When you live in an apartment or spend time in a hotel, you are trusting others to create a safe space in which you can live. Unfortunately, not all landlords and hoteliers deserve your trust. There are many of them that take your money and either deliberately or negligently skimp on maintenance, creating dangerous conditions.
Under California law, you can always sue a property owner if your slip and fall accident was caused by dangerous conditions the property owner created or allowed to continue. However, the amount of compensation you might receive depends on numerous factors, including the negligence of the property owner, the extent of your injury, and how much you were responsible for the accident. After your accident, a free, no-obligation consultation with a premises liability lawyer can help you decide if you want to sue in your case.
What to Do After a Slip and Fall Accident?
If you suffer a slip and fall accident in Los Angeles or anywhere in California, it’s important to take action right away to preserve your rights. Here’s how to make sure you are most likely to be able to get compensation for your injuries.
- Seek Medical Assistance: After your slip and fall accident, you might wake up in the emergency department at the nearest hospital. Someone made the choice for medical assistance for you. In other cases, you should see a doctor even if you don’t feel badly hurt. Some types of injuries might not be obvious until later. Unfortunately, some of these, such as brain or spine injuries, can be influenced by actions you take in the hours or days after the accident. Talking to a doctor can help you minimize these injuries. In addition, getting medical assistance creates a record of your injuries that can help you get compensation for your losses.
- Document the Scene: If you are at the scene waiting for an ambulance or other assistance, use your phone to take pictures of the conditions that led to your fall. If you wake up at the hospital or didn’t remember to get pictures before leaving the scene, send a trusted friend or family member to take pictures of the area where you fell.
- Secure Additional Evidence: Get contact information for anyone who witnessed your accident. In addition, keep physical evidence packaged for testing, such as the clothes and shoes you were wearing at the time of the fall. Make sure doctors are taking good pictures of your injuries. Ask permission to take some of your own pictures of your injuries–some hospitals have policies about patients and visitors taking pictures in the building.
- Report Your Accident: Failure to report your accident could affect your ability to seek compensation. Report the accident as soon as you are coherent enough to do so yourself or ask someone to do it for you. At a minimum, you should report the injury to a contact for the property owner(s), such as the building super or your contact at the rental office. Ideally, you should also report the accident to the insurance companies covering the property. If you don’t know who to contact, a slip and fall attorney can help you track down the information.
- Consult with a Lawyer: In general, you should talk to a lawyer any time you sustain an injury that leads to medical bills and might have been caused by someone else’s negligence. Insurance companies retain lawyers to help them minimize their payouts in cases like yours. It only makes sense that you should have the help of a lawyer to preserve your right to compensation. At Fisher & Talwar, we offer free, no-obligation consultations so you can get the information you need to decide whether to sue without cost and without commitment.
California Slip and Fall Statute of Limitations
California law gives people two years to file most personal injury lawsuits, including slip and fall lawsuits. If you do not file your lawsuit before that date, you will have a time-barred claim, which makes you ineligible to seek compensation.
In some cases, your time to file a lawsuit might be even shorter. If your fall occurred on public property or your claim is against a government agency, you may have only a year or six months to file your claim.
In general, it is best to speak with a slip and fall lawyer as soon as possible if you are considering a lawsuit.
How Can a Slip and Fall Lawyer Help?
The most important way a slip and fall lawyer can help is to give you knowledge. During a free, no-obligation call, you can ask some of your biggest questions about a potential slip and fall lawsuit. You will get a good idea of whether it makes sense to take an insurance settlement or pursue additional compensation.
If you do decide to pursue additional compensation, a slip and fall lawyer can help in many more ways. They can:
- Help you understand the likelihood of future expenses
- Negotiate a higher settlement
- Help you show that injuries are the result of your fall
- Build a case to show the landlord’s negligence
- Explain the steps required to get compensation
- Educate you about ways to cover bills while waiting for compensation
People who have never experienced a slip and fall injury before often don’t understand how much their injuries are likely to cost over time. They may take a quick settlement because it looks like a lot only to learn later that it’s a fraction of their true costs. Others take a settlement that they know is small because they don’t know what else to do about their current bills. A slip and fall lawyer can help you get compensation that reflects your true costs over the long-term so that you and your family are taken care of after your injury.
Why Work with Fisher & Talwar
We are experienced personal injury lawyers who have handled many slip and fall accident lawsuits. We understand what we need to prove to get compensation for our clients, and we’ve done it many times before. We have helped our clients recover millions for their injuries and losses – our results speak for themselves.
In addition, our partners will personally handle your injury claim. We are very selective in the cases we take, and we never have so many that we have to hand your case over to someone who might not be fully qualified to give you the representation you deserve.
