Phoenix Slip and Fall Lawyer

Phoenix Slip and Fall Attorney

We tend to think of slipping and falling as a minor accident where nobody gets severely hurt. While it’s true that many falls don’t result in significant injuries, the reality is that falling can sometimes be very dangerous and lead to impactful injuries. The injuries suffered from some of these falls can result in substantial medical, financial, and intangible costs. However, working with a Phoenix slip and fall lawyer can increase your likelihood of financial recovery.

About Us

At Bleaman Law Firm, PC, we help our clients seek the compensation that they need after a slip and fall injury. Whether negotiating with the insurance companies or taking a stand in court, our Phoenix personal injury attorneys stand strong when seeking what our clients deserve. We can negotiate your case for sufficient financial recovery. However, if the at-fault party or their insurer will not deal in good faith, Marc Bleaman can go to court to maximize your recovery after a premises liability accident.

As an experienced personal injury attorney, he understands how to negotiate with the insurance companies often responsible for paying these claims and how to leverage the legal system to see that they meet their responsibilities. Whether you fell after a night out in Downtown Phoenix or slipped while doing some local outlet shopping, contact us to explore your available legal options when someone else is at fault for your injuries.

What Is a Premises Liability Claim?

A premises liability claim is simply a type of personal injury case. It is usually filed when someone is injured on someone else’s property. Typically, they are injured due to unsafe conditions or hazards that the property owner knew or should have known about but failed to correct. To win a premises liability claim, you must directly link the property owner’s negligence to your injury. If you are the victim of a slip and fall incident, it’s challenging to prove your case without an experienced attorney.

In 2023 alone, about 400,000 personal injury cases were filed by Americans. Notably, 35% of all injury claims relate to slip and falls. That’s a significant number of accident victims who may need legal support.

When you hire a lawyer, they can work hard to prove that the property owner or manager:

• Knew about the hazard.
• Failed to either address it or warn you.

An attorney can investigate your unique accident by gathering compelling evidence to support your narrative of events. They may also consult experienced professionals, depending on your specific kind of case.

What Kinds of Cases Can My Personal Injury Lawyer Help With?

Slip and fall claims are often categorized by the type of underlying hazardous condition. A personal injury lawyer can help with a wide variety of premises liability claims, including slip and fall and trip and fall accidents that occurred due to:

• Wet surfaces. Spilled liquids, recent mopping, and rain accumulation can create slippery and dangerous conditions.
• Uneven or hazardous walking surfaces. This type of claim includes broken sidewalks, cracked pavement, torn carpeting, or debris on a walkway.
• Poorly maintained property. Inadequate upkeep of staircases, loose cables, or other general neglect can create unsafe conditions.
• Inadequate lighting. Poor lighting can obscure many hazards on a property, which can lead to serious accidents.
• Unexpected height changes. An unannounced drop in the floor’s height, like a ledge or stair, can cause someone to fall unexpectedly.

These are all premises liability claims, and the injured accident victim may be entitled to compensation for their damages. Once retained, your attorney can conduct an investigation and make sure all potentially at-fault parties are added to your claim. Then, they can pursue compensation from all possible avenues of recovery.

Who May Be Liable in a Slip and Fall Case?

In slip and fall cases in Phoenix, Arizona, there are a variety of different possible liable parties. In some cases, it may even be that more than one party is liable for your injuries. What primarily constitutes liability in a slip and fall case is being responsible for the property being functional, free from hazards, or free from unidentified risks.

Some of the possible liable parties include:

• Businesses. Commercial property is often the responsibility of the business that operates on the property, and they have a responsibility to promptly address hazards that could lead to customers slipping and falling.
• Property Owner. The owner of the property may be responsible for making changes or repairs to a location that creates risky conditions.
• Property Occupier. Someone who doesn’t own but occupies a property, such as a landlord or a tenant, may be the party responsible for the upkeep of the property.
• Property Management. In some cases, property owners, landlords, and even tenants will work with a property management company to oversee the property and make sure regular maintenance is done. If an injury happens because of their failure to do so, then they may be a liable party.
• Maintenance Companies or Contractors. In other situations, a third party is contracted to provide certain routine maintenance services. Failure to do so properly could lead to liability for a slip and fall injury.
• Government Entities. If the slip and fall happens on government property, then it’s possible that the government entity responsible for that particular property could be liable.

Proving Liability in a Phoenix Slip and Fall Case

To successfully be able to collect compensation for a slip and fall case, your Phoenix slip and fall lawyer must demonstrate liability on the part of the defendant. This process will likely involve using evidence and witness testimony to describe negligence on the part of the defendant.

Demonstrating a Duty of Care

The first thing that your lawyer will need to prove is that the defendant had a “duty of care.” This means that in the situation that you were involved with, they had a responsibility to ensure that their action or, as is often the case with slip and falls, inaction wouldn’t put you in an unreasonable danger or a hazardous situation.

In the case of a slip and fall, this will often be easier to show if you were invited onto the property or if it is accessible to the public in some way. For instance, a commercial business, such as retail, invites customers onto their property to shop.

