St. Petersburg Slip and Fall Lawyer

Slip and fall accidents can cause anything from minor to catastrophic injury. Even a minor slip and fall can lead to substantial inconvenience, while a major fall can change the course of your life, all because someone else failed to maintain, set up, or clean the area properly. If you suffered injuries in a slip and fall due to someone else’s negligence, you might deserve compensation for those injuries. Contact a St. Petersburg slip and fall lawyer at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys to learn more about your right to compensation. Our team of dedicated personal injury attorneys is prepared to help you seek the justice you deserve.

Perenich Law Injury Attorneys: Helping St. Petersburg Slip and Fall Victims Understand Their Rights

After a slip and fall accident, you may have trouble figuring out your next steps. How do you know whether you deserve compensation? What should you do next if you decide to file a personal injury claim?

At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we have a strong commitment to helping our clients pursue the compensation they deserve. We believe in standing as a voice for those who may not know how to advocate for themselves: people who have suffered severe injuries under various circumstances, including slip and fall accidents in the St. Petersburg area.

If you have suffered injuries in a slip and fall, having an attorney on your side can help you advocate for yourself more effectively as you pursue the full compensation you deserve. At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we offer several vital services that have helped our clients successfully navigate slip and fall claims and pursue the compensation they deserve.

We help our clients break down the full extent of the financial losses they have faced due to a slip and fall accident.

Slip and fall accidents can mean considerable expenses, many of which you may not even know about immediately after the accident. You may have high medical bills, find yourself missing a great deal of work, and have a host of other challenges that you have to contend with as you try to rebuild your life after your fall. At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, our dedicated St. Petersburg slip and fall attorneys work with our clients to break down the full extent of their financial losses, which puts them in a better position to negotiate with the insurance company and pursue the full compensation they deserve for their injuries.

We seek out and piece together the evidence from your slip and fall accident.

What caused your fall? Did more than one party’s negligence contribute to the incident? Who should owe you compensation for your injuries? At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we aggressively track down the details of the accident to determine all parties that may bear or share liability, which helps put many of our clients in a better position as they negotiate for the compensation they deserve.

We represent you to the insurance company.

Few people enjoy dealing with the liable party’s insurance company after an accident of any kind. The insurance company may utilize a variety of tactics to help reduce the compensation the company has to pay out, including trying to issue a low settlement offer and pressure you to accept it, trying to prove that your actions caused the accident, or even denying the full extent of your injuries and the treatment you needed for them.

At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we help deal with the insurance company on our clients’ behalf, which often reduces their stress levels and helps prevent them from mistakenly limiting the compensation they can recover due to the unfair tactics of the insurance company.

Common Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents in St. Petersburg

Slip and fall accidents can occur because of:

1. Wet floors

Wet floors can occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they happen because visitors track in water from outside. In St. Petersburg, that could mean the heavy degree of water that often drips off of patrons in bad weather. While St. Petersburg sees fewer days of rain than the US average, it also sees more rain, overall, than the US average, at 51 inches of rain per year. Often, that means heavy rainfall on the days it does rain, which means guests to the property could have a more challenging time removing water before entering.

Guests may also track in water from swimming pools or the beach. They enter while wet, drip on the floor, and leave again, often without the property owner doing anything about it.

If property owners fail to clean up the water promptly or post adequate warnings, they may bear liability for the accident.

2. Damaged flooring, stairs, or handrails

Many people rely on consistent, undamaged flooring to help them avoid accident risk. Because St. Petersburg sees a heavy degree of tourist traffic, with around 6.5 million people visiting the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area every year, however, keeping up with all the traffic across those floors, stairs, and high-traffic areas may prove incredibly difficult.

Some business owners, conscious of the revenue brought in by tourists, may choose not to shut down their businesses for construction during the busiest parts of the year. Others may assume that maintenance can wait a little longer. Unfortunately, poor maintenance can substantially increase the hazards many people face.

Stairs may give out underfoot. Handrails may break. Uneven flooring can quickly cause patrons to trip. All those hazards can pose a substantial danger to anyone in the area.

3. Trip hazards

Many people do not watch their feet as they move through stores, hotels, and businesses. Unfortunately, a moment’s inattention can increase the risk of a fall when a specific area poses a substantial trip hazard. Sometimes, St. Petersburg venues will have wires and cords spread across the walkway, increasing tripping hazards and the risk of a fall. In other places, especially small tourists shops, crowded aisles may increase the likelihood of a fall over one of those objects.

Carpeting and rugs also risk posing a trip hazard since they can gather underfoot if not properly maintained.