We know that your concern is about your future, including that of your family who depends on you. We will do everything we can to get you the best results possible in your case: thorough investigation, methodical preparation, and even a determined fight in court if necessary. Unlike some personal injury lawyers, we are not afraid to take your case to court if it makes sense.
Plus, we don’t pass our expenses on to you. You pay our fees, and we will handle the expenses. And you’ll never need to pay a fee unless we get compensation for you.
Common Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents That Indicate Negligence
Proving negligence is an important element of any premises liability lawsuit like a slip and fall case. Some aspects of the staircase or grounds where you fell can make a negligence claim easier to prove. These include:
- Failure to comply with building codes
- Inadequate lighting
- Slippery treads on the stairs
- Uneven steps
- No handrail or unstable handrail
- Guard rails are too low
- Worn out, damaged, buckled, or loose carpeting
- Debris or trip hazards on the staircase
- Uneven pavement
- Water accumulation on stairs or sidewalk
These are all risks that a landlord should take care of to protect their tenants and guests. Failure to do so puts you at risk. You should not have to pay the cost of their negligence.
Factors That Can Help Prove Negligence
In addition to the cause of your slip and fall accident, there are other factors that can make it easier to demonstrate your landlord’s negligence. Here are some things that you should tell your lawyer about if they are true:
- You and others told the landlord about the condition in the past
- The condition has been developing or existent for a long time
- The condition recurs frequently (such as a place that gets wet every time it rains)
- You or others have been injured by the condition in the past
- Similar conditions existed elsewhere on the property that led to injuries
Proving that the property owner or their representative knew or should have known about the condition is an essential part of getting compensation. These factors could make it easier to prove the property owner’s knowledge.
Common Injuries with High or Deceptive Damages from Falling Down Stairs
Falling down stairs can lead to serious injuries. In some cases, it can be fatal. The extent of your injuries may depend on your age and general health, as well as the design and condition of the stairs. As we’ve noted above, people often take settlements that are below their total damages. Here are some of the injuries where that occurs most often:
- Head and brain injuries: These injuries may take days or even weeks to develop to the point where they’re discernible. In some cases, it may be a year or more before the full extent of a brain injury is clear. Nearly a third of people with moderate to severe brain injury can see their condition worsen over the five years following their accident. More than half of people who had a job when injured will lose their job, and many of them will never find employment again.
- Neck injuries: Muscle strains and sprains as well as other types of soft tissue injuries can be immediately painful, but might improve relatively quickly. However, injuries to the cervical vertebrae or spine, might require invasive treatment and may never fully heal.
- Back injuries: As with neck injuries, sometimes the most painful back injuries are the ones with the best prognosis. However, sometimes even a back sprain or strain might lead to ongoing disability.
- Wrist and forearm injuries: Damage to the delicate structures of the hands and forearms can make it very difficult for you to get back to work. You may lose the manual dexterity you relied on for your work.
- Ankle injuries: Some ankle injuries will recover with icing and the use of anti-inflammatory medication. However, others can lead to permanent disability, making it hard or impossible to walk, run, or stand.
At first, it can be hard to know how severe your injuries are. Never agree to a settlement until you have a good sense of what your maximum recovery is likely to be. An experienced slip and fall lawyer has seen many clients go through this process and can help you understand how your injuries are likely to develop.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Slip and Fall Accident?
If you fell down the stairs, you can hold multiple people liable for your slip and fall accident. This can include:
- The property owner
- A superintendent in charge of the property
- A management company
- Contractors hired to repair the stairs
Each of these individuals or corporations may have insurance to help them cover the expenses of situations where their negligence leads to injuries.
Can I Sue If I Fall in My Apartment?
Yes – you can sue if your fall, either down the stairs or on the same level, occurred in your apartment. However, you can only sue if the condition that led to your fall is at least partially due to the landlord’s negligence. This might include:
- Leaky plumbing that led to slippery conditions
- Frayed, worn, or buckled carpet
- Uneven tiles
- A weakened floor that you fall through
In these circumstances, you can sue your landlord even if you fell in your apartment. In fact, with California’s pure comparative negligence law, you can sue even if the conditions that led to your fall were mostly your fault. However, your compensation will be reduced by the amount to which they are your fault.
Get Help After Falling Down Stairs in California
Have you fallen down stairs? The pain and uncertainty of your injuries is suffering enough. You shouldn’t also have to pay the cost of an accident that wasn’t your fault. If your landlord created dangerous conditions that led to your fall, they should pay the cost for your injuries.
To learn whether you are likely to get compensation with a slip and fall lawsuit in Los Angeles or anywhere in California, please contact Fisher & Talwar today for a free, no-obligation consultation.