Greenville Slip and Fall Accident Attorney

Slip and fall claims are one of the more common types of personal injury cases. Do not confuse common with minor accidents.

You could suffer serious injuries from a slip and fall that may keep you from ever being the same again. You are also dealing with an insurance company that has the mentality of denying first and asking questions later.

The one certainty is that you need an experienced slip-and-fall attorney to have the best chance of getting the most favorable result in your case. Call Jordan Law Center in Greenville to schedule a free initial consultation about your slip, trip, and fall case.

Where Slip and Fall Accidents Happen

A slip and fall accident can occur in any place when you are away from home and are unfamiliar with the condition of the ground or floor. In these places, you do not have any control over the safety of walking surfaces because you are not aware of the risks that may lurk. You could slip on an uneven surface, or someone may have even left a hazard in your way.

Slip and fall accidents can occur in the following places:

• Stores
• Parking lots
• Sidewalks
• Driveways
• When you are traveling for work
• Nursing homes
• Hospitals
• Offices
• Hotels

No matter where the accident happened, the legal principle is always the same. The property owner (or the person who has control over the property) will be legally obligated to pay you if they fail to uphold their duty of care.

Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents

There are several ways that a property owner’s carelessness can injure you, including:

• Slippery substances left on the floor
• Loose carpet or strings
• Uneven floor surfaces
• Cracked and broken pavement
• Failure to clean up when people track water in from the rain
• Debris left on walking paths

The property owner is not automatically responsible for every single one of these dangerous conditions. They certainly cannot create these conditions themselves.

If others create these conditions, the owner must take steps to fix them within a reasonable amount of time after they know or should have known about the injury.

Common Slip and Fall Accident Injuries

Insurance companies like to say that it was “just a fall” when they challenge the severity of your injuries. They know full well that millions of people are hospitalized each year for serious fall injuries, but they want to avoid paying you. Any time that you lose your balance, several things could happen that may cause dangerous injuries.

One of the most serious effects of a slip and fall is when someone hits their head. You or a loved one could suffer a traumatic brain injury that could cost vital functions.

Other slip and fall injuries include:

• Soft tissue injuries
• Broken bones and fractures
• Neck and back injuries
• Lacerations and contusions
• Spinal cord injuries

Falls are not simple cases, and they can result in significant financial costs, both for treating your injuries and as you deal with the aftermath of the accident.

What to Do After You Have Been Injured in a Slip and Fall

Many lawyers will tell you to begin documenting your slip and fall accident at the scene of your injury. However, it is difficult to do so when you are dealing with pain.

An individual involved in a slip and fall accident should get the contact information of people who saw the fall or what the conditions were like at the time of the incident.

The three primary steps that you should take after a slip and fall accident are:

• File an accident report with the property owner and potentially contact law enforcement as well, to get them to write a report
• Get immediate medical help, both to give yourself the best chance of a full recovery and to have documentation that ties your injury to your fall
• Contact an experienced Greenville slip and fall attorney, since you have a very limited amount of time to gather evidence that can be used to prove your case

Because of the number of people who fall unexpectedly every year, the insurance companies are never going to make these cases easy for anyone. If you get full compensation after a slip and fall accident, it is only because you have hired a lawyer to fight for it.

How Long You File a Slip and Fall Claim in South Carolina

Like every state, South Carolina has a statute of limitations that controls how long you have to file a lawsuit. You must file your claim within three years of the date of your injury.

In reality, if you wait three years after your accident to pursue your legal claim, you will have little chance of success. In practice, you only come close to waiting that long when you have tried and failed to negotiate a settlement with the insurance company.

The one thing that you do control is when you hire an attorney to represent you. That, you should do immediately!

Suing for Slip and Fall Accidents When You Are on the Job

Workers often suffer slip and fall injuries. If they happen at your place of work, you would likely need to proceed through the workers’ compensation system. The tradeoff for providing workers’ compensation insurance is that your employer is immune from practically all personal injury lawsuits.

However, you can sue a third party when they were to blame for your work slip and fall injury.

You have no legal relationship with the third party other than the duty of care that they owed you that they failed to uphold.

Employees may suffer slip and fall injuries when they travel for work. When you are at an unfamiliar premises, you deal with several risks that you may not be able to anticipate. You trust the property owner to look out for you and inspect the property, but they do not always live up to that basic courtesy.

You can sue anyone else other than your employer for a slip and fall injury. If you are on the move for your job, the responsible party would owe you a duty of care as soon as they held their premises open to you.

Of course, you are always entitled to workers’ comp, but you should try to file a slip-and-fall lawsuit first because it could lead to more financial compensation. When you file and win a third-party claim, you can get the following additional compensation:

• Full lost wages (not subject to any cap)
• Non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life)
• Possible punitive damages if the responsible party was extremely careless or reckless

Contact a Greenville Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer Today

As you can see, slip and fall cases are not easy alone. There is little chance that you could get the money that you deserve when you are operating on your own. You need an experienced lawyer to remove the red tape barriers that the insurance company is placing in your way.

You can reach out to the team of Greenville slip and fall lawyers at Jordan Law Center today at 864-808-1810 or message us through our website to schedule a free initial consultation. You owe us nothing unless you win, and you do not need to write us a check to get our team working on your behalf.