Have you been hurt in a slip and fall accident? Most trip and fall accidents are minor, but these accidents are also one of the leading causes of accidental injury, injury-related disability, accidental death, and workers’ compensation claims. Falls are responsible for about 800,000 hospital admissions every year, and they kill 15,000 seniors alone per year.
At Goidel & Siegel Injury Lawyers, we understand just how serious a slip, trip, or fall accident can be. We will fight back against the insurance company’s tactics to minimize your injuries or blame you for your fall to pursue fair compensation for your injuries.
Most slip and fall accident cases involve premises liability, or accidents that occur on someone else’s property. New York’s premises liability law holds property owners responsible for maintaining premises that are reasonably safe for visitors. If you are injured due to dangerous conditions on the property, the property owner may be held liable if they were negligent.
To recover compensation, your case must show that you were owed a duty of care by the property owner which they breached, resulting in your injury. The duty of care or standard of behavior depends on your relationship with the property owner:
Invitees are owed the highest duty of care. Property owners must maintain the property in reasonably safe condition, fix or warn of known hazards, and perform regular inspections to identify and address hazards. The property owner can be liable for injuries that result from defects they knew about or should have known about.
If you were a licensee, the property owner is only liable for injuries they had actual or construction knowledge of, not hazards they could have detected through regular inspection of the property.
All premises liability cases are complex and require substantial evidence and a well-prepared case. To win your case, you must show that the property owner either knew the danger existed or should have known of the danger. This can be challenging. After demonstrating that there was a dangerous condition, the defendant must show they fulfilled their duty by taking reasonable steps to correct the condition, provide warning, or otherwise make the property safe.
Another crucial aspect of your case is whether the hazard was obvious and whether you contributed to your accident. New York uses a pure comparative negligence doctrine which means a percentage of liability can be assigned to all parties involved after an accident. If you failed to exercise reasonable caution, or even failed to mitigate your damages by seeking prompt medical attention, your recovery can be reduced according to the share of fault you are assigned.
A court will consider whether the hazard that caused your injury was open and obvious. This means the hazard was recognizable and observable and an ordinary person would have taken reasonable steps to protect themselves. This can be tricky, however. Property owners have a duty to maintain safe walkways and entrances which means shoveling and salting to avoid an accumulation of ice and snow. While a build-up of snow or ice is usually considered open and obvious, this isn’t always the case, particularly with black ice that isn’t readily apparent.
Any fault that is assigned to you directly reduces the compensation you can recover. This is why it’s crucial to work with an experienced New York slip and fall accident lawyer who understands the evidence necessary to prove a premises liability case.
Our attorneys successfully represented a 35 year-old woman who slipped on a puddle of grease or oil and fractured her knee while walking down a ramp in a New York parking garage. We presented evidence that the ramp was excessively steep, had no handrails, lacked a nonskid surface and did not have an intermediate landing.
Check out other settlements on our Case Results page.
Goidel & Siegel obtained a $900,000 recovery for a woman who slipped and fell down an interior staircase in an apartment building, sustaining injuries to her back.
Check out other settlements on our Case Results page.
Our injury attorneys put their reputation, resources, and experience to work on behalf of a woman who tripped and fell on a defective sidewalk in Manhattan. After building a strong case with the necessary evidence we recovered an $800,000 settlement.
Check out other settlements on our Case Results page.
As a leading personal injury law firm in the New York City area, lawyers often refer complex cases to us. Goidel & Siegel recovered $590,000 for a woman with an elevated blood alcohol level who sustained fractures in a fall down a stairway. This result demonstrates the willingness and ability of our attorneys to pursue complicated and serious injury cases.
Check out other settlements on our Case Results page.
A slip and fall can leave you with a long and painful recovery, permanent impairment, and long-term health effects. If you have been hurt because a property owner was careless, you should not be forced to suffer the financial burden of your injuries.
Goidel & Siegel Injury Lawyers has represented slip and fall victims and their family members for more than three decades. Our New York trial lawyers have extensive courtroom experience which gives us an edge during negotiations because insurance companies know we are prepared to take a case to court when necessary. Call our law office today for a free consultation with our multilingual New York injury lawyers to discuss how we can help you.
The order in which you take these steps may vary depending on the severity of your injuries, but you should do these things as soon as you can after your slip and fall accident:
The most common causes of slip and fall accidents include:
A slip and fall lawyer will listen to your story about how your accident happened, then gather evidence to determine what happened and why as well as who is at fault. Once we determine who is liable for your injuries, an experienced New York slip and fall lawyer can represent you in a premises liability lawsuit or an insurance claim to negotiate a fair slip and fall settlement.
Slip and fall lawyers, like the ones at Goidel & Siegel, get paid using a percentage of your settlement, which means if you don’t get paid, you don’t owe us anything. If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident on somebody else’s property, schedule a free consultation at Goidel & Siegel today. We may be able to help you get compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, loss of life enjoyment, and other damages resulting from your accident.
There’s no risk in contacting us today.
If you suffer a trip and fall injury on somebody else’s property, you should take the following steps (in the order that makes the most sense based on the severity of your injuries):
If somebody else was responsible for your slip and fall accident on their property, you may be entitled to various types of compensation, like:
For a free consultation to discuss how much your case may be worth, contact the New York slip and fall lawyers at Goidel & Siegel today.
Slip and fall cases can be hard to win because you must be able to prove:
With the right New York slip and fall lawyers on your side, you may be able to get the compensation you deserve. At Goidel & Siegel, we have more than 30 years of experience getting slip and fall accident victims the compensation they need to get their lives back on track after devastating injuries. Contact us today for a free consultation.
56 W. 45th Street 3rd Floor New York, NY 10036
