Slip And Fall Attorney in Jacksonville

The NFSI provides a comprehensive list of statistics that demonstrate the prevalence and seriousness of slip and fall accidents.

Slip and fall accidents that result in fatalities are just about equally divided between men and women. Fractures represent the most common injury produced by a slip and fall, with broken wrists accounting for the majority of broken bones. However, a fractured hip is the most serious type of fracture that contributes to the largest number of negative health consequences. With more than one million emergency room visits each year in the United States, slip and fall accidents represent 12 percent of the accidents caused by falls.

Although slips and falls are not the most common cause of workplace injuries, they are the most frequent cause of lost work days. Slip and fall accidents constitute the leading reason for filing workers’ compensation claims. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), floors and the materials used to construct floors contribute to more than two million trip and fall accidents each year in the United States.

What started as one office with a handful of lawyers has transformed into one of the largest law firms in the nation, with offices located in many states. Morgan and Morgan’s nationwide presence has introduced our team of personal injury attorneys to hundreds of slip and fall cases.

The following two cases should provide you with insight into how our team of slip and fall lawyers in Jacksonville helps clients recover from financial losses.

Municipal Convention Center

The case Morgan and Morgan handled for a client who tripped and fell at a municipal convention center demonstrates that slipping and falling on a wet floor is not the only type of slip and fall accident. Our client tripped and fell as a result of loose wiring running across a section of the convention center floor. The personal injury assigned to the case had to prove the convention center committed an act of negligence by failing to store the loose wiring in a safe area. We proved the maintenance staff at the convention center knew about the loose wiring but did nothing to address the unsafe condition.

We helped our client recover $5,584,546 in monetary damages.

Outback Steakhouse

Casual-themed restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse create an area for takeout orders. Customers that place to-go orders pick up their food by going through a separate entrance. Because Outback processes a considerable number of takeout orders, there is heavy foot traffic at the to-go entrance during peak business hours.

We represented a client who slipped and fell at the to-go entrance of an Outback Steakhouse. Our client explained to us that the floor texture felt slippery before our client tumbled to the floor. The result was our client sustained a fractured shoulder that led to the accumulation of costly medical bills. Outback Steakhouse presented an offer of $135,000 in compensation, which our personal injury attorney immediately rejected. After a short trial, the judge hearing the case awarded our client $759,252 in monetary damages.

When you meet with a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan, one of the items on the agenda is for your slip and fall accident lawyer in Jacksonville to determine the cause of the slip and fall incident. Once your attorney determines the cause of the slip and fall, the next step involves deciding whether another party should assume legal liability for committing one or more acts of negligence.

Slick Surface

As we mentioned, wet floors represent the most common factor that causes slip and fall accidents. Many of the wet floor slip and fall cases center on an area of a public venue where a spilled beverage has created a slick surface. When a worker discovers a slick surface, the worker is responsible for either taking care of the unsafe condition or asking another employee to take measures to ensure the safety of customers, visitors, and other workers.

The most effective response to a slick surface is to dry mop the area. If an employee cannot immediately dry a slick surface, the employee must provide notice of the potential danger spot by placing a Wet Floor sign over the slick surface. From lack of action to a defective machine that dispenses beverages, the personal injury attorney assigned to your case by Morgan and Morgan conducts a thorough investigation to determine whether your case fulfills the requirements that prove the four elements of negligence.

Slick surfaces also can develop outdoors, especially during the colder months of the year.

Loose Carpet/Flooring

From a loose floor tile to a Welcome mat that has bunched up, loose carpet and flooring represent a common threat that causes trip and fall injuries. Employees should pay attention to potentially hazardous obstacles, but often, they overlook safety hazards such as loose carpets and flooring.

Public venues owe customers and visitors a duty of care to replace loose floor tiles. As with a Wet Floor sign, public venues are responsible for alerting customers and visitors to the potential danger of walking over loose flooring. The most effective type of warning is red or yellow tape set up around the area of the loose floor tile.

Electrical Cords

One effective strategy to dry a large slick surface entails running a powerful fan over the slick surface. Although one danger disappears, a second danger emerges in the form of one or more electrical cords. Public venues must take steps to minimize the risks posed by loose electrical cords, such as taping the cords to the floor. A sign informing customers and visitors about the presence of a loose electrical cord can remove the legal liability a public venue faces if someone trips and falls.

