Answering "How long does a slip and fall claim take?" involves evaluating various factors and complexities specific to each case. Some claims can be resolved within a few months, while more devastating injuries take longer to settle. You'll want to speak to an experienced premises liability or slip and fall attorney to initiate the claim process. They navigate many of the steps necessary for recovering compensation so that you don't have to. Schedule a free consultation to get started on the process right away.
Slip and Fall Claim Step-by-Step Guide Process
The slip and fall claim process length varies depending on factors such as state statute and jurisdiction, severity of injuries, clear or disputed liability, and various other factors. That's why having an experienced slip and fall attorney handling your claim is highly beneficial. They ensure proper form completion, meeting legal deadlines for filing, proper claim valuation, and skilled negotiations for maximum settlements. The more severe your injuries, the length of medical treatment, and how long it takes to hit your maximum medical improvement (MMI) all influence how long your slip and fall claim will take.
Seek Immediate Medical Attention
Seeking medical attention immediately is a vital first step to ensuring your health, treatment, recovery, and accurate documentation for your legal right to pursue compensation. Even if you feel uninjured or sustained seemingly minor injuries, a medical evaluation by a licensed healthcare professional is necessary. Several injuries are hidden or have delayed symptoms, such as concussions, whiplash, abdominal injuries, and internal bleeding. Procrastinating or avoiding medical evaluation, care, and treatment can be detrimental to health and even become fatal. Don't delay medical attention.
Make an Incident Report
Filing an incident or accident report is essential for informing the establishment where the slip and fall occurred and documenting it for your case. Depending on the severity of the slip and fall, this step is interchangeable with the first step. The person you report the incident to depends on where the slip and fall occurred. However, they generally entail property owners, managers, or occupiers. Accident victims may need to sign incident reports documenting the date, time, location, and other critical information about the slip and fall.
Gather Evidence
This part of the step-by-step claim process is imperative for slip and fall injury cases. When situations are emergent or dire, accident victims don't stay and document the scene. While it's helpful when clients have photos of the hazardous condition that caused the scene and witness contact information, that's not always plausible. Slip and fall lawyers work swiftly to investigate and document the premises before vital evidence is lost or destroyed. Examples of evidence they can gather include the following:
- Incident reports
- Video surveillance footage from security cameras
- Photos documenting every angle of the hazardous condition and scene
- Witness statements outlining details of your slip and fall
- Photos of your injuries
- Video of long-term or daily impact of catastrophic injuries
- Detailed medical documentation
- Property maintenance records or logs
- Weather reports
- Building codes
A detailed victim statement or personal accounting of the incident, including documented actions and injuries, is compelling evidence in a slip and fall claim. Premise liability attorneys collaborate with a network of experts who strengthen the evidence in these cases by lending their skills and invaluable testimony to slip and fall claims.
Keep Detailed Records
The strength of your evidence is pivotal for proving negligence in your slip and fall claim. It's important to keep detailed and organized records of all financial losses to ensure their calculations when valuing damages. You'll want to provide evidence demonstrating the following:
- Healthcare Costs: All medical costs are compensable economic losses. These include hospital and emergency care services, surgical and post-op procedures, and medical evaluations and treatments from primary care physicians. Keep all medical bills or paid statements for your attorney.
- Income Losses: Missing work creates recoverable income losses in a slip and fall claim. Injured parties must provide pay stubs, tax returns, and lost income statements from employers verifying lost earnings, tips, overtime, benefits, bonuses, promotions, and more.
- Out-of-Pocket Expenses: Keep receipts for all out-of-pocket costs related to your slip and fall. These include transportation costs, home health care, and in-home modifications to accommodate your disability.
Intangible losses, such as pain and suffering, are more challenging to calculate. However, you can help establish them by keeping a pain journal outlining injury symptoms. Injured parties should describe pain levels on a scale of 1-10, emotional and mental distress, and limitations or restrictions injuries impose on daily life. Accident victims can also keep records of travel time and expenses to and from medical and rehabilitation appointments noted in their journals.
Avoid Making Statements
Slip and fall accident victims should avoid making statements to coworkers, friends, and family about their injuries and liability. Most importantly, they should avoid speaking to liable insurance companies and refuse to give recorded statements. Insurers are conniving and frequently call accident victims immediately to request them. The purpose is to get you to say anything they can use to deny partial or total liability, minimizing their losses. If you've already provided a recorded statement, you'll want to contact an attorney to discuss potential backlash and strategy.
Avoid Posting to Social Media
Similarly, avoid making statements or posting to your social media about your slip and fall, injuries, and legal strategy to recover compensation. Posting at all can spell trouble. Insurance companies commonly employ private investigators to watch claimants' social media accounts for any posts on which they can spin a narrative that dismisses their responsibility. Even an innocent photo can be taken out of context and cost you money. It's best to refrain from social media posting during the slip and fall claim process.
Follow Your Medical Treatment Plan
After evaluating your injuries, medical professionals provide a treatment plan for recovery. It is imperative that you follow it. That means making and keeping your physical therapy and other prescribed rehabilitation and procedures. Most importantly, following your treatment plan is critical for recovering from injuries rather than exacerbating them.
Following your treatment plan is also vital to recovering compensation for your claim. Missed appointments and gaps in treatment don't look good, and they can be suggested as evidence that you are healed from your injuries—or that you were not injured to begin with and filed a fraudulent claim.
Consult an Experienced Slip and Fall Attorney Today
After seeking medical attention, injured parties should consult an experienced slip and fall lawyer about their case before filing claims. You'll want to ensure the protection of your legal rights while strategizing a plan for securing a settlement. Schedule a free consultation to speak to a trusted slip and fall lawyer to get started on your slip and fall claim today.
Theodore "Ted" E. Karatinos, Esq.
Ted Karatinos has been practicing law since 1993. He is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum® and a nationally read author in Barrister Magazine, The Young Lawyer, The Federal Lawyer, and The Florida Bar Journal. He is in great demand for seminars and speaking engagements all over Florida.
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