Following a slip-and-fall accident, you may experience intense physical pain and mental distress. Additionally, you may feel agitated and frustrated if you happened to have noticed the hazard before your slip-and-fall. You may feel irritated that you did not avoid the danger that caused your injuries.
The accident and injury may have produced mounting medical bills, lost wages, and other expensive costs. If you noticed the hazard before your slip-and-fall happened, you might now wonder if you can recover damages. Does the fact that you noticed the hazard beforehand prevent you from being entitled to recover damages?
Kiley Law Group can help you learn whether you are entitled to compensation for your accident, even if you noticed the hazard before your slip and fall injury. We can help determine who the negligent party is and the level of negligence involved. We can assist you in determining how much compensation you are entitled to receive.
Contact us by calling or texting (888) 435-1321. We want to get you the maximum fair compensation that is available to you.
Why You Should Not Be Penalized for Noticing a Hazard
A person who is attentive, observant, and pays attention to his or her surroundings can oftentimes avoid danger. This is a good quality and should be rewarded. Yet, there are occasions when people notice a hazard but do not have sufficient time to stop what they are doing in order to protect themselves.
In the case of a slip-and-fall accident, your case could become trickier and more problematic if you noticed the hazard before it made you fall. However, noticing a hazard beforehand does not eliminate your ability to recover damages for your slip-and-fall.
Various factors may have prevented you from being able to protect yourself in spite of spotting the hazard. It may be that you realized the danger with only seconds or less to avoid it. It could be that a sequence of events was already in motion and could not be stopped when you saw the danger.
The crucial factor in a case of this type is whether you could have avoided the hazardous situation or not. Insurance companies and at-fault parties may attempt to make the argument that your slip-and-fall accident was avoidable. Experienced personal injury attorneys can help you prove that your accident was unavoidable. We can help establish that you are entitled to recover damages even though you noticed the hazard before the accident occurred.
What Can Cause a Slip-and-Fall Accident?
A slip-and-fall accident can easily occur when the bottom of a person’s foot and the surface being walked on have insufficient traction. The lack of traction causes the person to fall. The impact with the ground can leave a victim with serious injuries.
Many slip-and-fall accidents occur without warning – for example, when someone slips on a wet floor. In some cases, a person may notice the danger, but only when it is too late to change his or her actions before the fall. For example, someone may notice a missing step on a staircase but only as his or her foot is in the action of stepping in the location of the missing step.
Every slip-and-fall case is unique and complicated. Each has numerous factors that can affect the determination of who is negligent and why. An experienced slip-and-fall accident attorney, though, will not be intimidated and can help you recover damages if your accident occurred completely unexpectedly, even if you noticed the hazard before the accident.
How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help Prove You Are Entitled to Recover Damages
You may think to yourself that if you saw the hazard beforehand, wouldn’t you have been able to avoid it? This is an idea that the at-fault party and insurance companies will certainly present. But is this true?
The reality is that not every accident can be avoided, even if the hazard is noticed beforehand. A capable personal injury attorney who is thoroughly familiar with slip and fall cases can help you analyze the facts of your accident. An attorney can investigate your accident. He or she can determine whether you share responsibility for the accident or if the at-fault party is completely to blame.
An attorney can help you identify to what extent you are entitled to recover damages after the accident. What can an attorney examine and investigate to help your case?
What is Involved in an Investigation of a Slip-and-Fall Accident?
The following are activities an attorney can perform to establish who was at fault and help you prove that you are entitled to recover damages. A personal injury lawyer can:
- Take photos of the accident scene
- Recover video footage, if any exists, of the accident and fall
- Obtain witness statements
- Compose and present a convincing case for your financial recovery
- Identify specific damages you are entitled to recover and present an accurately calculated value of these
- File legal documents correctly and on time
- File a lawsuit if a fair settlement cannot be reached with the insurance company
- Analyze and appraise settlement offers you receive
- Provide legal direction and guidance to aid you as you make decisions for your case
Kiley Law Group thoroughly understands slip and fall injury cases. We can assist you in investigating your slip-and-fall accident. We can assess your case and present you with options that could help you recover the damages you are entitled to receive. This is true, including if you noticed the hazard before your slip and fall injury.
What Types of Compensation Can You Receive When You Are Entitled to Recover Damages?
Slip-and-fall accident victims are often entitled to recover damages. This can be the case even when the hazard was noticed before the accident. What types of damages can be recovered?
Usually, in accidents involving a slip-and-fall, the victim can be entitled to recover compensatory damages for accumulated monetary expenses. Reparation can also be awarded for non-monetary and punitive damages.
Monetary Expenses
Compensation can be provided to the victim for financial expenses which have accumulated because of the slip-and-fall accident and resulting injuries. Current medical bills, future medical bills, and other services required because of injuries are among the most common monetary expenses.
If adjustments to the victim’s home or vehicles are needed because of physical limitations resulting from the accident, these can also be included. Attorney fees are another part of the monetary expenses that can be compensated as well.
Personal items damaged in the accident may also need to be compensated. Items such as expensive wristwatches, jewelry, and cell phones can be included. The cost of repairing or replacing these items can be included in these monetary expenses.
Non-monetary Damages
Non-monetary damages are often categorized as pain and suffering. This can include forms of intense stress, depression, and mental anxiety. The loss of companionship can also fall into this category.
Non-monetary damages do not have a fixed compensatory amount. Determining the appropriate financial amount that you are entitled to recover for these damages can be difficult. Yet, with the assistance of a knowledgeable personal injury attorney, you can recover damages of a fair and just amount.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are used against property owners who show extreme negligence. The property owner may have displayed a shocking level of disregard for protecting people on the property from a dangerous environment. Punitive damages are thus intended to penalize the property owner for his or her unreasonable demonstration of negligence.
An at-fault party and his or her insurance provider may attempt to avoid or significantly reduce accountability because you noticed the hazard before your slip-and-fall. A personal injury attorney can help defend yourself against their efforts. Your attorney can present the facts of your accident in a way that clearly indicates the at-fault party’s blame, regardless of your noticing the hazard beforehand.
Kiley Law Group Can Help You Recover Damages Even If You Noticed the Hazard Before Your Slip and Fall Injury
Many slip-and-fall accidents seemingly happen out of the blue. At other times, a victim might notice the hazard only mere moments before the accident occurs. Whether you noticed the hazard beforehand or you were caught completely unaware, you may be left with medical costs and other expensive bills because of the accident and injury.
Knowing whether you can receive compensation for your slip-and-fall injury is crucial. If you can recover damages, you will want to obtain the most you are entitled to receive. The experienced slip-and-fall attorneys at Kiley Law Group can help you get fair compensation for your injury and accident.
The laws surrounding slip-and-fall accidents can be complicated, and at-fault parties can fight a victim to avoid accountability. This is especially true if you noticed the hazard before the accident.
Kiley Law Group can help you overcome these challenges. We want you to recover the damages you are entitled to obtain. We can help you legally and financially protect your future even if you noticed the hazard before your slip and fall injury.
Contact us by calling or texting us at (888) 435-1321. We want to get you the maximum and just compensation that is available to you.
