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 give you a firm chance at recouping some of these costs.

Lawyers understand 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.

At the Bleaman Law Firm, 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, we stand strong when seeking what our clients deserve.

What Does a Phoenix Slip and Fall Lawyer Do?

A Phoenix slip-and-fall lawyer takes on a number of different responsibilities for their clients. All of them, though, are in service of getting fair and deserved compensation for what their clients have suffered.

Our process will typically begin with a thorough investigation of the circumstances of your slip and fall and the injuries you suffered. We’ll seek to gather evidence for who is liable, which can be used to prove their liability. This could involve photographs or video of the scene or of the slip and fall, witness testimonies, or anything else that we believe may be helpful in proving your case.

We also represent our clients in negotiations. Typically, these kinds of cases will involve some kind of business establishment or other institution that allows visitors to their premises. The firms contract with insurance companies, which are then responsible for paying out the claims that are made against the firms.

Insurance companies may be a bit stingy in terms of their willingness to pay, but having a lawyer negotiate on your behalf can be a tremendous advantage.

What Are the Most Significant Benefits of Hiring a Slip and Fall Lawyer?

One of the benefits of letting a lawyer negotiate for you is their familiarity with the situation. Insurance companies will often use people’s lack of familiarity to their advantage. For instance, in order to argue for less compensation, they may hope you say something that could be misconstrued as you taking the blame for what happened.

They also may try to undervalue your compensation because they assume a lack of knowledge about what would be fair. They are usually aware, though, of a lawyer’s experience and understanding of these subjects, leading to a more reasonable offer.

Another benefit of a lawyer negotiating for you is that there is the implicit threat of taking the case to court. Someone may threaten to get a lawyer to get a more serious offer from an insurance company, but that’s not likely to be as effective as the real thing. When a lawyer negotiates directly in your place, the insurance companies understand the seriousness of the situation and the possibility of court.

We are also ready to take your course if necessary. Sometimes, it just isn’t possible to find reasonable terms that all parties are willing to agree to. In that case, we are ready to make the case for liability on the part of the defendant and argue for the compensation package that you deserve. We can use the evidence gathered from our investigation to represent you and fight for what you need.

Who May Be Liable in a Slip and Fall Case?

In slip and fall cases in Phoenix, AZ, 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 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 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 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.

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.

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 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.

We Can Help You 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.

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.

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.