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Common Mistakes in Slip And Fall Cases
Mistakes we often see clients make, particularly in slip and fall cases, are these: One, they don’t go get medical care initially. They’re embarrassed that they fell in a public place. They minimize the hurt and they don’t go. If they don’t go, they don’t get well as if they had gone immediately. If they don’t go, people aren’t going to believe that they are hurt when they eventually do go. Always get your medical care because that’s the most important thing, whether you get a case or not.
Secondly, they dispose of things. When you slip it’s typically on some kind of fluid and it gets all over your clothes. Again, they’re embarrassed so when they get home, they go wash their clothes. Now we don’t have that evidence to show what they fell on.
Another mistake is they don’t get lawyers involved in these cases early on. We urge them to preserve those types of things, preserve the shoes you were wearing. Also, in this day and age of the smartphone, take a picture. Take a picture of where you fell and what you slipped on. It’s just snapping off a few pictures. You may be stunned and you may not be able to do that but do that because it helps. It’s preservation of evidence.
Lastly, tell the manager of the store that you fell. You may have fallen in a back corner or someplace where no one saw you fall. Report it. They are obligated to generate reports. It documents it. You remove the argument that no one saw you fall so how could you have fallen there.
Making mistakes doesn’t kill your case. It just makes it a little harder on the lawyer when those things happen and we lose evidence.
Slip And Fall Case Timeline
Slip and fall cases are hard cases. Typically, the lawsuit has to be filed to obtain a fair resolution, either by way of a verdict or settling the case before going to trial. A general timeline will run 9 to 14 months. If the lawsuit is filed, add a year to that. If it gets complicated, add more time to that. The main thing we want to leave my client with is that it’s not going to be over in a couple of weeks. It’s not going to be over in four weeks or six weeks. It’s going to be some time. That is just the reality of where we are in litigation in slip and fall cases in northeast Florida. Concentrate on getting better. Concentrate on getting healthy, doing what your doctor tells you to do so that you can maximize your recovery while your lawyers are handling the case.
Choosing The Right Slip And Fall Attorney
Slip and fall cases in Florida are a different animal, if you will. It’s important to choose the right lawyer. How do you choose the right lawyer? For one, ask very direct questions. What’s your experience, Mr. Lawyer? How many slip and fall cases have you handled? How many have you tried to verdict? Who have you handled a case against? Because the rules are different in slip and fall cases. Just because you get hurt on somebody’s property, whether it’s a grocery store, whether it’s a big store like Home Depot, Lowes, or Target, it’s not good enough to say you are hurt. You have to be able to show that that business owner or possessor of that shop, that business, was negligent in the way they maintain the property, which led to your getting hurt.
They are hard cases. Many lawyers won’t take them. We have probably tried a larger percentage of those cases than other kinds of cases in our practice, and we know how to handle them from start to finish. They are difficult cases but they are winnable cases. You need an experienced lawyer. We have that experience.
Were you or a loved one severely injured in a trip and fall in Florida and have questions about these Nassau County slip and fall tips? Contact an experienced Nassau County slip and fall lawyer at Paul Boone Law today for a free consultation and case evaluation.