Miami slip and fall accident lawyer

After suffering injuries from a slip and fall accident, the questions you have can feel overwhelming. How do I pay my medical bills when I can’t work? Who is at fault, and how can I claim compensation? Are there experienced attorneys near me I can trust?

Falls are one of the most common causes of injury in the United States. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 older adults falls each year, resulting in roughly 3 million emergency department visits annually. Slip and fall accidents can happen to anyone, at any age, and the consequences are often life-changing.

The Miami slip and fall accident lawyers at Bernstein & Maryanoff, Injury Attorneys, have the skills and experience to help you get justice after a slip and fall. Let our attorneys help you understand your legal rights and fight for the compensation you need and deserve.

What Is a Slip-And-Fall Accident in Miami?

In a legal context, “slip and fall” is a term that encompasses several types of falls, including slips and falls, trips and falls, stumbles and falls, and steps and falls. While the distinction between slipping and tripping may be apparent, differentiating between a stumble and a step and fall may be trickier. In legal terms, all are classified as slip and fall accidents.

These accidents occur when something affects a person’s ability to move safely. A person could slip on a wet surface and fall, or they may fall because a step is at a different height from the other steps around it, and they lose their balance. Slip and fall accidents may become legal matters if a property owner or manager takes no steps to address unsafe conditions on their property and a person slips and falls due to their inaction.

Are Slip-and-Fall Cases Hard To Win?

Every legal claim is distinct, and whether it’s challenging to prove your slip and fall case depends on several factors. The more evidence you can present that establishes that the property owner or manager knew or should have known about a safety hazard, the easier it will be to win your case.

Accident injury victims often struggle with shock and grief after an unexpected injury. You may also need rest and medical care while you recover. Suppose your injuries affect your ability to work or perform routine tasks at home. In that case, you may have financial challenges and find yourself coping with frustration because your injuries are interfering with your life. It may be difficult to focus on preparing a personal injury claim while dealing with your injuries.

That’s one of the reasons you should hire a slip and fall lawyer. Your attorney can handle the legal process and case preparation while you focus on your recovery. An experienced legal team handling your case improves your chances of a successful outcome.

How Bernstein & Maryanoff, Injury Attorneys, of Miami Can Help

Slip-and-fall injury claims are complex and involve several steps that can be overwhelming for those who don’t have legal experience. An attorney provides expert services that will ensure your claim is successful, including:

• Conducting a full investigation to determine the cause of your accident
• Gathering evidence to build a strong case and prove negligence
• Consulting with experts, including construction and medical professionals
• Identifying witnesses and collecting statements
• Fully valuing all your damages
• Filing your personal injury claim on your behalf
• Negotiating the maximum settlement for your claim
• If necessary, go to trial and present your case to the jury

With strong legal representation on your side, you don’t have to worry about insurance companies pressuring you to take less than you deserve. Call Bernstein & Maryanoff, Injury Attorneys, to learn how we can help you get the support you need.

What Causes Slip-and-Fall Accidents? 

Although a slip-and-fall accident involves anything that causes you to lose your footing and fall, some common sources of slip-and-fall accidents lead to serious injuries and lawsuits. These causes include the following:

Common Places Where Slip-and-Fall Accidents Occur

Some common places where slip-and-fall accidents occur include the following:

• Gas stations
• Grocery stores 
• Nursing homes
• Malls
• Parking lots
• Pools
• Restaurants
• Sidewalks

When negligent property owners fail to maintain safe conditions at any of these locations, fall accident victims may have grounds to file a premises liability claim.

How Serious Does an Injury Need To Be To File a Claim?

You must suffer from serious injuries to justify a slip-and-fall claim. Although Florida’s serious injury threshold applies to car accident lawsuits, your injuries will still justify a slip-and-fall claim if you meet the threshold. Per the serious injury threshold, the claimant must have suffered one or more of the following:

• Death of a loved one
• Disfigurement
• Permanent impairment of a bodily function
• Permanent physical injury
• Scarring

Since the serious injury threshold does not apply to slip-and-fall accidents, you may have grounds for a claim if your accidents cause temporary disability, require long-term treatment, or significantly impact your ability to work, pursue hobbies, or enjoy routine activities. You will benefit from discussing your situation with an attorney because slip-and-fall lawyers are familiar with existing case law and legal precedents that could justify your lawsuit and support your case.

Common Slip-and-Fall Accident Injuries

Several factors affect the severity and nature of slip-and-fall accident injuries, including the location of the incident, the height of the fall, and objects in the area. However, some injuries are common, including the following:

Although bruises may fully heal within weeks, and bone fractures take 6–8 weeks on average to heal, with serious injuries requiring much longer. Comminuted fractures, where the bone breaks in two or more places, can require up to a year of recovery, especially when surgery is involved. A spinal cord injury, one of the most severe outcomes of a slip and fall, could require one or more surgical procedures or cause permanent damage; the NSCISC reports approximately 18,421 new traumatic spinal cord injury cases occur in the US every year. An estimated 305,000 people are currently living with traumatic SCI in the United States. Traumatic brain injuries may also be permanent. Falls are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in the United States, which makes prompt medical evaluation after any slip and fall accident critical.

