Legal Steps to Take After a Serious Slip and Fall Accident

Slip and fall accidents can happen in an instant but have long-lasting consequences. Whether you’ve suffered injuries from a wet floor in a grocery store, an icy sidewalk, or a poorly maintained staircase, knowing what steps to take can make all the difference in your recovery—both physically and financially. 

At Morgan & Morgan, we understand the complexities of slip and fall cases and are here to guide you through the process of seeking justice and compensation.

At Morgan & Morgan, we have helped clients receive just compensation regarding personal injury cases for more than 35 years. Since we opened our first office in 1988, Morgan & Morgan has recovered more than $23 billion in compensation for our clients. A significant percentage of the compensation is the result of negotiated settlements and favorable legal judgments that have come from slip and fall cases.

If a slip and fall incident has caused you harm, schedule a free case evaluation today with a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan. 

Step 1: Prioritize Your Health and Safety

Your health should always be your top priority. After a slip and fall accident, immediately assess your condition and seek medical attention if needed. Even if you don’t feel injured right away, some injuries, like concussions or internal damage, may not be immediately apparent. If your injuries are severe, call 911 or have someone else do it for you.

Even if your injuries seem minor, it’s crucial to get a medical evaluation. Medical records will serve as important evidence if you decide to pursue a legal claim. Plus, adhering to your doctor’s recommendations not only helps your recovery but also strengthens your case by demonstrating that you took your injuries seriously.

Step 2: Document the Scene of the Accident

Preserving evidence is critical in slip and fall cases. The more information you can gather immediately after the accident, the stronger your case will be.

• Take Photos and Videos: Capture the scene of the accident, including any hazards that contributed to your fall, such as wet floors, uneven surfaces, or poor lighting. Be sure to include multiple angles.
• Note the Date and Time: Record the exact date and time of the accident, as this can help establish conditions like lighting or weather.
• Identify Witnesses: If anyone saw your accident, get their contact information. Witness testimonies can be invaluable in proving liability.
• Preserve Your Clothing and Shoes: The condition of your clothing and footwear may serve as evidence, especially if they were damaged during the fall.

Step 3: Report the Incident

After documenting the scene, it’s important to report the incident to the appropriate parties.

• Inform the Property Owner or Manager: Notify the property owner, store manager, or supervisor immediately. Ask them to create an incident report and request a copy for your records.
• Contact the Police (if necessary): In some cases, especially if there is a dispute or significant injuries, filing a police report may be beneficial.
• Follow Up: Ensure the property owner or manager takes your report seriously. A written incident report can be critical evidence in your case.

Step 4: Avoid Discussing the Incident

While it’s important to report the accident, avoid discussing details with anyone other than your attorney.

• Do Not Apologize or Admit Fault: Anything you say can be used against you, so it’s best to stick to the facts without offering opinions or admissions.
• Limit Social Media Activity: Avoid posting about the accident or your injuries on social media. Insurance companies often monitor claimants’ online activity to find evidence that could undermine their cases.

Step 5: Contact Morgan & Morgan

Slip and fall cases can be complex, requiring a thorough understanding of premises liability laws. Hiring an experienced attorney at Morgan & Morgan can greatly improve your chances of obtaining fair compensation.

An attorney can investigate your case, gather evidence, and negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf.

At Morgan & Morgan, we offer free, no-obligation case evaluations to discuss your case and explain your legal options. 

Step 6: Determine Liability

Slip and fall claims fall under the broader category of premises liability. To win your case, you’ll need to prove that the property owner or occupier was negligent in maintaining their premises.

• Duty of Care: Property owners have a legal obligation to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition for visitors.
• Breach of Duty: You must demonstrate that the property owner failed to address a hazardous condition or provide adequate warnings.
• Causation: It’s essential to show that the property owner’s negligence directly caused your injuries.
• Damages: Finally, you’ll need to provide evidence of your injuries and the financial losses you’ve incurred as a result.

Step 7: Gather Additional Evidence

Beyond initial documentation, ongoing evidence collection is critical for building a strong case.

