Falling down after a slip or a trip can leave you with injuries that might be far more severe than you ever expected. Broken bones, head injuries, and back injuries are all quite common in slip and fall accidents, and victims could end up facing missed work or even developing a disability that causes them to have increased care needs and other limitations in their lives.
If you were hurt in a slip and fall, you should work with a lawyer. The homeowner, store, restaurant, or other property owner at the location where you fell could be liable to you for thousands of dollars or more, depending on the specific injuries you suffered.
For a free assessment of your potential case, call the slip and fall injury lawyers at Legal Care New Jersey today at (732) 838-9769.
When Can You Sue for a Slip and Fall Accident in Union City, NJ?
Property owners owe it to their guests and their customers to have safe premises where these visitors are not at risk of injuring themselves. This puts quite a few duties on property owners and operators to keep the premises safe. This includes basic things like clearing away clutter, avoiding laying wires and cables across places people will be walking, and clearing ice and snow to prevent injuries. When these parties fail to uphold these duties, you can typically sue them for the injuries they caused you.
Violations
Before a slip and fall case can be successful, you have to show that the defendant did indeed leave a dangerous condition on their property. You must also show that they did not adequately warn you of the danger, as this would usually be acceptable as an alternative to cleaning up or repairing the danger. There may also be questions about whether the danger was obvious enough that you did not need a warning.
Knowledge of Danger
Our slip and fall injury lawyers will also typically have to show that the property owner knew about the danger. For example, if you slipped on a spill in a grocery store, but it only happened in the past few minutes and the workers did not know it was there, they could not have cleaned it up yet or warned you about it. However, if there is too much of a delay and the danger has been sitting there for a while, then a court might find that the workers should have reasonably discovered and cleaned up the spill by that time. Proof that a worker or property owner was told about the spill is usually sufficient to prove they knew about the danger and should have cleared it up.
Specific Laws
In some cases, there might be local laws or regulations on point that give more specific instructions about how to clean up and repair dangers, such as building codes to keep staircases safe and local ordinances about when to clear snow. These can help strengthen your case by detailing what the defendant should have done so you can then show what they did instead.
Common Injuries in Slip and Fall Accidents in Union City, NJ
Falling down can lead to many injuries that might be far more severe than you might expect. Falls are often played for laughs on TV and in movies, but a sudden fall can be quite painful, especially if you are an older adult, have a disability, or have a preexisting injury that is aggravated by the fall. The following are some of the more common serious injuries that occur in slip and fall accidents:
Bruises
While bruises are not always serious, severe bruising can occur in a slip and fall. It can also be a sign of worse trauma below the surface, potentially including broken bones and other injuries.
Broken Bones
People who fall down could break their hip, fracture a vertebra, or even crack their skull on the ground or an object they hit while falling. Broken wrists, arms, shoulders, and collarbones are also quite common, especially when people try to brace or catch themselves during a fall.
Falling on your face can also cause quite severe facial breaks, such as a broken jaw, fractured orbital, a broken nose, and more.
Dental Injuries
Falling and hitting your jaw or face against an object or the ground can cause serious dental injuries. Broken teeth, lost teeth, and damage to the gums might not be reversible. This could lead to a victim needing dental implants, false teeth, or veneers to help them restore the way they looked before the accident.
Facial Scarring
Along with injuries to the face and mouth, serious scarring could occur if you fall face-first. Facial scars are considered more serious scars in that they affect your appearance, which can lead to higher emotional distress.
Back and Spine Injuries
A sudden fall can torque and twist your back in ways that you might not be used to, potentially causing new injuries or acutely aggravating existing conditions. A slipped disc, broken vertebrae, and other injuries are all quite possible, potentially causing long-term issues.
Head Injuries
If you hit your head during a slip and fall, the injury could be quite bad. You should always seek medical attention if you hit your head, as you could be suffering from a concussion, more serious traumatic brain injury, or internal bleeding that you might not be able to identify immediately. If you feel confused or dizzy or you face sudden mood changes after hitting your head in a slip and fall, you could be facing serious head injuries.
Call Our Slip and Fall Injury Attorneys Today in Union City, NJ
For help with your injury claim, call the slip and fall injury attorneys at Legal Care New Jersey at (732) 838-9769 right away.
