When you slip and fall on a wet floor, you may not think that you have a substantial amount of injury or that you may end up missing work for weeks. One fall can change your life forever, which is why you should speak with a Las Vegas personal injury lawyer at H&P Law.
Our team has over 60 years of combined experience representing injury victims. A Las Vegas slip-and-fall lawyer can help you get back on track by alleviating the burdens that you face.
A Slip and Fall Case Can Be Serious
The National Safety Council (NSC) compiled data suggesting that slips, trips, and falls are one of the leading causes of accidental death in the United States. Falls account for over eight million emergency room visits per year, which is the leading cause of visits. It identified the five major causes of slip and fall accidents:
- Lack of slip resistance on walking surfaces
- Poor walking surface conditions
- Poor visibility
- Lack or poor condition of handrails and guardrails
- Poor accessibility
In Nevada, landowners owe a duty of care to their guests to act reasonably in preventing or warning of dangerous conditions. Dangerous conditions include spilled liquid on the floor, tripping hazards like uneven walking surfaces, and open trenches.
Victims of slip-and-fall accidents may recover from a landowner if they can prove that the landowner or one of its employees caused, knew about, or should have known about a dangerous condition on its property but took insufficient steps to fix the problem or warn guests of the problem and our team can help with a claim if you suffer an injury.
What to Do After a Slip and Fall Accident
Victims of a slip and fall accident must take steps to protect their rights right from the start. Knowing what to do in an accident like this can make a big difference in your outcome, including who is held accountable and the recovery of damages you obtain. Take a look at these steps to take after a slip and fall accident to protect your rights:
- Call for help. Call 911 to request help for your injuries. In doing so, you create documentation for what occurred and can then pursue legal actions to recover your damages.
- Document everything about the incident. If possible, take photos of the area, document the situation, including all involved parties, and record any witness statements. This information could help you later.
- Get medical care and follow through on all recommended steps from your doctor. This includes any follow-up care recommended to you, including therapy.
- Contact a personal injury attorney. The sooner you contact our legal team, the better we can protect your rights and pursue full and fair compensation for you.
After a slip and fall accident, it is critical that you focus on your health and well-being but also recognize that you may need to file a claim.
As a result, document everything that happens to you along the way, and be sure that, without fail, you are always connected with your attorney about what is happening to you. Our Las Vegas premises liability lawyer at H&P Law will work diligently to protect you.
Why it Is So Important to Hire an Attorney After a Slip and Fall Claim
As a victim, it is critical that you understand what you are up against. In a slip-and-fall claim, it is possible – and potentially likely – that you will face opposition to your claims. Insurance companies want to do anything they can to reduce what is paid to you. Our legal team at H&P Law educates you on your rights, fights for your full compensation, and does not let you become the victim again, especially in these areas:
- We do not let the insurance company limit your right to compensation by tricking you into being at fault.
- Our legal team provides you with guidance along the way to minimize your risks, including keeping your medical records protected and staying off social media.
- We work to negotiate aggressively on your behalf. We are not afraid to go to trial if we need to do so.
Hiring an attorney means you get someone by your side who truly cares about the end result in this case and how it impacts you. You have an advocate. That is critically important in these situations.
What Makes a Slip and Fall Case Challenging
In a slip and fall case, proving that the landowner knew about the dangerous condition is often the most difficult part of the case, which is why it is crucial that an attorney is contacted as soon as possible after the accident.
Commercial landowners, like hotels, grocery stores, and banks, usually have video surveillance, but unless they have a reason to preserve the video, there is usually a fairly short time before the video is recorded. This is why it is so important for you to act fast to get the support you need from our Las Vegas slip-and-fall lawyer.
As soon as you can, if you contact H&P Law, we can send a preservation-of-evidence letter, letting them know that there was an accident and asking that the video evidence be preserved.
If they fail to do so, there can be negative consequences that a jury is entitled to hear that may weaken their defense. In addition to video, other records, like sweep sheets and cleaning and maintenance records, need to be preserved and can be addressed in a preservation-of-evidence letter.
Perhaps more than any other kind of case, it is critical with slip and fall cases to contact an attorney immediately after the accident. At H&P Law, we know which steps you need to take to protect the evidentiary value of your case. A slip and fall attorney in Las Vegas is committed to working closely with you to fight for the compensation you are owed.
