In California, property owners and business establishments have a duty to provide a safe environment for individuals on their premises. If you were injured in a slip and fall accident because a property owner or business establishment failed to provide a safe environment, you need to contact a slip and fall attorney at Nadrich & Cohen for a free consultation to determine if you have a potential slip and fall claim against the property owner or business. We don’t charge a fee until and unless we win your case.
Slip And Fall Accident Compensation
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, you may be wondering what kind of compensation you may qualify for. If your accident was caused by someone else’s negligence, you will probably qualify for compensation from the negligent party’s insurance company.
Nadrich & Cohen may be able to help you obtain compensation for:
- Medical bills: Slip and fall accidents can lead to a lot of medical bills. Sometimes slip and fall victims are injured so badly they become permanently disabled and need medical care for the rest of their lives. You may qualify for compensation for any medical bills you have already received connected to your accident. You may also qualify for compensation for any medical expenses you can be expected to incur in the future connected to your accident.
- Lost income: You may need to miss time from work after your slip and fall accident or trip and fall accident. You might simply be unable to work for a while. You might need to take time off to attend medical appointments. We may be able to help you obtain compensation for any lost wages that resulted from your accident.
- Loss of earning capacity: Sometimes, slip and fall accidents lead to serious injuries which prevent victims from ever working again, or ever doing the job they used to again. If you suffered a loss of or reduction of your earning capacity due to your accident, you may be compensated for this loss.
- Pain and suffering: Serious injuries can result from slip and fall accidents and these injuries can cause physical pain and mental suffering, which you may qualify for compensation for. While these damages can’t be objectively valuated, our experienced lawyers can nonetheless place an accurate value on them for you and make sure an insurance company compensates you for them.
- Wrongful death: You may have lost a loved one to a slip and fall accident. Unfortunately, financial compensation can’t bring your loved one back. It can, however, make sure you don’t endure financial hardship. You may qualify for compensation for your loved one’s income, pain, suffering, medical bills, funeral and burial expenses, love, companionship and more.
Do I Need A Slip And Fall Lawyer?
If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident, your source of financial recovery will almost always be an insurance company. However, insurance companies simply won’t pay you what you deserve for your injuries if they don’t respect your ability to sue them over a lowball offer and win. They won’t respect your ability to sue them and win if you don’t have a lawyer. Thus, if you want full, fair compensation for your injuries, you need experienced slip and fall lawyers like Nadrich & Cohen by your side.
We have been successfully handling slip and fall cases since 1990s. Insurance companies keep files on lawyers, and their files on us tell them that we have a long, consistent track record of success. They know it’s a waste of their time and money to take us on in court. That’s why almost all of our slip and fall cases are settled out of court for fair amounts. Injury victims, on average, end up receiving far more compensation for their injuries when they have a lawyer than when they don’t, even after attorney fees are taken into account.
What Should I Do After A Slip And Fall Accident?
How successful your slip and fall claim ends up being will depend on what you do after your accident. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t take the right steps after a slip and fall accident because they are incapacitated or shook up.
You should do the following after a slip and fall accident to maximize the chances that you obtain full, fair compensation for your injuries:
- Tell the property owner: Tell the property owner about your accident as quickly as you can. Tell the person with the highest rank that you can. Report any injury, even minor injuries. This allows the property owner the opportunity to fix the issue and make sure nobody else gets injured like you did. You don’t have a legal obligation to do this. However, doing this helps your claim, especially if there weren’t any witnesses to your accident.
- Get witnesses’ contact info: If there were any witnesses to your accident, get their contact information. Their testimony could be critical regarding your claim.
- Take photos: A picture is worth a thousand words. It might be difficult to gather evidence depending on how badly you’re hurt. However, if you’re able, photograph the scene from multiple angles prior to leaving the scene. Take pictures of your injuries at the scene. Take pictures of your injuries again after being seen by a doctor. Have a friend take pictures as quickly as possible if you’re not able to take them immediately. It’s especially important to take pictures as soon as possible if your accident was weather-related, as the weather can change quickly.
- Seek medical attention immediately: Do this even if you don’t think you’re hurt badly. The symptoms of many injuries don’t appear until days, weeks or months after an accident. Injuries can be masked by endorphins and adrenaline at the scene of an accident. It’s vital that any injuries be documented by a doctor as soon as possible. If you don’t have your injuries documented immediately, insurance companies can claim your injuries weren’t caused by your accident, and it will be difficult for juries and insurance companies to believe you were injured badly if you didn’t seek medical attention immediately. You should dutifully attend any follow-up appointments to demonstrate to insurance companies and juries that your injuries are as serious as you claim.
