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4 Slip and Fall Tips

4 Slip and Fall Tips

Are you suffering injuries from a fall and you have questions? Check out these 4 slip and fall tips for guidance, then call our lawyers now.

Choosing a Slip and Fall Attorney

You may be asking yourself, “How do I select the best attorney in a trip and fall or slip and fall case?” You want to find an attorney who has years of experience handling these kinds of cases and who’s not afraid to take a case to trial. There are a lot of attorneys out there. Some billboards are plastered with faces of attorneys and there are radio ads and TV ads for them, but a lot of advertisement does not reflect the quality of an attorney. This is perhaps the most important decision that you can make because it determines the absolute outcome of the case. Look to the attorney’s qualifications, experience, and their willingness to take the case all the way to trial.

Talking to Insurance After a Slip and Fall

In general, when I’m asked if it’s a good idea to talk to the insurance company that’s contacting you when you’ve been involved in a slip and fall or premises liability claim, the answer is it’s always best to speak to an attorney first before you speak to an insurance representative if you have suffered an injury in a premises liability claim. This means if there is a condition on a sidewalk or somewhere that you’ve encountered that caused you to sustain or suffer an injury, you don’t want to give information or a recorded statement to the insurance adjuster who might be contacting you about that claim until you have talked to a lawyer. Don’t talk to them before you talk to us. Contact us here at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, and then we will cooperate with that person and make sure they have all the information that they need to make a fair decision about that particular claim.

Slip And Fall Medical Bills

Every day we take calls from people who were injured in all types of ways. Recently, I took a call from a lady who was injured in Tampa when she slipped and fell in a store. The first question she asked me was, “Who’s going to pay for my medical expenses?” I told her the people who are responsible are going to pay. She was nervous because, obviously, we can’t make guarantees, but, because of my extensive experience prosecuting claims for the negligence that causes people to fall, I felt confident that I could tell her, “Don’t worry about it.”

In Florida, anybody who owns property and expects people to come onto their property has to make it safe. They have to make it safe for anybody that they foreseeably anticipate will come onto their premises. If people come onto their premises and they get hurt because there was something dangerous, this is called the dangerous places type of case. We call it slip and fall, but it’s really about dangerous places. The people who own the dangerous places have the responsibility to pay the medical bills.

If you’re concerned that you might have medical bills that aren’t going to be paid, call me today. I want to give you peace of mind, and I want to get your medical bills paid. I don’t want you to have medical debt when somebody else had a true responsibility to make the place safe and they didn’t. We can do so much more than that, of course, but if you’re concerned about your medical expenses and who’s going to pay for them, I’m a phone call away.

Slip and Fall Comparative Negligence

Probably one of the most common situations I have with the slip and fall case is what we call the open and obvious defect. I have a case, actually, right now in which there was a boat propeller left on the floor of a dive shop. My client was walking to the front counter and didn’t see the boat propeller, and he suffered a pretty bad injury on his foot. When we put our claim together, the response of the dive shop was, “Why didn’t your client see it?” What does that mean?

Yes, I suppose there would be a claim to say that everybody should watch where they’re walking, but, at the same time, store owners have a responsibility to create safe walkways for their customers. This means that a jury will allocate fault to the parties who were involved, and sometimes they divide it up. They can say that my client was 50% at fault and the store owner was 50% at fault, or they can say my client was 10% at fault and the store owner was 90% at fault. That’s called comparative negligence.

Florida is a comparative negligence state. That means that the jury has the responsibility of apportioning fault among anybody who had a responsibility in causing the injury. You should presume that walking into a business, it’s going to be safe for you to walk in there. That presumption doesn’t mean you should put your guard down. You should still make sure that where you’re walking is safe, but it’s also about notice.

In this case that I’m talking about, the dive shop had been warned about not putting boat propellers on the ground where their customers were walking. They had been given notice for an extended period of time before my client walked in that day. He walked in that day, and he had seconds, compared to the weeks and months of the dive shop. We were going to take the position that the dive shop had the greater responsibility. That’s a factor that a jury can consider when apportioning fault— notice. Who has the greater notice of the defective and dangerous condition, even if it was open and obvious? That’s how comparative negligence works in the state of Florida.

I have experience proving fault in court, even when there’s comparative negligence. Call me today. I can help you with your claim.


Were you or a loved one seriously injured from a slip and fall in Florida and have questions about these 4 slip and fall tips?

Contact our dedicated Tampa Bay slip and fall lawyers at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys today for a free confidential consultation and case evaluation.

Let our experience work for you.

Perenich Law injury Attorneys

Perenich Law injury Attorneys N/a
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