Potential Recovery After a Slip and Fall Case
How much could your slip and fall case be worth? The answer to this is that it depends on how that accident hurt you and impacted your life and well-being at the time of the accident, now, and into the future. A Las Vegas slip and fall attorney will work closely with you to ensure your rights remain protected and your recovery of any losses remains a priority.
One of the first steps we take is to understand what occurred in your case so we can then understand who is at fault. We work to gather evidence in this area, but we also look at evidence based on the impact this accident has had on your life. For example, has it made it hard for you to go to work, or are you struggling with chronic pain as a result?
With this information, we can work closely with you to fully examine your losses, which often means gathering as much data as possible from medical witnesses, your doctor’s records, and even friends and family who can attest to the challenges you now have.
We also will use other cases like your own to fight for compensation. Take a look at some of the types of compensation that our attorneys may be able to help you pursue and review our prior case results.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are those that are easily possible to put a price on because you have documentation of the loss. Some examples of this may include medical bills, lost time at work, and even modifications you have to make to your home or car because of your new injuries. Economic damages should be easy to prove that someone else is responsible for your losses.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are those that are harder to put a value on because they can be less specific but are still very impactful. Some examples may include pain and suffering, emotional trauma, loss of quality of life, loss of ability to work at the same level, and loss of consortium. These losses can be dramatically impactful to your future and need to be a part of your accident claim.
Punitive Damages
There are some situations in which a judge will believe that a person acted in malicious or reckless behavior that warrants a higher level of punishment and consequence, and as such, they may award you punitive damages.
These damages are funds you can use to meet your needs and tend to be significant. Our slip and fall lawyer in Las Vegas will work closely with you to understand what your losses are in this area and, when possible, prove those losses in a court of law.
Comparative Negligence in a Slip and Fall Case in Nevada
In some situations, a slip-and-fall accident could be partially your fault. As your attorney, we work to minimize the risk of any percentage of this case being considered your fault, but in some situations, that will occur.
If it does, you need to understand Nevada’s slip and fall laws related to comparative negligence, meaning that more than one party is responsible for the injury.
In Nevada, you can file a claim for losses you suffered if you are no more than 50% at fault for the accident, according to NRS 41.141. This means that as long as the other party shares half the blame, you can pursue compensation for your losses. You can no longer seek compensation if you hold 51% of the blame.
This also means your compensation will be reduced by the percentage of fault you maintain. For example, if a judge determines you were 25% to blame, the judge will reduce your claim by 25%. Because this is so important to the outcome of your case, we strongly suggest allowing our legal team to guide you in recovering these losses.
Nevada Statute of Limitations for Slip and Fall Cases
In Nevada, a person suffering an injury due to a slip and fall accident has the right to pursue legal action against the at-fault party for the losses they incur. However, there is a limitation of actions of two years in this case. That means you must file a claim within two years of the date of the accident in order for you to pursue compensation.
If you wait longer than two years, the court cannot force the insurance company or other at-fault party to pay the losses you incurred. That includes situations where it is very obvious who owes those losses. You do not wait to want.
Filing a claim with an insurance company may need to be done before this. This statute of limitations applies to court action. In most cases, we want to make sure you receive compensation well before that two years as well, so be sure to read our FAQs to learn more.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Settling Your Case Out of Court
Our attorneys want you to recover the most compensation owed to you. To do this, we will provide you with insight into whether you should settle your case out of court or pursue legal action in a court of law. Consider some of the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
The advantage of settling your case out of court is that there is less overall cost and more opportunity for you to get the funds quickly if all are in agreement. Lower costs can mean more money in your pocket. As long as a fair agreement is possible, this tends to be ideal.
When you are faced with an insurance company that does not agree to fair compensation or may even be blaming you, it is critical to consider going to court. It may help you document your losses and recover damages that are more than what the insurance company is willing to pay.
Let our Las Vegas slip-and-fall attorney help you navigate these situations and learn more about H&P Law.
Our Experienced Slip and Fall Lawyers in Las Vegas Can Provide a Free Consultation
A slip-and-fall lawyer in Las Vegas is here to discuss your case with you during a free, no-obligation consultation. Reach out to us today to learn more about the legal rights you have to the compensation you deserve after this accident left you with numerous injuries and other losses.
Contact H&P Law now to talk to one of our team members about your accident and the legal options available to you.