What Should You Do After a Slip-and-Fall Accident in Miami?

After being injured, what you do next will help you get the medical care you need and give you the best chance of recovering the maximum amount for your losses. If you or a loved one were involved in a slip-and-fall accident, you should:

1. Seek immediate medical treatment: You should not only protect your health by getting medical care as soon as possible, but seeking care right away documents your injuries and connects them directly to the accident
2. Report the accident: You need to inform the property owner of the incident. You should fill out an accident report yourself or request a copy if the owner or a police officer completed the accident report.
3. Document the accident scene: If you can, take photos of where the accident occurred and your resulting injuries. Also, any contact information from witnesses should be collected if possible.
4. Avoid social media: With the frustration and pain that comes after an accident, it can be tempting to share your experience online. However, your social media activity can actually hurt your case. You should avoid discussing your accident until the case is settled.
5. Keep documents organized: To file a successful claim, it’s essential to have documentation, including medical bills, correspondence from insurance companies, and other expenses related to your accident
6. Speak with a slip-and-fall attorney: To know the value of your fall case and how to file your claim, consider consulting with an accident lawyer

A free consultation with our Miami personal injury attorneys can help you understand your rights and what steps to take to bring a legal claim for compensation. The responsible party should be held liable for their negligence, and we can help you fight for the maximum settlement for your claim.

What Must I Prove To Collect Damages?

Suppose you walk into a grocery store, slip on a wet surface, fall, hit your head, and suffer a TBI. Since you suffered permanent brain damage, you’re unable to continue working, and your injury affects your quality of life.

Those factors aren’t enough to justify a slip-and-fall claim and receive damages. You must be able to prove negligence to establish legal grounds for your case. Proving negligence involves demonstrating four critical factors needed to justify a slip-and-fall claim:

Duty of Care

You must demonstrate that someone was responsible for taking steps or avoiding actions that could cause harm. Think of the grocery store scenario referenced above. It can be argued that the store’s manager has a duty of care to their patrons and employees. This duty of care involves ensuring the safety of those who enter their store. 

Breach of Duty

Suppose the store manager saw an employee mopping up water and ordered them to stop and do something else. The employee and manager then walked away and did not set out ‘wet floor’ signs to warn people about the safety hazard.

Causation 

Causation connects the at-fault party’s breach of duty and your injuries. Establishing causation means you establish that you received injuries and have suffered because the at-fault party breached the duty of care.

Damages 

You must demonstrate that your injuries have taken a financial toll, such as causing lost income if you cannot work or resulting in expensive medical bills. 

How Much Is a Slip-and-Fall Case Worth? 

Most slip-and-fall cases involve seeking economic and non-economic damages. Calculating the precise cost is a complex process, and an experienced slip-and-fall lawyer can help you determine how much to seek when filing your claim.

The financial toll of fall injuries is significant. Annual healthcare costs for non-fatal falls among older adults total $80 billion, and that figure is projected to exceed $101 billion by 2030. These numbers show why pursuing fair compensation in every slip and fall claim matters.

Economic Damages

Monetary damages are straightforward calculations of past and future costs caused by your accident injuries. These damages vary based on your situation; a person who cares for minor children and older parents may have additional expenses if they can no longer provide that care. 

In contrast, a person without children may not have those responsibilities. Suppose a person has to use a wheelchair because of their injuries. In that case, they may need to move to a new home that’s wheelchair accessible or remodel their existing residence. 

Since economic damages vary from person to person, it’s best to discuss these with your attorney to ensure you include all reasonable costs. Common reasons for economic damages include the following:

Non-Economic Damages

Non-monetary damages go beyond reimbursing you for past and future injury-related bills. These damages provide compensation for the way your accident affects your life. Grounds for non-economic damages include the following:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Grief
• Loss of consortium
• Loss of quality of life
• Pain and suffering
• Phobias
• Physical disfigurement
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Trauma

Any mental health challenges can be grounds for non-economic damages if a mental health professional diagnoses them. You can claim therapy costs with your economic damages. In contrast, the non-economic damages recognize your challenges’ negative impact on your professional and personal life and compensate you accordingly. The more significant the impact, the more compensation you can justify. 

Suppose you slip and fall at work and develop a phobia and PTSD. Consequently, you aren’t able to return to your work and struggle to leave your home for personal activities. While the loss of income justifies economic damages, the way your mental health challenges interfere with your social life and ability to do things like go to the store justifies non-economic damages.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages apply to claims when there are grounds to establish the at-fault party is guilty of gross negligence. Your fall accident attorney can determine whether there is justification to seek punitive damages during their accident investigation. Gross negligence exists when a person takes deliberate actions despite knowing there is a high probability that those actions would harm another. It also exists if a person deliberately avoids taking actions required to prevent harm to another. 

Who Pays the Damages?

