A Santa Maria slip-and-fall lawyer can be invaluable in navigating the aftermath of such an accident, ensuring your rights are protected. No one anticipates slipping and falling at the grocery store or gas station. However, slip-and-fall accidents are more common than you might think, accounting for over 1 million emergency room visits a year. Add in medical bills and lost wages, not to mention pain and suffering, and it’s easy to see how a slip-and-fall accident can cause you and your family a great deal of heartache.
Because slip-and-falls can cause severe physical and financial consequences, most states require businesses and property owners to take reasonable steps to keep visitors safe. California is no exception. California law requires businesses and property owners to maintain their premises safe for guests under a legal theory called premises liability. When a property owner neglects this duty, and someone is injured, the injured victim can hold them legally liable and receive compensation for their losses.
If you suffered an injury on someone else’s property, you need a skilled Santa Maria slip-and-fall lawyer in your corner. At Frederick Law Firm, our team has over three decades of experience helping slip-and-fall injury victims and will work tirelessly to help you get the settlement you deserve. A Santa Maria slip-and-fall attorney at Frederick Law Firm can help you pursue compensation for your medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering. We understand how devastating a slip-and-fall injury can be and have dedicated our careers to holding wrongdoers responsible. Contact us today.
What Is Premises Liability?
Premises liability law is an area of negligence or personal injury law. In California, all property owners are required to exercise “ordinary care” when maintaining their property. This means they must keep their premises reasonably safe and warn visitors about known hazards they cannot remedy. This legal obligation is called a duty of care. Because of this duty, people who manage, lease, or work on a property can be held legally liable for injuries that occur on their property.
Common Causes of Slip-and-Fall Accidents
A slip-and-fall claim is a common type of premises liability claim. This type of claim can be brought when someone falls, trips, or slips on someone else’s property because of a hazardous condition, resulting in injury. People who slip or trip and fall are commonly injured in the workplace, retail establishments, restaurants, and other public places like grocery stores. While almost anything can cause a slip-and-fall accident, some of the most common causes include the following:
- Poor lighting;
- Oil or grease spots that create slick floors;
- A missing “wet floor” sign after an area was mopped;
- Spills on the floor, especially in grocery store aisles and restaurants;
- Slick or icy sidewalks;
- Lopsided or jagged sidewalks;
- Loose or torn carpeting;
- Uneven steps and upended floorboards, and
- Deficient or absent handrails.
For example, a person who slips on a freshly mopped restaurant floor that hasn’t been cordoned off or someone who slips on an icy patch in an office complex parking lot might be able to bring a slip-and-fall claim if they were injured.
Understanding the cause of your slip-and-fall injury is essential to building a successful premises liability case. Identifying the cause of your accident can help you establish that a property owner or operator didn’t satisfy their duty of care and who might be liable for your injury. At Frederick Law Firm, an experienced Santa Maria slip-and-fall attorney can help you gather the evidence you need to determine the cause of your slip-and-fall accident and identify who might be liable for your losses.
Common Injuries from Slip-and-Fall Accidents
The kind of injury a slip-and-fall accident causes depends on the circumstances of each case. Generally, slip-and-fall injuries can range from minor lacerations to wrongful death. However, typical injuries victims suffer include:
- Scrapes and cuts,
- Bruises,
- Sprains and strains,
- Broken bones, and
- Concussions.
Catastrophic injuries victims may suffer include:
- Spinal cord damage,
- Traumatic brain injuries, and
- Burn injuries.
Slip-and-fall accidents can also cause psychological injuries, which can be highly disabling. Psychological injuries from a slip and fall can include depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Both physical and psychological injuries affect a person’s quality of life and can qualify you for compensation in a slip-and-fall case.
Slip-and-Fall Settlements
Because every injury is unique, the size of a slip-and-fall settlement depends on the facts of a given case. A few factors that commonly affect a settlement include the injury’s severity, the costs of medical treatment, and how much time off from work a victim needs to take to recover. In California, injury victims can generally ask for economic and noneconomic damages. Economic damages compensate you for monetary losses caused by your injury. Economic damages include the following:
- Medical expenses,
- Long-term care costs,
- Rehabilitation therapy, and
- Current and future lost wages.
Save your bills and pay stubs to help your attorney calculate and prove your economic damages.
Noneconomic damages are intended to compensate you for the emotional and psychological losses caused by our injury. Noneconomic damages can include the following:
- Emotional pain and suffering,
- Physical pain and suffering,
- Loss of self-esteem,
- Scarring, and
- Permanent disability.
Because non-economic damages compensate you for intangible losses rather than financial losses, they are more challenging to calculate and prove without the help of an experienced Santa Maria premises liability attorney.
Frederick Law Firm Can Help
At Frederick Law Firm, our compassionate Santa Maria premises liability lawyers are interested in one thing: your best interest. If you were injured in a slip-and-fall accident, we will fight tooth and nail to help you get your life back on track. For over 32 years, our award-winning trial attorneys have been helping injured Californians receive the compensation they need to recover from their injuries.
Contact Us
Contact us today by phone or online to schedule a free consultation, and let us hold the party responsible for your slip-and-fall injury accountable.