Florida Slip and Fall Injury Guide

The Florida Slip and Fall Injury Guide was created by Norden Leacox Accident & Injury Law to help residents who have been injured in an accident obtain maximum compensation for their claim.

Three Tips for a Successful Case

 You are not powerless when it comes to your slip and fall claim. You can do things to strengthen your case. You can avoid things to prevent weakening your case. Here are three tips you can use if you want a successful case.

1. Collect evidence at the scene. Unless you are knocked unconscious from your fall, you should try to get as much evidence as possible. If you’re unable to do this by yourself, you can ask for the help of a friend, family member, or even one of our Orlando slip and fall lawyers. Take pictures and videos of what you tripped over or slipped in. It might be broken concrete on a sidewalk, or it could be a spill at a store. Make sure you have evidence that you can bring to your lawyer so they can use it to build a strong case.
2. Report your injury. This primarily is for a slip and fall on public property. If you’re hurt at a store, have the store manager come and make an accident report. If you’re hurt in front of someone’s home while walking or running, you should tell the owner and possibly have authorities come to the scene. Make sure there is a record of your injury. Get a copy of an accident report if possibly.
3. Get immediate medical attention. As soon as you’re done with the evidence collection and accident report, head straight to an urgent care or emergency room to get your injuries looked at. Your well-being needs to be the top priority. You may feel like you need to finish your errands , get to work or go home and rest to see if you get better on your own. We strongly advise against this. The insurance company will be looking carefully to see what you did for your injuries after your slip and fall. If they are suspicious at all about how long it took you to get to a doctor, they can claim you lied about the severity of your injuries or even where you got them. That means you are not going to get a fair result.

Please bring any questions or concerns to your first free consultation with our Orlando slip and fall lawyer.

The Parties Involved in a Slip and Fall

 Slip and fall cases are sometimes a little bit more complicated than other personal injury cases. They can happen just about anywhere, from your friend’s house to the grocery store or Disney World. The basic structure of the claim is generally the same, however, whether you are seeking justice from a private homeowner, a public property or a municipality.

There are going to be four categories each party falls into:

First, the plaintiff. That will be the injured victim in the slip and fall. That’s you. Your primary objective is to get justice for your injuries.

Second, the liable party. Again, this could be the owner of the home you tripped at, the grocery store owner, etc. The liable party is called “liable” because they knew there was a hazard on their property but did not do anything to fix it, which resulted in your injury.

Next, you have the insurance company who represents the liable party. Their goal is to try to limit the responsibility they have to you. That saves them money. They will be the ones who you are asking to give you a compensation award.

Last is your Orlando slip and fall lawyers. They dedicate themselves to protecting your rights to justice— full and fair justice.

Act Quickly

 The sooner you take action, the better. Odds are your evidence can disappear as soon as you leave the scene of your slip and fall. Slips get cleaned up, security cam footage gets taped over, tripped hazards get fixed. Call one of our Orlando slip and fall lawyers as soon as possible. Keep in mind also that you have a four-year statute of limitations in Florida. That means you will not be eligible for justice after four years past the date of your accident.

Choosing The Right Orlando Slip And Fall Attorney

Common Mistakes Made During A Slip And Fall Injury Case

Unfortunately, there are many common mistakes we see people make after they’ve been injured in a slip and fall in Orlando. One of the most important things to do if you’ve been injured in a slip and fall, if you’re able to or if you have someone with you that can, is to document the scene immediately. Take photographs of what caused you to fall, what caused you to slip, because oftentimes that evidence will disappear quickly, and will be disputed later on, and there’s nothing better than having photographs at the exact time of the incident.

Another very common mistake we see people make is failing to seek medical attention right away. It’s very important to seek medical attention right away after a slip and fall so that your injuries can be documented immediately, and also so you can have peace of mind and know the extent of your injuries and what’s going on. Also, if the case is needed to be litigated later, immediate medical attention helps document your injuries and meet the burden of proof.

Another common mistake we see people make is to fill out an incident report and write things in that incident report that will hurt them later. Sometimes it’s a great idea to give an incident report but be careful of what you write or put in there so that it can’t be used against you later. Another very common mistake we see people make is hiring the wrong lawyer. Slip and falls are tough cases in the state of Florida, and there’s a lot of law that applies to them. If you don’t hire a lawyer that knows about those specific statutes, knows about that law, it can be the difference in recovering money or getting nothing.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a slip and fall, please contact us. We have many years of experience in slip and fall cases, and we’d be happy to help you.

Injured Due To A Faulty Handrail

If you have been injured due to a faulty handrail, you definitely have a valid injury claim to pursue. Handrails are put there to assist people going up and down stairs. If the handrail is faulty and causes an injury, it’s important that you hire a lawyer that has experience with those types of cases. It’s important that you hire a lawyer that will get an expert to assess that handrail immediately because, quite often, things will change and things will happen, and later on it’ll be difficult or it can be difficult to prove about that faulty handrail.

We have many years of experience with those types of cases – slip and fall cases, trip and fall cases, cases involving building codes and handrails – and if you or someone you know or love has been injured due to a faulty handrail, please contact us. We’d love to help you.

