There are a few kinds of personal injury cases in which you don’t need to hire a lawyer, and you will be just fine making a claim on your own after a minor accident or injury where the driver was clearly at fault. But this is not the case with most slip and fall cases. For two reasons, such cases are not fine for self-representation.
First, the fault of a person in a slip and fall case is usually not clear and property owners usually don’t accept legal responsibility until the liability is obvious. Secondly, it is common for defendants to argue that a plaintiff’s injuries are not as bad as they claim.
An attorney’s first priority in a slip and fall case is to get the attention of the defendant and the insurance company who might not take a self-represented claimant all that seriously.
In order to make your slip and fall case reach a fair settlement or go to trial, your slip and fall lawyer will try to prove that, more likely than not, the property owner was negligent and that negligence played a vital role in causing your injury or accident. Your attorney will look into how the injury occurred. Falls can happen very fast, and many victims are unable to pinpoint exactly how they got from going down a store aisle (or down a flight of stairs) to being hurt and lying on the ground.
An injured individual must typically demonstrate one of the following in order to hold another party accountable for injuries sustained in a slip and fall accident:
A property owner (or an employee or agent of the property owner) should have noticed a hazardous condition and removed or remedied the potential danger, such as a pothole or an uneven walking surface. What matters most in this case is whether a reasonable person would have recognized the situation as dangerous and if the defendant had a reasonable opportunity to correct it.
For example, by leaving a harmful obstruction in a walking path, a property owner (or an employee of the owner) created the hazardous circumstance that resulted in the slip and fall accident, and it was foreseeable that someone would trip over the obstacle and fall.
When a homeowner’s insurance policy covers a slip and fall accident, the property owner (or his or her insurance carrier) may argue that the plaintiff is partially (or entirely) to blame for the event that caused the injuries.
This kind of argument is made on the legal doctrine of “comparative fault,” which has been enshrined in comparative negligence and contributory negligence laws by various governments. Hiring a slip and fall lawyer is a way to increase the chances of winning your case and reaching a fair compensation. Pranzitelli Law Firm has years of expertise in handling slip and fall cases and assisting victims of a personal injury accident while seeking financial awards for their losses. If needed, Pranzitelli Law Firm is able and ready to represent victims in a trial. Pranzitelli Law Firm offers a free consultation while handling cases on a contingency fee basis, so the victim pays no fees upfront.