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Slip and Fall Lawyer in New York City
NYC Slip and Fall Lawyer
Slip and fall accidents can lead to severe, costly injuries. If you slipped and fell on another person’s property, you shouldn’t need to pay your medical bills and other expenses out of pocket. Instead, you may be able to hold the property owner or another party financially responsible for your injuries.
At Ross & Hill, we have represented slip and fall victims in New York City for over 40 years. We’ve been a tremendous asset and source of comfort to our clients in challenging times, and we’re prepared to provide these benefits for your case as well.
Contact us today at 718-855-2324 to schedule your free initial consultation with personal injury lawyers in New York.
FREE CASE EVALUATION
What Is a Slip and Fall Accident?
A slip and fall accident is a type of personal injury accident that falls under the premises liability category. When an accident occurs on private property, the property owner may be liable in some cases.
Slip and fall accidents can encompass any accidents in which a visitor to a property slips, trips, or stumbles on a hazard that the property owner had enough time to remove. Property owners are responsible for creating safe, hazard-free environments for visitors. Failing to remove hazards can leave property owners liable for injuries that occur.
Injuries involving the following hazards are common examples of slip and fall accidents:
- Icy, slippery walkways
- Wet floors
- Merchandise left in the aisle
- Torn or damaged flooring
- Bunched carpeting
- Uneven surfaces
- Improperly lit areas
Slip and fall accident cases follow the same standards as other premises liability cases. If you were injured in another way, you may still have grounds for an insurance claim or lawsuit.
Common Injuries in Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and fall accidents can lead to a wide range of injuries. The most common injuries resulting from these accidents include the following:
- Bruises and lacerations
- Sprained ankles and wrists
- Soft tissue injuries
- Broken bones (More than 95% of hip fractures result from falling)
- Dislocated knees and shoulders
- Traumatic brain injuries (falls are the most common cause of TBIs)
- Spine and nerve damage
According to the CDC, over 800,000 patients are hospitalized yearly from fall injuries. One out of five falls leads to serious injury, such as TBI or broken bones.
The severity of the injuries depends on the circumstances surrounding the accident. Unfortunately, more severe injuries often lead to higher medical bills.
Working with our NY slip and fall lawyers can help you claim compensation equivalent to the amount of expenses you incurred after your accident.
When Are Property Owners Liable for Slip and Fall Accidents?
Premises liability cases are unique from other personal injury cases in that liability is not always clear. Sometimes, property owners are at fault for injuries that occur on their premises. Other times, the victims are at fault.
Property owners have a duty to create a safe environment for certain types of visitors to their properties. The three main types of visitors include the following:
- Invitees: Someone who enters the property by express or implied invitation of the property owner (such as a hotel guest, a customer of a store, or a personal friend)
- Licensees: Someone who is allowed to be on the property for their benefit, not the property owner’s benefit (such as a friend who drops by unannounced)
- Trespassers: Someone who does not have a lawful right to be on the property
Property owners have a duty of care to invitees and licensees, not trespassers. However, their liability for invitees is more significant than for licensees.
If a trespasser becomes injured on the property, the property owner would not be financially liable in most cases. But if an invitee or licensee slipped and fell, leading to an injury, the owner may be responsible.
The owner’s liability depends on their reasonable ability to know about and remove or mitigate the hazard before the accident. If a puddle of milk had been sitting on the floor for several hours, the owner could be liable for slip and fall injuries. But if a patron spilled the milk and another patron slipped on it less than a minute later, the owner probably wouldn’t be liable.
Property owners can also mitigate risk by warning visitors of a dangerous condition. For example, placing a wet floor sign by the puddle may have removed their liability for accidents.
Your New York City slip and fall lawyer can help you determine whether the property owner was liable for your slip and fall accident, then walk you through the steps of seeking compensation.
What Compensation Can You Seek in a Slip and Fall Accident?
Slip and fall accidents can lead to significant medical expenses. In 2015, medical care costs for falls across the U.S. totaled more than $50 billion.
If you experienced a significant injury from a slip and fall accident, you could seek compensation from the at-fault party’s insurance company. Homeowners and business owners should have liability coverage to pay for such incidents.
If the at-fault party does not have adequate insurance, you can consider a lawsuit instead. Your slip and fall attorney in NYC can help you seek compensatory damages, which provide direct compensation for your medical costs and other resulting expenses.
Compensatory damages can cover economic and non-economic expenses. Economic expenses may include:
- Medical costs
- Lost wages
- Loss of ability to work
- Property damage
Non-economic damages can consist of:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship (in a wrongful death case)
If the property owner acted recklessly to cause the slip and fall accident, you could also seek punitive damages, which punish them for their behavior.
Contact Our Slip and Fall Lawyer in New York City Today
Navigating a slip and fall accident case alone can be stressful and overwhelming. Your best course of action is to seek the assistance of a knowledgeable legal team — like our team at Ross & Hill.
We have extensive legal knowledge and personal injury experience that allows us to help clients navigate slip and fall cases successfully. Contact us today to get a free case evaluation.