Slip-and-fall claims are premises liability cases. The at-fault party’s insurance company pays the settlement or judgment. Consequently, the compensation they’re willing to offer during settlement negotiations may depend on the amount of coverage the at-fault party’s insurance policy has.

If the at-fault party is underinsured, it is possible to seize assets to secure compensation. This process can be more complex and time-consuming than securing a settlement through their insurance policy. 

How Long Do I Have To File a Slip-and-Fall Claim in Miami?

Florida’s statute of limitations for slip-and-fall claims gives you 24 months to file a lawsuit. Although there are grounds to extend the deadline, the 24-month window applies in most cases. 

Following Florida’s 2023 tort reform, the statute of limitations for slip and fall lawsuits was reduced from four years to two years under HB 837, which took effect on March 24, 2023. This makes it even more pressing to consult an attorney quickly after any fall injury so you do not lose your right to file a claim.

How Do You Recover Compensation for Slip-And-Fall Injuries?

In order to recover compensation for slip-and-fall injury claims, you have to prove the property owner was negligent and their negligence was a direct result of your injuries. The concept of negligence as it applies to slip-and-fall accidents means:

• The property owner was aware of the dangerous condition or should have known about the hazardous condition.
• The owner has sufficient time to resolve the hazardous condition or provide sufficient warnings.
• The owner failed to resolve the dangerous condition.

For example, the tile floor in a restaurant is cracked, broken, and uneven. The owner is aware of the condition. However, instead of blocking off the section of the floor and placing warning signs until the damage can be fixed, they do nothing. In the meantime, someone loses their footing, falls down, and is injured.  

Steps to prove liability in your slip and fall accident

You must also prove the owner was liable for your slip-and-fall accident by doing the following:

• Gather evidence to support your claim
• File an accident report or police report
• Seek medical treatment, even when injuries seem minor
• Request video surveillance footage if there were video cameras where the accident occurred
• Obtain sworn witness statements 

Since it can be challenging to establish negligence and prove the owner was liable for your slip-and-fall accident, it is important to hire an experienced Miami slip-and-fall accident lawyer. Your lawyer can help:

• Gather the necessary evidence to demonstrate the owner was negligence
• Collect sworn witness statements
• Obtain video surveillance footage
• Show they failed to take steps to provide sufficient warnings or fix the dangerous condition
• Your injuries were a direct result of their negligence 

They can also call on expert witnesses, like accident reconstructionists, to further support your injury claim and prove negligence.  

Importance of Legal Consultation in Slip-And-Fall Injury Lawsuits

After a slip-and-fall accident in Miami, the property owner’s insurance company will want to settle the claim quickly and for the least amount possible. They may even try to get you to admit fault so they can reduce the amount of compensation or even deny your personal injury claim.

Failing to obtain a legal consultation often results in people not receiving a fair settlement. Instead, they sign off on an agreement, only to realize they have ongoing medical issues or could have received a much larger settlement with legal representation. Unfortunately, once a settlement agreement is signed, the owner and their insurance company are no longer legally responsible for paying you any further compensation. 

By consulting with a slip-and-fall injury lawyer before speaking to the insurance company, you protect your legal rights. During your consultation, your lawyer will review how the accident occurred and your injuries. They will provide sound legal advice and help you understand your legal rights. 

They will also provide you with an estimate of the amount of compensation you could receive. Lastly, they will advise you on what steps you should take next and how having legal representation from a personal injury attorney in Miami benefits you. 

Let the Experienced Slip-And-Fall Attorneys at Bernstein & Maryanoff, Injury Attorneys, Fight for You

After a preventable accident suddenly changes your life, it can be hard to know where to turn. You need legal representation but don’t know who to trust or how to get started.

With decades of experience representing injury victims in Miami and throughout Florida, Bernstein & Maryanoff, Injury Attorneys, has a team of personal injury lawyers with a record of successful settlement and verdicts for their clients.

Our leaders, Jack Bernstein and Neil Maryanoff, put their combined experience of more than 75 years to work for you. They personally oversee each case as our entire legal team fights for you. With this kind of experience, you know you can trust our law firm in Miami.

Every accident is unique. Depending on the details of what happened and who is responsible, your case could be very different from another slip-and-fall claim. To learn more about what your case may be worth and how our attorneys can help, call us today to discuss your case.

Contact a Miami Slip-And-Fall Accident Lawyer for a Free Consultation

After seeking medical treatment for your slip-and-fall injuries, take the time to speak with our experienced, local slip-and-fall personal injury attorneys. With decades of experience, our Miami slip-and-fall accident lawyers understand all the tactics insurance companies will attempt to use. We also help to ensure you receive fair competition for your injuries to cover all your losses. 

Let us take care of the complexities associated with slip-and-fall injury lawsuits while you focus on healing and recovery. Our consultation is free, there is no upfront legal fee, and we only collect once we settle your case.

Get your free slip-and-fall case evaluation and consultation now.

Frequently asked questions about Miami slip and fall claims

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Bernstein & Maryanoff Injury Attorneys
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Suite 226
Miami, Florida 33173

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