4. Poor lighting

With proper lighting, most people prove much more likely to notice potential hazards before they become much more serious problems. However, in poor lighting conditions, people may have a much harder time noticing what happens around them. You might not even notice the presence of a wire across the floor or that you have approached the stairs. In poor lighting, venues should provide additional warnings about potential fall hazards to help avoid the risk of an accident.

5. Spills

In some cases, spills can prove even more hazardous than water on the floor. Oil on the floor, for example, can make that floor much more slippery than water alone. During busy periods in St. Petersburg stores and businesses, some employees may have difficulty keeping up with those spills.

6. Poor pool area maintenance

St. Petersburg hotels and other properties often include pools, where many people go to relax. However, those pools require a high degree of maintenance to avoid becoming excessively slippery. Poor pool maintenance can increase the risk of fall hazards and lead to severe injuries, especially in cases where the injured person falls into the pool.

Common Slip and Fall Injuries in St. Petersburg

Slip and fall accidents can lead to everything from relatively minor injuries to severe injuries.

Head Injuries

If the victim hits their head as they fall, it can quickly result in a head injury, ranging from a minor concussion to serious traumatic brain injury. Head injuries can interfere with every area of a victim’s life, making it difficult to concentrate or engage in cognitive activities at work or home. Even focusing on the television or a game can be incredibly difficult for patients with serious TBI.

Back and Neck Injuries

Hard falls, long falls, or falls against a dangerous object can cause serious back and neck injuries. People who sustain serious back injuries may find that they have ongoing pain from those injuries, often including pain that can prove increasingly difficult to manage. Back and neck injuries may include whiplash, herniated discs, or even, in some cases, spinal cord injuries.

Broken Bones

Many slip and fall accidents result in serious broken bones. Older patients may have a higher likelihood of suffering broken hips, resulting in substantial, long-term disability. Slip and fall victims may also suffer an increased risk of broken bones in the hands and arms, particularly if they try to catch themselves as they fall.

Severe Bruising and Lacerations

Depending on how far the victim falls or what the victim falls on, the victim may suffer severe bruising or serious lacerations. Lacerations can come with a high risk of infection and substantial scarring. At the same time, bruising may mean considerable pain and discomfort, potentially including significant limitations on the victim’s activities following the accident.

Sprains and Strains

Falls often result in ligament, muscle, or tendon damage. Strains and sprains can prove very serious and may, in some cases, mean long-term limitations for the victim.

Who Bears Liability for Slip and Fall Accidents?

In many cases, the property owner where an accident occurs may bear liability for a slip and fall accident. Liability may extend to private property owners and public property owners: you may have grounds for a claim when you suffer serious injury in a fall at someone’s home just like you would in a fall on public property.

Other entities may share liability for a slip and fall accident in some cases. Most notably, you may have the right to pursue compensation against the company operating on the premises or against a vendor who poses an unnecessary fall hazard.

Common Damages in St. Petersburg Slip and Fall Claims

Seeking compensation after a St. Petersburg slip and fall accident may involve several complex financial calculations. At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we cannot guarantee how much compensation our clients will recover for slip and fall accident claims. However, we can work with you to take a complete look at the losses you have faced due to the accident and the compensation you might deserve as a result.

Medical Bills

Many slip and fall accident injuries lead to extreme medical bills, from emergency room treatment to surgical costs, recovery costs, and more. Keeping up with all of your medical bills as they come in can make it much easier to determine exactly how much you have spent on your care and, as a result, how much you can ask for in compensation for your medical costs. You may also have the right to include known future medical expenses, such as the cost of a knee replacement you know you will need within a few years because of your fall, as part of your claim.

Lost Income

Losing your income after a fall can cause immense financial damage. Did you have to miss time at work because of your fall? Dip into your vacation time? You may have the right to pursue compensation for those income losses as part of your claim.

Pain and Suffering

Serious fall injuries cause considerably more than just financial damage. You may find yourself dealing with chronic physical pain because of your injuries or suffering from ongoing mental anguish because of the challenges you have faced.

Many slip and fall claims will include compensation for the pain and suffering that went along with your accident. At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, our diligent slip and fall lawyers help our St. Petersburg clients establish how their fall injuries have impacted their lives so that they can maximize the compensation they can recover for pain and suffering.

Contact a St. Petersburg Slip and Fall Accident Attorney Today

Did you suffer injuries in a slip and fall accident? You need a St. Petersburg slip and fall lawyer to help you recover the compensation you deserve. Contact Perenich Law Injury Attorneys for your free consultation.