation for your injuries.

Get Medical Attention

At the heart of every insurance claim and personal injury lawsuit is a request to receive compensation to cover the costs associated with medical expenses. From diagnostic tests to physical therapy sessions, medical bills can quickly run into thousands of dollars. Without the proper copies of medical bills and records, you cannot expect to receive compensation for diagnosing, treating, and rehabilitating your injuries. This means your priority involves getting the medical attention you need to heal the injuries caused by a slip and fall incident.

Even if you feel healthy enough to remain at the scene of a slip and fall accident, you should eventually receive medical care to determine the extent of your injuries.

Inform Management

The most important reason to notify management about the injuries sustained from a slip and fall accident is to create an incident report. Your attorney reviews the incident report to determine the cause of your injuries, as well as whether a venue should assume legal liability for causing you harm. If you slipped and fell at a small venue like a convenience store, informing management should not be an issue. However, it can be difficult to notify management at a larger venue, which means you should find the nearest employee to help you notify management concerning a slip and fall incident.

An incident report should include the physical evidence gathered, as well as the statements submitted by witnesses.

Meet With a Morgan and Morgan Attorney

Hiring one of the accomplished personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan significantly improves your chances of receiving compensation for your injuries. A free case evaluation allows one of our lawyers to review the incident report to decide whether we need to conduct a separate investigation to collect more persuasive physical evidence. The most powerful piece of evidence for most slip and fall accidents is to recover the footage shot by a security camera at the time of an incident. Security camera footage can display the factors that contributed to a slip and fall, as well as demonstrate whether the venue should assume legal liability for committing one or more acts of negligence.

What Is the Deadline for Filing a Civil Lawsuit?

One of the most important types of legal support provided by a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan involves ensuring you file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Every state has established a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit. Most states have set the statute of limitations between two and four years, although a handful of states allow as long as six years and as short as one year for plaintiffs to take legal action. The clock typically starts ticking on the filing of a personal injury lawsuit on the day when the plaintiff slipped and fell. However, your personal injury lawyer from Morgan and Morgan might request an extension if you sustained an injury that developed delayed symptoms.

Although you should have more than enough time to file a personal injury lawsuit seeking monetary damages, you should act as quickly as possible for two important reasons. First, your personal injury attorney needs to interview witnesses as close to the date of the slip and fall accident as possible. Witness accounts usually are more accurate the closer they are given to the date of a personal injury incident. Second, since you are responsible for paying off all the expenses associated with your injuries, filing a civil lawsuit that seeks compensation can help you avoid falling into a deep financial hole.

If you do not file a personal injury lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations established by the state where you live, you can expect the court clerk processing your case to remove it from the judicial docket.

Receive Legal Support From a Morgan and Morgan Attorney

In addition to possessing the experience required to litigate slip and fall cases, the personal injury attorney assigned to your case specializes in representing clients that have sustained injuries caused by a slip and fall incident. Take action today by scheduling a free case evaluation with one of the state-licensed personal injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan.