Fort Worth Slip and Fall Lawyer

Call the Zinda law group Fort Worth slip and fall lawyers today at (800) 863-5312 

Falls can happen anywhere to anyone, but that does not mean they cannot be prevented. In fact, falls make up 33% of all preventable non-fatal emergency room visits, and OSHA has safety training for workplaces to avoid slips, trips, and falls. When a fall could have been prevented, the person responsible for preventing it may have been negligent. When that happens, Fort Worth slip and fall lawyers can step in to help the victim of the fall.

If you or a loved one slipped and fell in Fort Worth, talk with a Fort Worth personal injury lawyer at Zinda Law Group. Our attorneys offer a free consultation to help you determine your next steps after a slip and fall accident. Call (800) 863-5312 today to talk to our experienced lawyers.

How a Fort Worth personal injury lawyer can help you

You might be unsure of who to blame if you slipped and fell. Perhaps you worry that it might be your own fault. If you are uncertain about your rights after a slip, trip, or fall, talk with a Fort Worth attorney to clear up some of the confusion and help you decide whether to file a lawsuit. After the initial consultation, the lawyer can help you with the other parts of your case.

A Fort Worth Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help File Your Lawsuit

Once you have decided to move forward and attempt to recover against the person who caused your injury, you can file your claim. Note that the statute of limitations for a personal injury action in the state of Texas is two years. A statute of limitations is the law that governs how long someone has after the event occurs to file a claim in court, and Texas law gives plaintiffs two years to take legal action..

A Lawyer Can Help You Build Your Case

Next, your attorney can help you gather the necessary information to build your case. You may have started your initial consultation with your attorney with only the names, places, and your account of the fall. The information pertaining to your accident will by and large come up through the stage of litigation called discovery, during which lawyers on either side exchange information to see how the slip and fall happened and how it could have been prevented.

The lawyers on either side will interview potential witnesses who saw you fall and request documents from the location of your fall. They will also exchange necessary personal documentation, such as medical bills for your injury and the property owner’s insurance. Since this is the step of the case that requires the most work, it usually takes more time than any other step.

A Slip and Fall Lawyer Can Help You Reach a Settlement

The defendant’s lawyer, insurance company, and perhaps the defendant him or herself, will all argue to reduce the amount the defendant pays you. In those arguments, they might say that you partially caused your fall or that the defendant could not have prevented the fall. It is your lawyer’s job to prepare counterarguments for those defenses and preserve the strength of your case. If you and the defendant cannot agree on a settlement amount, your attorney might recommend that you go to trial. However, more cases settle rather than go to trial due to the unpredictable nature of juries.

Read More: Slip and Fall Settlements

What to do after a Slip and fall accident in Fort worth, TX

If you slipped and fell on someone else’s property, then there is a chance that the property owner could have prevented the injury. This means that you have a potential legal claim to protect, and you should preserve it as best you can. Perhaps you have already fallen and have taken some of these steps. Regardless, here are the most important actions to take following a slip and fall accident:

Do Not Admit Fault

You might feel embarrassed after your fall, especially if it happened in public. Perhaps you feel the need to assure the person helping you back up that you are clumsy or that you should have looked where you were going. Avoid saying anything that witnesses or the property owner could interpret as admitting fault. Importantly, avoid giving any recorded statements about the accident right away.

The property owner can use your statements to show that you deserve a smaller settlement or judgment amount. Even your own insurance company could use your statements against you to pay you less than the fair amount. Talk with a lawyer before providing anyone with a written or recorded statement.

Collect Evidence

If you are able, gather evidence while the accident scene is fresh. Was there a wet floor in the grocery store without a warning sign? Take a picture. Did someone see you fall? Talk with them to get another perspective on how the accident happened and ask for the witness’s name and contact information.

If the accident occurred at a store, ask for the names of the employees who are working that day. If the accident occurred at a landlord’s property or someone else’s property, be sure you have the correct contact information for the owner. Try to get to the bottom of who is responsible for your accident, especially when multiple people and companies are involved. For example, a landlord may have hired someone to mow the grass at an apartment building and the hired mower may have failed to remove grass from the sidewalk, causing you to slip and fall.

Seek Medical Attention if Injured

If you did not need emergency medical care immediately following your fall, you should still visit the doctor relatively soon after you were injured for two reasons. First, you may not initially realize the seriousness of your injuries and they may get worse without treatment. Scrapes and bruises may have hidden serious back pain or head injuries. Second, you might not otherwise have proof of your injury or the pain and suffering you experienced without documentation from a doctor.

Document the dates and locations of all your visits to care providers, and keep track of each test or X-ray, diagnosis, treatment, financial expense, and the amount of time you had to miss work. If you have not been keeping track of that information, a lawyer can help you go back and gather it. This medical information is essential for determining your economic and non-economic damages.

Talk with a Fort Worth Attorney

Last, let a lawyer help you decide how to move forward. Tell him or her how and where you fell and find out whether you have a strong case. A lawyer’s opinion can save you time, money, and heartache if you file suit before consulting with a professional.

What is a slip and fall?

The owner of a property you visit owes you a duty of care to prevent foreseeable harm while you are on the premises unless you trespassed. When the property owner fails to provide you that duty of care, then the owner may have been negligent. This duty of care is often referred to as premises liability.

As we discussed earlier, a slip and fall can occur at home or on someone else’s property. To legally file a complaint, your slip and fall must have happened on someone else’s property. It must have occurred because of an unsafe condition on the property, and you must have been injured. Usually in slip and fall cases, the fall could have been prevented by the property owner warning you or taking care of the unsafe situation.

Where Can a Slip and Fall Happen?

While a slip and fall can happen almost anywhere, there are a few classic examples of places where the fall was clearly preventable. Unmarked wet floors, uneven floors, loose floorboards, and broken stairs can harm visitors inside a building. Poor lighting or improperly maintained driveways, sidewalks, and stairs can cause people to slip and fall outside.

Even poor supervision at nursing homes could result in a preventable slip and fall. However, this kind of accident might more readily fall under a nursing home abuse case. If your loved one fell in a nursing home, talk with a Fort Worth personal injury lawyer about your claim.

Read More: Premises Liability Lawyers

What Kinds of Injuries Result from a Slip and Fall?

Slip and falls sometimes do not have major consequences on the rest of a person’s life, but when they are serious, they can affect you for years to come. Bruises and broken bones are potentially less severe injuries, but slip andfalls can also cause spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, or even death.

Read More: Brain Injury Lawyers

What compensation can you receive for a slip and fall accident?

If someone else caused your slip and fall accident, you have a chance to recover for the financial and emotional toll of your injury. Damages are the legal remedy that the defendant pays you as compensation for your loss or injury. You can use your medical documentation and other evidence to prove damages you are claiming. In slip and fall accidents, you can typically seek economic damages and non-economic damages.

Economic Damages

You receive economic damages to recover the financial losses related to your injury. Economic damages cover your medical bills, including rehabilitation and therapy costs. Your injury might have affected your ability to work, which would make you eligible for damages for your loss of income. If you are suing on behalf of a loved one who fell and died, funeral costs are part of economic damages.

If the cost of damage to your personal property is not immediately apparent, it is calculated at the fair market price at the time the accident occurred. For example, suppose you were pushing a stroller that was $400 when you bought it new three years ago. Suppose further that the stroller was damaged when you slipped and fell. If the stroller is unable to be fixed, its value will be calculated at its fair market value at the time of the accident—which could be significantly less than the price you paid three years ago.

Non-economic Damages

Non-economic damages can be more difficult to calculate because they do not come with an exact dollar amount attached. They relate to the emotional toll of your injury when yo after your fall. For example, if you have permanently reduced mobility after your fall, you can receive non-economic damages for your loss of enjoyment of life. You might also receive non-economic damages for loss of companionship if you are suing on behalf of your loved one who died.

Talk With one of our Fort Worth slip and fall lawyers at Zinda law group

If you or a loved one slipped and fell in Fort Worth because of someone else’s negligence, our attorneys are here for you. Our lawyers at Zinda Law Group want you to avoid the confusion and frustration of going through the legal process alone. We can help you determine who was at fault for the accident and help you pursue maximum compensation from the person or company that hurt you.

If you or a loved one were hurt after slipping and falling, we may be able to help. Give us a call at (800) 863-5312 and schedule your 100% free consultation. One of our experienced Fort Worth lawyers will meet with you and help you plan your next steps.

Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.