Were you or a loved one injured from a serious fall? Here is what you should know about a slip and fall in Atlanta. Give us a call today!
1) Mistakes to Avoid After a Slip and Fall
There are a number of mistakes we commonly see people make that can harm their slip and fall case. It’s important to make sure these things don’t happen. One of the primary things that we see that can harm a slip and fall case is the client failing to make a report of what occurred at the facility, whether that be a grocery store, restaurant, or department store where they have fallen and suffered an injury. Don’t leave the premises without telling an employee and allowing a report to be made.
The next thing we see is people failing to get immediate medical treatment. When you don’t get immediate medical treatment, it makes it much harder to connect your injuries to the accident. If you’re having pain, even if it’s minor, go to an emergency room and get medical treatment. It’s important to get treated because what may start as minor pain will often become significant pain over the coming days. You want to make sure that you have that pain documented from the beginning.
Another mistake that we see people make is not following their doctors’ orders. When a doctor prescribes you treatment, it’s very important to follow through and do what your doctor says. Insurance companies will latch on to gaps in treatment to claim that if you were as injured as you say you are, you would have been going to every treatment session that you had available to you. Don’t give them that opportunity. Make sure you get to every treatment session that you’re supposed to be going to.
Finally, it is crucial to hire an experienced slip and fall attorney immediately after your incident. We need to preserve evidence that allows us to prove your claim going forward, which is why you mustn’t delay. We only have a limited amount of time to procure video of the fall, which is often crucial to our cases. Make sure that we are contacted right away so we can investigate and make sure that all the evidence that we need is preserved.
Also, don’t hire the wrong attorney. If you hire an attorney who doesn’t know the proper steps because he or she does not handle slip and fall cases, all the evidence may be lost, along with your ability to recover compensation. Make sure to hire someone who is experienced in handling these claims.
2) Medical Bills
When we have clients come in who have been injured in slip and fall, one of the first things they want to know is if they need to have a minimum amount of medical expenses incurred in order to justify a personal injury case. While there are some cases that have very significant injuries and minor medical expenses, those are the exception and not the rule. When looking at a slip and fall claim, you need to have an injury that’s pretty substantial to warrant pursuing one of those cases.
The reason for that is because these types of cases are so fact and expert-intensive. They’re expensive to work up. No one wants to spend their time going through a case where the value of the injury is $15,000, but you have to spend $20,000 on the case to make that recovery. In order to pursue one of these cases, you generally need to have a situation where someone has a significant injury such as a broken bone, or an injury requiring surgery, in order to justify the claim. If you have been injured in a slip and fall, it’s a good idea to immediately contact a personal injury lawyer who can help you evaluate your case and make sure you understand what’s necessary to pursue it.
3) Settlement Timeline
People who have slip and fall cases often want to know how long it will take to resolve their claim. The answer to that question is we never know. They can vary greatly depending on the severity of the injuries and how strong the evidence is. Slip and fall cases are very evidence-intensive because you have to prove the liability of the premises owner where the slip and fall occurred. That often involves receiving video evidence that the store may have, internal reports, questioning workers that were there, and trying to figure out if these types of injuries had happened previously. In a slip and fall, it’s very rare for the case to resolve prior to filing a lawsuit. With car wreck cases, you’re often able to resolve them quickly because the liability of the at-fault driver is clear. That’s usually not the case in a premises liability claim.
You can usually expect from the time the lawsuit is filed that it will take 18 months to three years before you can expect to get a resolution in a slip and fall case. Generally, we’re not able to file those lawsuits until the injured party has finished treating for his or her injuries because we need to know the full extent of the damages suffered.
Were you or a loved one seriously injured in an accident in Georgia and have questions about what you should know about a slip and fall?
Contact the experienced Atlanta slip and fall lawyer at Gunnels Injury Law today to arrange a free consultation and case evaluation.
Let our experience work for you.
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