Slip and fall season

Now is the time of year that everyone is falling. We must get at least one to two calls a week. Everyone has the same question...."I fell and hurt my back....how much money can I get?" This is almost impossible to answer and assumes that you were not at fault.

Let's start with the actual reason for the fall. The law requires that everyone be aware of their surroundings. We all have a duty to ourselves to be aware of where we are walking. If you slip and fall there is a legal presumption that you were not paying complete attention to where you were walking and therefore you are negligent to some degree. If a court finds that you were 10% negligent! they will reduce any award you get by 10% to account for this negligence. Just because you fall doesn't mean that someone else is at fault. If the ground looks icy and you step on it anyway you can't complain that someone should have cleared the ground of ice after you fall. Will you always have some degree of negligence? No. If you were distracted or otherwise prevented from paying attention to your surroundings you can not be at fault for not paying attention.

Now that liability is established we can get down to dollars and cents. How much is an injury worth? That is a function of the type of injury, the severity of an injury, your medical bills and your pain and suffering. We must also look at the jurisdiction where the slip and fall occurred. Juries in urban areas tend to award more money than in rural areas where the mood is more conservative   In the end, you need to look at the facts carefully to determine negligence and value. Anyone who can predict from a few facts, the value of an injury is doing nothing more than telling you a number just to get your business.

The best advice....keep a good look out where you walk!