Murray Hill Slip and Fall Lawyers
A slip and fall accident can ruin your day, or your life. The former occurs if you tear your outfit or skin your knee. In the latter case, it can mean serious injury and even permanent impairment. Although you may not be able to work while recuperating, your bills do not stop coming, and you are dealing with substantial medical expenses.
Many times, a serious slip and fall occurs because a property owner was not properly maintaining their building or premises. Slip and fall accidents are a subset of the legal category of premises liability. The Murray Hill slip and fall lawyers at Douglas & London can hold negligent parties accountable so that you may receive the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
Slip and Fall Injuries
Serious injuries resulting from slip and fall accidents run the gamut. The most common include:
- Broken bones
- Head trauma
- Soft tissues injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
Some people succumb to their slip and fall injuries. In such cases, the family may file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Proving Liability
Proving liability in a slip and fall case is not always easy, which is why an accident victim needs an attorney specializing in this field. Owners owe a duty of care to keep their properties in safe condition. The standard is whether a “reasonable” person would have noticed a dangerous condition on the property and fixed it.
Slip and fall accidents due to negligence may occur because the property owner let certain maintenance aspects slide, resulting in trips due to:
- Broken stairs
- Cracks and holes in pavement
- Debris in aisleways
- No handrails
- Poor lighting
- Torn carpeting
The property owner and their insurance company or lawyers will try to pin the blame on the accident victim, and there are circumstances under which the victim was partly at fault. This is known as contributory negligence.
For example, there may have been a hole in the walkway, but the victim was talking on a cellphone at the time rather than paying attention to where he was going. Another frequent defense by the property owner is that they could not have known about the hazard in time to fix it. This may prove true in falls involving snow and ice, but it all depends on the situation.
However, even if the victim was partly responsible for the fall, that does not mean they cannot receive compensation. It does mean that any compensation awarded is reduced by the percentage of fault of the victim, as per the jury’s decision. Thus, if a property owner was determined 80 percent at fault and the victim 20 percent, the victim’s $100,000 award is reduced to $80,000.
Contact a Murray Hill Slip and Fall Lawyer
If an injury from a slip and fall accident due to another party’s negligence has cost you time from work and substantial medical bills – or worse – contact a slip and fall attorney at Douglas & London. Call or text today. Our dedicated lawyers have recovered millions of dollars for clients suffering from personal injuries, and our track record speaks for itself. Our clients never pay a fee unless they receive compensation. Hablamos Espanol.