In general, this is not the most difficult part to prove because most slip and falls result from a person being legitimately welcomed onto the property, and therefore, those responsible for the property have a duty not to put their guests at any undue risk.

Proving That a Breach of Duty Occurred

After your slip and fall lawyer shows how a duty was present in a given situation, they then need to show how that duty wasn’t met. This is called a breach of duty. It must be shown that they failed to act as a reasonable person would have acted in the same situation.

In a slip and fall, a breach of duty could take a number of forms, depending upon the nature of the incident. It could be a failure to adequately warn people of a risky situation, perhaps a spill at a business not being sufficiently signed.

It could also be something like failing to properly address an icy sidewalk or repair a broken pathway. Whatever the situation that you faced, your lawyer must demonstrate how the defendant’s management of it fell below a reasonable expectation.

Showing the Connection Between the Breach and Your Injuries

Lastly, the breach must have a direct connection with the injuries that you suffered. That means your slip and fall lawyer must show that the breach led directly to the fall that you experienced and that the fall led directly to the injuries.

These things might seem academic, but if you imagine a business’s front entryway that has damaged concrete, increasing the likelihood of a fall, they still wouldn’t necessarily be liable for someone who falls in the parking lot because a high-heeled shoe broke. There must be a direct link from the breach to the fall.

It’s also important to demonstrate that the injuries came from the fall. There are times when someone may exaggerate their injuries. They might also claim a pre-existing condition or something unrelated that came well after the fall. To avoid this, the injuries must be proven to be a direct result of the fall. Things like medical bills and doctor’s notes can be helpful for this.

Earning Compensation in a Slip and Fall

The injuries that you suffered must be a direct result of the breach. To connect that causal chain all the way back to reimbursement, you must also be able to show that the costs that you are seeking reimbursement for are a direct result of the injuries that you suffered.

This compensation in a premises liability case, of which a slip and fall is a subset, is paid through damages. Seeking assistance from a Phoenix premises liability lawyer can help ensure that the injuries and costs are correctly documented and connected to the breach.

These damages usually come in three forms:

• Economic Damages. Compensation for those things that have a clear financial component are called economic damages. Primarily, in a slip and fall case, they will consist of medical bills and any time missing work. Additionally, if either of those things is expected to continue into the future, those costs will be covered as well.
• Non-Economic Damages. Injuries may often include psychological and emotional costs as well. There are things like pain and suffering or mental anguish, which don’t have a clear financial component because there is no direct means of addressing them with money. Still, they are given a financial value that is meant not to necessarily solve the issue but rather to make it easier to address because other stresses may be reduced.
• Punitive Damages. A third category of damages is punitive damages, which serve as a deterrent or punishment for egregious behavior. Since most slip and falls are not a result of malicious behavior, they are very rare.

It’s worth noting that there may be additional compensation available if someone dies in a slip and fall. That could be a wrongful death claim, which is a little different. In a wrongful death claim, things like funeral and burial costs will also be covered. For detailed guidance, contact our Phoenix wrongful death lawyer.

Another thing to note about damages is that the state of Arizona operates under pure comparative negligence rules. This could potentially limit the damages that you receive. Under these rules, the defendant’s side is allowed the chance to prove the elements of negligence on the part of the plaintiff.

If successful, both parties will be awarded compensation by the court with a percentage representing their share of the fault for the injuries.

The compensation that the plaintiff receives will be reduced by their percentage of fault. For instance, if a plaintiff is awarded $50,000 but is found to be 10% at fault, the final amount they receive will be $45,000.

Because Phoenix, Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state, even someone who is 99% at fault for an incident can still receive 1% of damages, unlike many other states, which disqualify anyone who has a 50% or greater share of fault.

You typically only have a short period of time to file a premises liability claim. You should contact an attorney about your accident recovery as soon as possible. They can secure comprehensive compensation for your damages.

Hire a Slip and Fall Lawyer at Bleaman Law Firm, PC, to Get the Compensation You Need If You’ve Suffered a Slip and Fall

Most of the time, when we fall, it’s not a tremendous issue. We get back up, maybe have a bump or bruise that goes away in a few days, and then we are fully healed. The human body, though, can be more fragile than we sometimes suspect.

It’s not uncommon for a slip and fall to result in serious injuries, particularly if someone makes contact with something on the way down. Serious injuries come with serious expenses as well—medical bills and psychological costs can add up quickly. In such cases, our Phoenix catastrophic injury lawyer can help manage these expenses.

It’s possible to use the legal system to leverage your ability to collect damages for the costs you pay after a slip and fall. However, it’s also not uncommon to meet resistance, including from the insurance companies that are typically responsible for paying these costs in many cases.

When you need to hire a slip and fall attorney, contact Bleaman Law Firm, PC. By working with the Bleaman Law Firm, you can give yourself a much stronger likelihood of getting what you’re owed. As a result of our extensive experience, we understand the complexity of slip and fall cases and working with insurance companies. Contact us today to discuss your slip and fall case.

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