- Explain your accident to healthcare providers: Doing this makes sure your story doesn’t have inconsistencies with your medical records.
- Fill out an accident report: Your accident may have happened on commercial property. If so, there’s probably a procedure in place for accident reports. Complete an accident report and sign it. You don’t have an obligation under the law to do this, but you should do it anyway. This report is an opportunity to provide an accurate description of the accident to any company liable for your injuries.
- Don’t talk to insurance companies: Insurance companies are going to want to talk to you while taping the conversation. Don’t let them. They want to trick you into incriminating yourself. They want to trick you into saying something that implies your fault for the accident, or that implies you aren’t hurt as badly as you claim. They want to do this so they don’t have to pay you what you deserve for your injuries. Leave talking to the insurance companies to an experienced slip and fall lawyer.
- Call Nadrich & Cohen: We can handle every step of the legal process for you so all you have to do is sit back and recover from your slip and fall injuries. Call us today for a free consultation.
How Much Do Nadrich & Cohen Cost?
We do not charge our clients a fee until and unless we obtain financial compensation for them. Our only fee is a percentage of any financial recovery obtained for the client. We do not charge upfront fees. We do not charge out-of-pocket fees.
Business Owner Responsibilities
Business owners have the highest responsibility to the public that is invited into their premises to purchase something or use their services. Business owners have an absolute obligation to make sure their premises are free from defects and safe for the public as a whole. They not only have an absolute duty to warn the public of the defect(s), but the business owner also has a duty to repair any dangerous conditions which may exist on their property.
Homeowner Responsibilities
Sometimes, lawyers get called when a person visits a home and gets injured because of an unsafe condition. As a homeowner you have an absolute duty to warn your guest(s) of any obvious defects which exist in your home, as well as any hidden defects which through a reasonable investigation could be found to exist on the premises. An example of this, which our expert slip and fall attorneys have successfully handled over the years, is where a negligent property owner fails to inform their guest(s) that there are “loose boards” in the steps, and as a result, their guest(s) are injured in a fall.
Accidents Resulting From Accumulations Of Ice And Snow.
In California, the courts have consistently held that businesses and homeowners are not responsible for paying damages to individuals injured on their property as a result of “a natural accumulation of ice and snow.” However, if a business or home owner attempts to clear away ice or snow from their property and does not do it properly or completely, thereby creating dangerous conditions, they would then be liable for any resulting injuries.
If you’re injured because a property owner or the owner of a business establishment failed to provide a safe environment, please call us today. A slip and fall accident lawyer at our firm will evaluate the circumstances of your claim to determine if we can achieve successful results on your behalf. Or, if you prefer, use our convenient evaluation submission form.
How Our Slip And Fall Attorneys Prove Their Cases
Our slip and fall lawyers will establish the following three conditions to prove your slip and fall case.
- We show the nature of the condition that caused your accident.
- Our attorneys can show whether or not the property owner had actual or constructive notice of that condition. Actual notice is when the property owner is directly aware that the dangerous condition existed. Constructive notice is an inference that the property owner should have become aware or became aware of the dangerous or defective condition because of the passage of sufficient time so that, in the exercise of reasonable case, the property owner should have discovered the condition.
- We’ll prove the property owner was responsible for the dangerous condition.
The Absolute Best Slip And Fall Attorney Representation
The lawyers at Nadrich & Cohen have obtained substantial settlements for fall victims who have suffered slip and fall injuries. Below are examples of slip and fall cases where we have gotten substantial rewards for our clients.
- Our attorneys filed a slip and fall lawsuit, and won, when a landlord failed to properly maintain a balcony railing in violation of municipal building codes.
- We sued, and won, when The City of Los Angeles failed to repair a caved-in sidewalk after being notified on several occasions.
- We obtained a $90,000 settlement after a shopper at a Lawrence Expressway shopping center in San Jose tripped and fell on a negligently-placed pallet, fracturing her hip.
- We obtained a $50,000 settlement for a guest at a Malibu residence where the guest’s leg was lacerated after stepping out of a Jacuzzi onto a defective step.
If you have suffered serious injuries after a slip and fall accident occurred, please call the experienced slip and fall attorneys of Nadrich & Cohen today. We may be able to help you obtain fair compensation for your injuries.