Inadequate Training

The National Institute of Occupational Safety (NIOS) offers public venues an educational guide on how to prevent slip and fall accidents. Although the guide focuses on workplace slip and fall accidents, the tips provided also apply to venues that serve the public. Educating employees about the tips to prevent slip and fall accidents should be a prominent part of any employer safety training program. Unfortunately, far too many businesses either do not provide safety training or cut corners when teaching tips for preventing slip and fall accidents.

An inadequately trained staff is one of the most common causes of slip and fall accidents.

The slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville that you hire from Morgan and Morgan needs to know where you sustained your injuries before determining the cause of the slip and fall accident. Our experienced personal injury attorneys understand the precautions different types of public venues must take to protect customers, employees, and visitors.

You can slip and fall just about at any public venue, but five venues top the list of where the most common slip and fall accidents take place.

Restaurants

A slip and fall is waiting to happen around every corner at a restaurant. Bathrooms are an especially common area where customers and employees slip and fall, as moisture from the sinks collects on the floor. Kitchens represent another common area where employees slip and fall because of the combination of beverage spills and the grease that drips from the fry station. Customers can slip and fall near beverage stations and in the areas of the bar where patrons sit to enjoy a cocktail before heading to their tables.

Cooks and bussers typically address wet floors, but every restaurant employee is responsible for preventing slip and fall accidents caused by slick surfaces.

Grocery Stores

Grocery stores provide several opportunities for a slip and fall incident to occur. Virtually every aisle contains some type of liquid, from milk stored in the dairy section to concentrated chicken stock that sits in the soup section of an aisle. The communication system at grocery stores, which consists of an employee calling out for assistance on a public address system, represents the tool that allows grocery store workers to respond to wet floor calls quickly.

Stockers are the employees located closest to most spills, but any employee at a grocery store should act with a sense of urgency when notified about a spill or witnessed a spill happen while performing a job duty.

Shopping Malls

Shopping malls such as River City Marketplace pose a challenge for personal injury attorneys trying to prove negligence for slip and fall accidents. The reason for the challenge concerns knowing which party to charge with negligence. For example, if a spill occurs in a food court right next to a restaurant’s stand, is the restaurant responsible for cleaning up the spill, or does the maintenance department of the mall assume legal liability for dry mopping beverage spills? In most cases, the shopping mall maintenance crew is responsible for handling slick surface calls, even if the calls come from one of the food courts.

For wet floors located inside one of the stores, store employees assume legal liability for any injuries sustained by customers, employees, and visitors.

Convenience Stores

Slick surfaces are a common occurrence at convenience stores. Leaky faucets in a bathroom, spills near an island beverage station, and melted snow located near a front entrance all present slip and fall risks. The high volume of foot traffic can make it difficult for store employees to keep up with sections of wet floors. However, the relatively small size of convenience stores means store employees should be able to address any type of slick surface that places customers, employees, and visitors in harm’s way.

Employees working at a specialty food counter such as a pizzeria usually receive the first word regarding a wet floor.

Arenas/Stadiums

The clock winds down towards halftime during an NFL game at TIAA Bank Field. Thousands of fans head towards the tunnels to grab a bite to eat. The onslaught of fans leads to the development of numerous possible slip and fall accidents. Stadium management should have a plan in place to handle the high volume of wet floor calls. This means strategically placing employees near every bathroom and food court during the peak rush of fans during a Jacksonville Jaguars home game.

Employees responsible for preventing slip and fall accidents include maintenance staff and the workers at every food and beverage stand.

It doesn’t seem that a fall from a couple of feet can do much damage. Nonetheless, it is not the height that creates the most serious issue for a slip and fall accident. Instead, it is the element of surprise combined with a quick drop to the floor or ground that leaves victims vulnerable to sustaining serious and even life-threatening injuries.

