If you slip and fall on someone else’s property, you may be entitled to compensation for accident-related economic damages. However, the damages you can recover for your slip and fall accident depend on the details of your case, the severity of your injuries, and the losses you’ve incurred.
To recover the total value of your case, you’ll need to prove the property owner’s or operator’s negligence and the damages you’ve incurred. A slip and fall lawyer can help you collect evidence, calculate damages, build a strong case, and negotiate with the insurance company to receive maximum compensation for your injuries.
Legal Remedies for Slip and Fall Accident Victims
If you make a claim against a property owner and prove that their negligence caused your slip and fall accident, you’ll be compensated for the following:
Economic Damages
These refer to the financial losses you’ve incurred from your accident injuries. Economic damages can include out-of-pocket expenses and bills you receive from third parties. Economic damages in slip and fall cases include:
1. Medical Costs
Typically, medical expenses make up the most significant part of slip-and-fall accident claims. You’re entitled to full compensation for all reasonable and necessary medical expenses resulting from the accident.
Medical expenses include:
- Hospital stays
- Doctor visits
- Surgeries
- Diagnostic tests
- Physical and rehabilitative therapy
- Radiology charges
- Ambulance cost
- Prescription medications
Careful documentation is necessary to ensure maximum compensation for all medical expenses. A personal injury lawyer can explain the complexities of insurance claims and legal procedures, ensuring that you obtain the compensation you deserve. They gather medical and police records and witness statements, which are critical in building a strong case.
2. Lost Income
If your injuries from a slip and fall accident caused your absence from work for some time, you may be able to recover your lost income. Lost income can include salaries, wages, self-employed earnings, or lost business opportunities. It may also include bonuses, commissions, and benefits. You must show how much you’d have earned if you hadn’t sustained the injuries.
A personal injury lawyer can help in the recovery of lost income from a slip or fall injury by employing various strategies. Your lawyer will gather evidence such as pay stubs, tax returns, and employer statements to quantify the income you have lost due to the injury. They may enlist the help of vocational experts or economists to assess your earning capacity before and after the injury, considering factors such as your occupation, skills, and market trends.
A personal injury attorney is an expert in negotiating with insurance companies or other liable parties to secure compensation for your lost income. They ensure that the settlement offer adequately reflects the financial impact of the injury on your earning capacity.
If a fair settlement can’t be reached through settlement, your slip and fall attorney will take the matter to the court to pursue compensation for lost income. They will present evidence and arguments to demonstrate the extent of your financial losses and fight for a favorable outcome on your behalf.
3. Loss of Earning Capacity
Severe injuries resulting from a slip and fall accident may significantly affect your ability to return to work in the future, either temporarily or permanently. Or they could limit you from doing the kind of work you did before.
In such cases, you may be able to obtain loss of earning capacity damages. You need to work with a slip-and-fall attorney to determine the economic value of your lost earning potential. If you can work but cannot earn the same income as before the injury, you can include a claim for damages for diminished earning capacity.
4. Costs of Living with Disability
A slip-and-fall injury may lead to an impairment that significantly alters your lifestyle. Damages may cover the costs that come with the changes. For instance, a damage award may reimburse you for the expenses of assistive walking devices, in-home nursing care, or renovating the home to ensure it is wheelchair-accessible if you cannot walk.
5. Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are less tangible compared to economic damages. They are not easy to assign a monetary value, and are subjective because of the varying magnitude of suffering from one individual to another.
Non-economic damages generally encompass:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Anxiety and depression
- Fear, humiliation, or embarrassment
- Lower quality of life
- Physical disfigurement and impairment
- Mental anguish and emotional distress, ranging from depression to insomnia to PTSD
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of consortium
When calculating non-economic damages, several factors will be considered, including the victim’s age, injury severity, and income. A multiplier for non-economic damages is added to the actual and future economic costs.
6. Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are not intended to reimburse the victim but punish the defendant for negligence. This is meant to discourage the defendant and others from behaving similarly. Generally, punitive damages are awarded when the defendant’s conduct is deemed outrageous or egregious. These damages are not awarded in all personal injury cases, and unless a compensatory damage award has been ordered, they may not be considered.
Usually, the courts limit punitive damages to less than ten times the amount of compensatory damages to avoid excessive punitive damages awards.
Bottom Line
Tort laws would entitle you to several legal remedies if you were injured in a slip and fall accident due to the property owner’s negligence or intentional wrongful actions. Working with a slip and fall lawyer is essential to understand what types of injury compensation are available to your case and how much your case might be worth. An attorney will help you seek maximum compensation for injuries sustained in the accident.