• Obtain Surveillance Footage: If your accident occurred in a location with security cameras, request the footage as soon as possible. Many businesses overwrite footage after a short period.
• Collect Maintenance Records: Maintenance logs can reveal whether the property owner was aware of the hazardous condition and failed to address it.
• Document Your Injuries: Keep a journal detailing your recovery process, including pain levels, medical appointments, and how the injuries have impacted your daily life.

Step 8: File an Insurance Claim

Many slip and fall cases involve filing a claim with the property owner’s insurance company. This process requires careful preparation and negotiation.

• Notify the Insurance Company: Inform the insurer of your intent to file a claim, but avoid giving a recorded statement without your attorney’s guidance.
• Submit Evidence: Provide supporting documentation, including medical records, photos of the scene, and witness statements.
• Negotiate a Settlement: Insurance companies often attempt to minimize payouts. Your attorney will negotiate on your behalf to secure a fair settlement.

Step 9: Consider Filing a Lawsuit

If negotiations with the insurance company fail, filing a lawsuit may be necessary to obtain the compensation you deserve.

• Statute of Limitations: Be aware of the time limits for filing a lawsuit in your state. In most states, the statute of limitations for personal injury cases is two years, but this can vary.
• Legal Process: Your attorney will handle the complexities of the legal process, including filing the complaint, conducting discovery, and representing you in court if needed.
• Settlement vs. Trial: Many slip and fall cases are resolved through settlements, but your attorney will be prepared to take your case to trial if necessary.

Step 10: Calculate Your Damages

Understanding the full extent of your damages is crucial for determining the value of your case.

• Medical Expenses: Include current and future medical costs, such as surgeries, physical therapy, and prescription medications.
• Lost Wages: If your injuries prevent you from working, calculate lost income and diminished earning capacity.
• Pain and Suffering: Compensation for emotional distress and reduced quality of life is also considered.
• Punitive Damages: In cases of extreme negligence, punitive damages may be awarded to punish the property owner and deter similar behavior.

Step 11: Prepare for Possible Defenses

Property owners and their insurers often use common defenses to avoid liability in slip and fall cases. Being prepared for these arguments can strengthen your case.

• Comparative Negligence: The defense may argue that you were partially responsible for your fall, such as by not paying attention to warning signs.
• Open and Obvious Hazards: Property owners may claim that the hazard was so obvious that you should have avoided it.
• Trespassing: If you were on the property without permission, the owner’s duty of care may be reduced or eliminated.

An experienced attorney at Morgan & Morgan knows and recognizes the common tricks and tactics the defense will use and can help to fight through these obstacles to secure the compensation you need and deserve.

Step 12: Stay Patient and Persistent

Slip and fall cases can take time to resolve. While it may be tempting to accept a quick settlement, doing so can result in less compensation than you deserve.

• Trust the Process: Your attorney will guide you through each step, ensuring your rights are protected.
• Avoid Pressure to Settle: Insurance companies often pressure claimants to settle quickly for a low amount. Patience can lead to a better outcome.

A serious slip and fall accident can be life-altering, but you don’t have to face the aftermath alone. By taking the right legal steps and working with an experienced attorney, you can hold negligent property owners accountable and secure the compensation you need to move forward.

At Morgan & Morgan, we’ve helped countless clients recover from slip and fall accidents, and we’re ready to do the same for you. Contact us today for a free case evaluation, and let us fight for you—because we believe in justice For the People.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most common types of slip and fall injuries?

When you meet with a Morgan and Morgan attorney for a free case evaluation, one of the first items on the agenda concerns what caused your slip and fall injury. Once your lawyer discovers the cause of your injury, the next step involves determining whether another party committed one or more acts of negligence.

With more than three decades of experience handling personal injury cases, Morgan and Morgan presents a list of the most common types of slip and fall injuries.

Bone Fracture

When we begin to slip, our first reaction is to find a way to break the momentum of the ensuing fall. This typically involves bracing for a fall by using one or both arms as support. Although bracing yourself for a slip and fall can prevent you from sustaining the most serious types of injuries, you leave one or both wrists and/or arms highly vulnerable to sustaining a fracture. The seriousness of a fracture depends on the height of the fall, as well as which part of the body absorbed the strongest impact.

