Trips and falls are among the most common injuries that occur in the workplace. The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that such accidents like trips, falls, and slips make up at least 27% of the total accidents in the workplace. Particular vocations require people to be more careful. Due to the nature of their work, carpenters, tractor truck drivers, roofers, and those working on a construction site have a higher risk of experiencing such injuries while on the job. However, trips and fall accidents can occur in all types of workplaces, including office buildings where the hazards may not be that apparent. This includes uneven flooring, misplaced equipment, slick spots, and debris on the floor and is known as premise liability. In this case, the property owner was negligent in providing appropriate safety measures, and the victim may be entitled to monetary compensation. If you’ve experienced after a trip and fall at your work, you have certain legal rights. In this article, you’ll learn about how to proceed after your slip and fall accident.
What Should You Do After A Trip And Fall Accident?
Though a trip and fall injury may not seem like a huge deal, it is. If your company was unable to provide a safe and healthy environment for you and their employees, they should be held accountable. Employees trust their employers to take care of them and to enforce safety standards in such a way that employee’s trust that no harm will come upon them. If you experienced an injury at work due to your employer’s negligence, you should seek legal compensation for your medical expenses.
The first thing that you should do when you experience a trip and fall accident is to seek immediate medical care. Your health should be your first priority, and if you’re a victim to an injury, it’s imperative that you visit a healthcare professional immediately. Several companies have policies that an injured employee must seek immediate medical attention and may even have clinics on site.Your injuries need to be appropriately documented and evaluated for future purposes, especially if you decide to pursue a personal injury claim. This documentation includes copies of X-rays and scans, photos of your injuries, your medical records and expenses such as the bill or prescriptions, and any statements made by the doctor regarding your injuries.
The next thing to do after a trip and fall accident is that you need to report the accident to the property owner. It doesn’t matter if the accident happened at a construction site, an office building, or a sidewalk— the manager or the owner must be informed. Record the details of the incident in writing so that it’s easier to refer to later on, and ask for a copy from the manager or owner before you leave. Document what the weather was like on the day of the accident, the date and time of the incident, the description of the scene, and write it down in a notepad. Your report should also include a description of your injuries, the name and contact of the manager on duty and owner, and any details you think could help your case later on.
When documenting what caused your trip and fall, you should take a quick picture of the exact location where the trip and fall occurred. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this means that you also need to take a picture of the extraneous factors, such as icy patches or any malfunctioning stairs that led to your accident. You should consider a number of things, including but not limited to:
- Wet flooring with no warning sign
- Uneven flooring, especially old flooring
- Debris or clutter on the floor such as wires
- Cracks on the floor or the sidewalk
- Malfunctioning staircases
- Poorly lit areas
- Torn carpeting
- Freshly waxed floors without any warning signs
- Open potholes in the parking area
Use a good camera to take these pictures, and take a wide-angle shot to show the whole area.
Get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the potential witnesses who saw your trip and fall since their testimonies may help with your legal case. Keep the clothes and shoes that you wore on the day of your accident safe since they may serve as valuable evidence later on.
After you’ve done filing these reports, the next step you need to take is to hire a personal injury lawyer. Your employer’s insurance will seek to pay you as little compensation as possible. Although the first lump-sum offer they give may seem reasonable, it won’t take into account your future expenses and medical bills.
The defense attorneys may attempt to discredit your statements or twist your words, so hiring an experienced attorney is your best shot at achieving legal compensation for your injuries. A good lawyer will be able to devise a strategy that will work for your situation and will be able to handle all the challenging negotiations with your employer. Your lawyer will also help you get your workers compensation claim approved and will also help navigate you through the entire process. Having an experienced lawyer by your side will make you feel more confident since you’ll be aware of all the vital information about protecting your rights throughout your recovery.
Choosing the Right Course of Action
If you’ve been injured and you can’t cover the medical costs, you should look into hiring a personal injury lawyer. Plaintiffs have a limited time within which they can file a lawsuit, known as the statute of limitations. Usually, this begins when the plaintiff becomes injured or discovers the injury.
Statue limitations are established by state law and often vary from injury to injury. Any potential injury case requires a very detailed and intricate understanding of the law. Get professional legal help at Hare | Wynn, Newell & Newton, where they deal with a number of personal injury cases, including car accidents, brain and birth injuries, catastrophic injuries,medical malpractice, and medication error, burn injuries, and more. Having helped clients recover at least 3x more than they would have gotten without any assistance from attorneys, Hare | Wynn, Newell & Newton team of lawyers has decades worth of valuable experience.