Injuries Due To Faulty Steps

You can pursue a personal injury claim because of someone else’s negligence. It’s very important that you hire a lawyer with experience in those types of cases because there can be many different companies or entities that you need to go after in those types of cases. Most often, it’s the owner of the property or who was controlling the property at the time of those steps, but that’s not always the case. As such, it’s important that you hire a lawyer that has experience with those types of cases.

Often, those cases need experts to assess the stairs, to look at their height, to look at their uniformity, to look at the width of them, see whether they meet the applicable building codes. There’s a lot that goes into cases involving stairs, and it’s important you hire a lawyer with experience in those types of cases. We have many, many years of experience with those types of cases, not only defending them for companies and corporations, but also representing injured clients and people who have been injured as a result of faulty stairs. If you or a loved one have been injured on some stairs, please contact us so that we can give you some guidance. We’d be happy to help you.

Residential Property Injury

If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall on a residential property, it’s very important that you document the scene immediately, if you’re able to. If you can or have someone with you that can, take pictures of what caused your injury and fall immediately, because oftentimes that evidence will disappear and it may be needed later down the line.

The next thing you should do, if you’ve been injured, is contact an experienced lawyer. Issues like that involving cases against a homeowner or a property owner can be complicated, and you need a lawyer that has experience with those types of cases. Oftentimes, it’s not going after that individual personally, it’s going after their insurance company. Most pieces of property and most homes have homeowner’s insurance, so it’s important that you hire a lawyer that has experience with those types of cases and can assist you and help you get full and fair compensation for your injuries.

If you’ve been involved in a residential trip and fall or slip and fall accident, please contact us. We’d be happy to help you.

Slip And Fall Case Value

We’re often asked by people, “What is the value of my slip and fall injury claim here in Orlando?” There’s no exact science or answer to that question. What we do is we use the many years of experience we have defending companies in slip and falls and the many years of experience that we have representing injured people in slip and falls to give our clients some guidance and education on the value of those cases.

Last, we look at jury verdicts, what other lawyers have obtained and what other juries have done throughout the state of Florida in similar cases with similar injuries, and we use all that information to give our clients some guidance and educate them on a range of what we could recommend to settle their case. In that way, our clients can make an educated and informed decision if they would like to settle their case outside of a jury trial or they would like us to present their case to a jury.

If you’ve been injured or have a loved one that’s been injured in a slip and fall, please contact us. We have many years of experience in these types of cases, and we’d be happy to help you.

Slip and Fall Injury Settlement Timeline

Slip And Fall Settlement Offers

If you have a slip and fall claim in Orlando, is it ever a good idea to take the insurance company’s first offer? If you’ve been injured as a result of a slip and fall, it’s quite common that you’re going to get immediately contacted by that company or that company’s insurance company with some type of lowball settlement offer. It is almost never a good idea to take that first offer. More importantly, before you ever accept any offer, give any type of recorded statement, speak to an insurance company or sign anything, it’s very important that you speak to a lawyer to get some guidance and counseling about the situation, about your injuries, what your case may be worth, and whether or not you should accept that offer.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a slip and fall, please contact us. We’d love to help you.

Speaking To Insurance After A Slip And Fall Injury

It’s almost never a good idea to talk to the insurance company for a company or business after you’ve been injured in a slip and fall in Orlando. The reason being is it’s almost never that insurance company doing anything that will help you or assist you later on down the line. In contrast, what they’re typically trying to do is get you to release your case, sign a release, so that you cannot pursue them later on for full and fair compensation. Oftentimes, they’ll make you an offer worth pennies on the dollar. Additionally, oftentimes, they’re going to try to take a recorded statement, getting you to maybe say things that can be used against you at a later point in time.

If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall, please do not talk to the insurance company without speaking with an experienced slip and fall lawyer. If you’ve been injured or have a loved one that’s been injured in a slip and fall, please contact us. We’d be happy to help you.

Suing A City Or County For A Slip And Fall Injury Case

Warning Signs In A Slip And Fall Case

Oftentimes, when we’re retained in personal injury cases stemming from a slip and fall, we get pictures of the area where our client slipped or fell and see that there was some type of warning cone or warning sign in the area. Under Florida law, businesses have two duties; they have a duty to warn someone of a dangerous condition, like a slippery floor, and they also have a duty to maintain.

It’s very important that you hire a lawyer that has knowledge of these laws, knowledge of this duty, and knowledge of the facts of these types of cases because just because there’s a warning sign in an area, does not mean you cannot pursue the case. It may mean that the case is more difficult, but it’s very important that you hire a lawyer that has knowledge about that and experience with those types of cases so that they can educate you and guide you so that you can make an informed decision about that case, whether to pursue it, whether to settle it, or whether to take it to trial.

We have many years of experience with those types of cases, not only defending them but also pursuing them for injured clients, as well as taking those types of cases to juries. If you or a loved one has been injured due to slip and fall, please contact us. We’d be happy to help you.

 Call Our Orlando Slip and Fall Lawyers Today

 Slip and falls are awful accidents. If you have suffered due to the negligence of a property owner, please do not hesitate to bring your claim with the help of our Orlando slip and fall lawyers. You deserve dedicated and tireless support from someone who is going to help you get a fair result. Call us as soon as you can to get a free initial consultation.

Like Us on Facebook

Subscribe to us on YouTube