What Happens When You Slip on a Wet Floor?

It can happen just about anywhere.

You can slip on a wet floor while topping off a soda at a local grocery store. Restaurant customers are vulnerable to slipping on a wet floor, as are workers that work in both the back and front of the house. Slips occur frequently at shopping malls, as well as grocery stores and entertainment venues. If slipping on a wet floor is that common, then you should know the answer to one important question.

What happens when you slip on a wet floor?

Slipping on a wet floor does not mean you land hard on the floor, although falling hard after a slip is a typical outcome. If you sustained one or more injuries after slipping on a wet floor, knowing how to proceed after the incident makes the difference between receiving compensation for financial losses and coming away empty-handed with rapidly mounting medical bills putting you in a deep financial hole. According to data presented by the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI), slip and fall incidents lead to more than one million visits to an emergency room each year.

Knowing what happens when you slip on a wet floor starts with consulting with an experienced personal injury attorney. A personal injury lawyer conducts an investigation to determine whether the venue where you slipped and fell should assume legal liability for causing your injuries. You also benefit from legal support when the time comes to file an insurance claim. Many insurance companies take advantage of policyholders that do not hire a personal injury attorney by denying valid claims or by offering compensation way below fair market value.

At Morgan and Morgan, we have more than three decades of experience litigating personal injury cases. We have recovered more than $20 billion for clients that filed personal injury lawsuits in virtually every state in the country. When you work with one of the highly-rated slip and fall lawyers from Morgan and Morgan, you can expect legal support provided by the same attorney from the day of the free case evaluation to the day when your case gets resolved.

Schedule a free case evaluation with a Morgan and Morgan personal injury attorney to learn more about what happens when you slip on a wet floor.

Where Do the Most Slip and Fall Incidents Occur?

Although you can slip on a wet floor just about anywhere, you should pay special attention to a few venues that experienced the most slip and fall incidents.

Convenience Stores

Most convenience stores operate with a large beverage station located in the middle of the business. Customers fill and refill beverages, which leaves behind spills that accumulate on the floor. Many of the spills left behind by customers do not get wiped dry in a timely manner or a store employee fails to place a Wet Floor sign over the wet area. You also can slip on a wet floor at a convenience store near the refrigerated areas that contain a wide variety of cold beverages.

Grocery Stores

You often hear the same call over a grocery store’s intercom, although the number of the aisle changes with each call. The call concerns a request for an employee to clean up a spill in a certain aisle. Because almost every aisle at a grocery store contains some type of bottled soup, sauce, or beverage, slip and fall incidents represent one of the most common types of accidents that happen. Like convenience stores, grocery stores owe customers and visitors a duty of care to prevent injuries caused by a wet floor.

Restaurants

From the front door where hosts greet customers to the back door where employees accept deliveries, restaurants are venues that complete numerous slip and fall incident reports each year. Customers are especially vulnerable to slipping on a wet floor in a bathroom, as well as near beverage stations where servers fill and refill beverages. Employees also are vulnerable to slip and fall accidents, particularly in the kitchen where the floors become slick because of grease spills and other types of factors. Employees that sustain injuries caused by a slip and fall should file the proper workers’ compensation forms to recover financial losses.

Morgan and Morgan also offers legal support for filing a workers’ compensation claim.

How Should I Handle a Slip and Fall Accident?

Knowing what happens when you slip on a wet floor can help you receive the compensation you deserve to pay for the cost of medical bills, as well as cover lost wages if you sustained serious injuries.

Inform Management

Informing management after a slip and fall incident is crucial because it initiates the process that results in the completion of a detailed incident report. The incident report should include information that describes what transpired before, during, and after the slip and fall. Names and contact information of witnesses help your personal injury attorney build a strong enough case to file a persuasive insurance claim and if warranted, a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

If your injuries prevent you from informing management about a slip and fall accident, an employee must take the initiative to get the job done for you.

Seek Medical Attention

By far the highest value expense related to a personal injury case concerns medical bills. You cannot expect to receive just compensation to cover costly medical bills unless you get medical care from a healthcare provider. Even if you feel healthy enough to remain at the scene of a slip and fall incident, you should eventually get medical care to ensure you have not sustained an injury that develops delayed symptoms.

Collect Physical Evidence

Photographs of the accident scene should provide your personal injury attorney with enough information to determine whether the business where you sustained your injuries should be held legally liable for causing you harm. If photographs do not supply your lawyer with enough convincing physical evidence, footage shot by the security camera system might reveal whether negligence played a role in contributing to a slip and fall on a wet floor.

At Morgan and Morgan, we assign a properly credentialed investigator to help one of our experienced slip and fall lawyers conduct a thorough investigation of your case.

Hire a Personal Injury Attorney

Even if a business proposes a financial settlement for your slip and fall case, you should still contact a state-licensed personal injury attorney. An experienced attorney knows how to calculate a fair value for compensation, whether you receive compensation from an insurance company or as a result of a favorable legal judgment handed down by a civil court judge. Many of our slip and fall cases have ended with clients receiving both the insurance claim and civil lawsuit compensation.

How Much Time Do I Have to File a Slip and Fall Lawsuit?

The personal injury attorney that you hire from Morgan and Morgan provides several types of legal support, from conducting an extensive investigation to interviewing witnesses. One of the most important types of legal support provided by a Morgan and Morgan litigator involves filing a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Each state has established a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit. Most states have set a deadline between two and four years, although a few states allow as long as six years or as short as one year for plaintiffs to take legal action. During a free case evaluation, your personal injury lawyer from Morgan and Morgan informs you of the deadline for filing a civil lawsuit in the state where you live. The clock typically starts ticking for filing a personal injury lawsuit on the date of the incident. However, your attorney might receive an extension if you did not develop symptoms of an injury until days after a slip and fall accident.

Just because you have plenty of time to take legal action does not mean you should procrastinate when gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses. You should act with a sense of urgency for two important reasons. First, you are responsible for taking care of all the debts associated with your case. This means paying off costly medical bills. Filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages as soon as possible after a slip and fall incident helps you address your financial responsibilities promptly. Second, the personal injury lawyer that you hire from Morgan and Morgan wants to interview witnesses close to the date of the accident to ensure receiving the most accurate version of events. Witness accounts tend to diminish in reliability the longer they are given from the date of a personal injury incident.

If you fail to file a personal injury lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations, the court clerk processing your case has the power to remove it from the judicial docket.

What Are the Three Types of Monetary Damages?

The most important type of legal support provided by a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan concerns getting you the compensation that you deserve. For most slip and fall cases, our clients seek three types of monetary damages.

Special Compensatory

Also called economic damages, special compensatory damages cover the tangible costs associated with your slip and fall case. You have the right to request compensation for the costs associated with diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. If relevant, you also can ask the court to require the defendant to pay for prescription medications and the use of an assistive device such as a pair of crutches.

General Compensatory

General compensatory damages do not pay for tangible expenses. Instead, general compensatory damages cover the costs associated with pain and suffering. Emotional distress issues can lead to productivity problems at work, as well as conflicts with friends and family members. The personal injury lawyer you work with from Morgan and Morgan calculates a reasonable value for general compensatory damages by using a formula that factors in the value of special compensatory damages.

Punitive

If the defendant committed one or more acts of gross negligence, the judge hearing your case might award you punitive damages. This type of financial award penalizes the defendant for causing you harm. Punitive damages also deter the defendant from committing the same act of negligence in the future.

Discover what happens when you slip on a wet floor by scheduling a free case evaluation with one of the accomplished personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan.