Slip and Fall Attorney in Naples

When you meet with a Morgan and Morgan attorney for a free case valuation, one of the first items on the agenda involves determining the cause of your injuries. With more than three decades of experience litigating personal injury cases, we have come up with a short list of the most common causes of slip and fall incidents.

Slick Surfaces

The most common cause of slip and fall incidents are slick surfaces, whether that means water on the floor inside a grocery store bathroom or an ice patch located just outside of a restaurant’s front door. Businesses owe vendors, customers, and visitors a duty of care to remove the threat of slick surfaces. For example, if a beverage station at a convenience store starts to leak one or more beverages onto the floor, the store is responsible for removing the slip and fall threat in a timely manner. This includes placing a Wet Floor sign over the safety hazard, as well as wiping the slick surface dry as quickly as possible.

For patches of ice forming outside a business, the business owes everyone a duty of care to apply salt to the ground that removes the threat of slipping and falling.

Loose Flooring

How many times have you walked into a business and noticed the carpet raised in certain sections? A carpet that is not lying flat on the floor poses a safety hazard called a trip and fall incident. Loose flooring also includes sections where tiles or wide wood strips have become dislodged. Although employees receive training to notice the development of slick surfaces, most businesses do not provide adequate training that emphasizes the dangers presented by loose flooring. Another example of loose flooring occurs when a Welcome mat fails to remain snug to the floor or ground.

For loose tiles and wood sections, businesses should place warning tape around the area to alert customers to a possible health danger.

Electrical Cords

Electrical cords pose a risk, especially in high-traffic areas such as airport and stadium concourses. Whether a business needs to run electrical cords to provide cooling from a fan or to complete a renovation project, the cords pose a serious risk to the health of vendors, customers, and visitors. Businesses can minimize this safety hazard posed by taping electrical cords to the floor. They also can place signs in areas where electrical cords present a health risk.

A more indirect cause of slip and fall incidents concerns the lack of training. Businesses can dramatically reduce the risk of slip and fall incidents by providing comprehensive training that teaches employees how to spot threats, as well as what action to take once they spot a threat.

An experienced Naples slip and fall lawyer provides several types of legal support, with the common goal of getting you the compensation that you deserve.

Conduct a Comprehensive Investigation

One of the many advantages of hiring a Naples slip and fall lawyer from Morgan and Morgan is our team of personal injury attorneys works closely with Florida-licensed investigators that we hire in-house to complete thorough investigations. At the heart of every investigation is the gathering of physical evidence. For a slip and fall incident collecting evidence involves shooting photographs of the accident scene, as well as obtaining footage captured by a store’s security camera system. Witness accounts of a slip and fall incident are not considered physical evidence, but they help bolster the strength of the physical evidence gathered by your Naples slip and fall lawyer.

Calculates a Reasonable Value for Compensation

One of the keys to reaching a favorable settlement is to calculate a fair value for compensation. Your Naples slip and fall lawyer from Morgan and Morgan calculates a reasonable value for compensation by adding up the tangible costs associated with medical care and any damages repaired to your personal property. Compensation also includes the value of non-economic damages, which do not come with a price tag. Non-economic damages include the costs associated with pain and suffering issues like fear and anxiety. Your attorney calculates a fair value for non-economic damages by using a formula that factors in the value of economic damages.

Interacts With the Insurance Adjuster

Another compelling reason to hire a Naples slip and fall lawyer from Morgan and Morgan is to have an intermediary deal directly with the insurance company processing your claim. Insurance companies prefer to deal with policyholders that do not retain legal representation. Without a Naples slip and fall lawyer representing you during the processing of an insurance claim, the insurance company is much more likely to deny your claim or approve it for a value that is well below what you deserve in compensation. Your attorney also closely monitors the progress of your claim to ensure it receives consideration in a timely manner.

Reach a Settlement With the Other Party

Most slip and fall cases avoid the trial phase of the litigation process. Instead, both parties decide to negotiate a settlement that appeals to both the plaintiff and defendant. Negotiations start when your attorney submits a reasonable offer for compensation. The other party can either accept or reject the initial offer and if the other party rejects the initial offer, you might receive a counteroffer that can lead to several rounds of back-and-forth exchanges of values for compensation. The Naples slip and fall lawyer from Morgan and Morgan providing you with legal support will not hesitate to take your case to trial if the other party acts unreasonably during negotiations.

Proves the Four Elements of Negligence

To file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages, your Naples slip and fall lawyer must prove the presence of the four elements of negligence. The first element of negligence to prove involves showing the plaintiff owed you a duty of care. Then, your attorney must demonstrate what negligent acts the defendant committed.  The final two elements include demonstrating the negligent acts caused your injuries and that your injuries generated financial losses.

Florida follows the comparative negligence doctrine for proving fault. Comparative negligence means more than one party can assume blame for causing a slip and fall incident. 

Another important role for your attorney to fill is to ensure you file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Every state has imposed a deadline to take legal action, with most states opting to give plaintiffs between two and four years to file a personal injury lawsuit. However, some states grant plaintiffs as long as six years or as short as one year to take legal action, Florida gives plaintiffs four years to file a personal injury lawsuit, with the clock starting to tick on taking legal action on the day of the slip and fall incident. The only exception to the rule involves slip and fall incidents in which victims developed delayed symptoms, such as the symptoms that develop because of whiplash and brain trauma.

Although four years is plenty of time to take legal action, you should act with a sense of urgency to help you pay off debts such as rapidly mounting medical bills. Creditors do not wait for you to receive a favorable legal judgment before sending bills. The faster you file a personal injury lawsuit, the faster you receive the compensation required to pay bills. Your attorney also wants you to take swift legal action to receive the most accurate witness accounts of what transpired before, during, and after the slip and fall incident.

Schedule a free case evaluation today with an experienced Naples slip and fall lawyer from Morgan and Morgan to receive the compensation that you deserve.