Spinal Cord Damage

For many slip and fall incidents, victims do not have enough time to brace for the impact of a fall. The result can be landing on an unprotected part of the body, where a serious injury can develop. One of the results of failing to brace for impact forces a victim to land seat-first on the floor or ground. When this happens, the spinal column absorbs most of the substantial impact, which can produce one or more herniated discs or another type of spine injury. Spinal column injuries can generate some type of paralysis that requires months—if not years—of intense rehabilitation.

Brain Trauma

The worst-case scenario for not being able to brace yourself for a slip and fall impact concerns a sharp blow to the head. Whether your head hits a stationary object on the way down to the floor or ground, or your head directly hits and floor or ground, a strong blow to the head can cause a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Even a minor impact on the head can produce concussion symptoms that take a considerable amount of time to dissipate. Sustaining a strong impact on the head as the result of a slip and fall might require emergency medical care.

Knee/Ankle Damage

Slipping and falling can cause part of the body to contort into unnatural positions, which leads to the development of injuries. When you begin to slip, the knees and ankles twist and turn to place considerable pressure on tendons, muscles, cartilage, and ligaments. The result can be serious tears that severely damage one or both knees and/or ankles. Knee and ankle damage can make it impossible for someone who works a physically demanding job to resume work right after a slip and fall incident.

Dislocated Shoulder

Another outcome of failing to brace yourself for a slip and fall is falling directly on a shoulder. If you land on the shoulder in the right position, you might sustain a highly painful dislocated shoulder. Unlike movie portrayals of heroes popping their shoulder joints back into place after sustaining a dislocated shoulder, if you sustain a dislocated shoulder as the result of a slip and fall, you can expect to undergo intensive medical care and a prolonged series of physical therapy sessions.

Severe Cuts and Lacerations

You might think that if you walk away from a slip and fall incident with just a few cuts you have gotten off easy. However, a slip and fall incident can produce severe cuts and lacerations, especially if you land on broken glass or another type of material that easily rips apart human skin. The two biggest concerns with serious cuts and lacerations regards excessive bleeding and the development of an infection. You must disinfect any open wounds and then have them stitched as soon as possible after a slip and fall incident.

Where do slip and fall incidents occur most often?

You can slip and fall just about anywhere, and that includes slipping and falling while on another party’s private property. If you slipped and fell while on another party’s property, a premises liability lawyer from Morgan and Morgan handles your case. For slip and fall cases that unfold at a public venue, a slip and fall attorney determines whether you should receive compensation for the financial losses associated with an injury.

Convenience Stores

Convenience stores have all the ingredients required for slip and fall incidents to occur. First, you have customers in a hurry, moving quickly throughout the store to buy what they need. Second, a vast majority of convenience stores operate a large beverage station that sits in the middle of the venue. Beverage stations are magnets for slip and fall incidents because of the amount and frequency of spilled beverages on the floor. Convenience store employees owe each customer and visitor a duty of care to prevent slip and fall incidents by taking steps such as placing Wet Floor signs over slick surfaces.

Grocery Stores

Grocery stores present many of the same hazards faced by convenience store employees. However, the much larger space of a grocery store makes it more difficult to respond to slick surfaces in a timely manner. Grocery stores also present many more opportunities for slick floor surfaces to develop. For example, a grocery store might experience several slick surface calls at the same time, which places a considerable strain on the employees responsible for responding to calls.

Restaurants

A slip and fall incident is waiting to happen just about anywhere inside a restaurant. Let’s start in the kitchen, where grease from the fry station ends up on the bottom of the shoes of one or more employees. Not only does the kitchen floor become extremely slick, but the dining room floor also can pose a significant danger because of the grease tracked in by employees. Other areas of a restaurant where slip and fall incidents frequently happen include both bathrooms and areas near ice bins.

Do I need an attorney to file a claim?

No. You are not legally required to work with a personal injury attorney to file a personal injury claim. However, the requirements of a personal injury claim are numerous and complex. Hiring a Morgan & Morgan litigator may give you the best chance of recovering the money you need to get your life back on track.

To learn more with no obligation, get a free case evaluation today in minutes.