People sometimes resist taking legal action over slip and fall accidents because they feel too embarrassed. The injuries involved in these accidents can be very severe, and a lawsuit can help you recover damages to pay for things like medical care.
Slip and fall accidents might happen almost anywhere due to various unsafe conditions or hazards. You might have slipped on a spill in a restaurant, a wet floor in a store, or the uneven stairs in someone’s home. The person responsible for slip and fall accidents is often the property owner. How we prove the property owner was negligent depends on whether you were an invited guest or someone else. Your damages might be great, as economic losses and non-economic injuries can take a big toll. An attorney can help you get compensation by assessing your damages, finding the right evidence, and advocating for you in court or settlement negotiations.
Slip and fall accidents are often far more serious than people realize, and a lawsuit can help injured victims recover much-needed compensation. Contact our slip and fall lawyers at Legal Care New Jersey for a free review of your case. Call our team at (732) 838-9769.
How Slip and Fall Accidents Might Occur in Hoboken
Slip and fall accidents can occur almost anywhere, making them very dangerous and unpredictable. Understanding how and where your accident happened helps our slip and fall accident lawyers determine who should be held accountable and what kind of evidence we need.
Many slip and falls happen because of spills or messes on the floor. For example, suppose you are dining out in a restaurant, someone spills their drink, and nobody bothers to clean it up. If you slip in the spilled drink and injure yourself, the person who owns the restaurant can be held liable.
A lot of slip and falls happen during winter when snow and ice cover the roads and sidewalks. Perhaps you are walking down a sidewalk or walkway that nobody bothered to shovel, and you slip on the ice. Such a fall could cause severe injuries, depending on how you land and whether you can break the fall.
Some slip and fall accidents happen from great heights, such as the top of a staircase. Uneven floors or unsafe risers and treads on the stairs might cause someone to fall. Such an accident might happen in the office, in a store, or even in someone’s private home.
Holding Someone Liable for a Slip and Fall Accident in Hoboken
Often, the person or people responsible for slip and fall accidents are the ones who own the property where it happened. Slip and fall accidents fall under the category of premises liability, and property owners are usually the ones whose negligence causes the accident.
To prove your claims and have the property owner held liable for their negligence, we have to prove you had a right to be on the premises. Invited guests, or visitors that can be reasonably anticipated or expected, can often sue the property owners for negligence. For example, if you were a guest in someone’s home, a customer in a store, or even a mail carrier approaching someone’s front door, you can sue the property owner for your injuries.
People who were trespassing when the accident occurred are often out of luck. Unknown trespassers are owed no legal duty of safety by property owners. For example, a person who enters a home without permission cannot sue the homeowner after a slip and fall on the wet kitchen floor.
However, if trespassers are known to the property owner, there might be some hope. For example, suppose a property owner knows their land backs up to a popular hiking trail. Next, suppose hikers often get turned around and accidentally trespass on the owner’s land. If a hiker was injured on the owner’s land, and the owner knew about the frequent trespassing, they might still be liable.
Damages You Can Recover in Hoboken Slip and Fall Accidents
Injuries in slip and fall accidents can be severe, even catastrophic. Both economic and non-economic damage are often quite high, and a great deal of financial compensation is on the line. Our slip and fall accident lawyers can help you assess your injuries and accurately evaluate your damages.
Non-economic injuries include painful experiences like physical pain, emotional anguish, humiliation, and more. These experiences do not cost plaintiffs money, but they still deserve compensation for the immense toll they take. Since these damages are very subjective, it can be tricky to evaluate them. Generally, damages are much higher in cases where non-economic injuries are severe.
Economic damages are related to money, costs, and bills from your injuries. In most slip and fall accidents, plaintiffs’ biggest financial loss is medical bills. Although we sometimes brush off slip and fall injuries, they are sometimes devastating. People sometimes try to break their fall by extending their arms but end up fracturing bones in their hands, wrists, arms, and shoulders. If you fell from high up, like the top of a staircase, you might have catastrophic injuries and extremely high medical bills.
How a Hoboken Attorney Can Help You with Your Slip and Fall Lawsuit
Our slip and fall injury attorneys can help you determine whether you can sue and whom to name in your lawsuit. Your ability to file a lawsuit might depend on whether you were permitted on the premises where the accident occurred, and the property owner’s identity might be unknown. A lawyer can help you figure this information out so you can move your case forward.
An attorney can also help you find evidence to prove your claims. Witnesses, physical evidence, medical records, and many other pieces of evidence must be collected to prove your claims. Finding evidence is often difficult because it might be moved or lost.
A lawyer should also help you throughout your trial by planning effective legal strategies and advocating for your best interests. If you would rather avoid a lengthy trial, your attorney can help you negotiate a settlement instead.
Contact Our Hoboken Slip and Fall Accident Lawyers for Help
For a free case review and to get started on your case, contact our slip and fall accident attorneys for help. Call our team at Legal Care New Jersey at (732) 838-9769.