Bone Fracture

When you start to slip and fall, the first reaction is to prepare one or both arms to absorb the impact of the fall. Although our instincts often lead to happy endings, the same cannot be said for a slip and fall. Bracing ourselves for a fall by extending one or both arms frequently causes a bone fracture. One or both wrists can sustain a compound fracture because our body weight is much too heavy for the wrists to support. You also can sustain a broken arm or shoulder, as well as a dislocated elbow

Any type of compound fracture usually results in undergoing more than one surgery followed by weeks, if not months of intensive physical therapy sessions.

Sprained Knee/Ankle

Another physical reaction to the start of a slip and fall accident involves our bodies turning and twisting around at the hips and lower legs. The result of the turning and twisting motion is the tendons and ligaments holding together the knee and ankle joints experience an incredible amount of pressure. When the tendons and ligaments face too much pressure, they can strain and if the pressure is too much to bear, the tendons and ligaments holding together the knees and ankles can tear.

Recovering from a sprained knee or ankle requires a few days of rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE). For a severely sprained knee or ankle, recuperation can take several weeks, with surgery a viable option for the worst cases. 

Spinal Cord Damage

Not every slip and fall involves bracing against impact with one or both arms. Slip and fall accidents can take victims by surprise enough to prevent them from taking any action to absorb the pending impact of a fall. Without any type of bracing motion to absorb impact, the spinal cord becomes highly susceptible to sustaining significant damage. Some slip and fall victims land on the seat of their pants, which generates a substantial shock to the spinal cord. The result can be one or more slipped discs or considerable damage done to the nerves running through the spinal column.

Brain Trauma

The worst car scenario for slip and fall accidents concerns the head making an impact with a solid object, such as the floor or a counter. Brain trauma can be as mild as a minor concussion or as serious as a life-threatening outbreak of bleeding within the brain. Victims of brain trauma often require more than one surgery to relieve pressure in the brain, as well as undergo extensive rehabilitation to recover lost cognitive and physical skills.

What transpires during the first few minutes after a slip and fall accident determines the strength of an insurance claim and a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Although the shock of sustaining one or more injuries as a result of a slip and fall can prevent you from making the right decisions, you should shake off the shock and follow a few steps to ensure you build a strong enough case to receive just compensation for your injuries.

Seek Medical Care

Medical bills by far represent the costliest form of damages for any type of personal injury case. Without medical records such as the result of diagnostic tests, you cannot expect to gain approval for an insurance claim or receive a favorable legal judgment. The longer you wait to get medical assistance, the less likely an insurance company approves your claim for compensation.

Even if you feel healthy enough to remain at the scene of the incident, you should eventually ask a healthcare provider to conduct a comprehensive physical examination. Some symptoms take time to develop, such as the symptoms associated with whiplash and a concussion.

Notify a Staff Member

If you slip and fall at a smaller venue such as a restaurant or convenience store, you should expect a staff member to respond promptly to your predicament. The same cannot be said for larger public venues such as stadiums and shopping malls. You might have to enlist the help of someone who witnessed the accident to notify a staff member. Informing a staff member starts a chain of communication that ends with one of the managers on duty completing an incident report.

An incident report represents a vital piece of evidence for a slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville to review.

Receive the Incident Report

The incident report of your personal injury incident acts as the official version of events unless your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville discovers discrepancies in the collection of physical evidence and/or the accounts of the slip and fall accident provided by witnesses. The incident report should include the names and contact information of every witness, as well as a detailed description of what unfolded before, during, and after the incident. An explanation of the venue conditions, such as the number of customers and the lighting of the area where the accident took place, might help your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville build a strong enough case to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

Hiring one of the personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan dramatically improves your chances of receiving compensation. The lawyer assigned to your case conducts an extensive investigation that includes gathering more physical evidence and interviewing witnesses. An experienced attorney ensures you file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations. 

The sooner you schedule a free case evaluation with Morgan and Morgan, the sooner you can receive the compensation that you need to recover from financial losses.

The personal injury attorney assigned to your case does much more than collect physical evidence, interview witnesses, and file a civil lawsuit before the deadline. We also provide other types of legal support that separate our law firm from other law firms that handle slip and fall accidents. 

Offers Helpful Legal Advice

Going through the insurance claim process, as well as a civil trial in front of a judge, can be overwhelming for most clients. Because of the stress generated by taking legal action and filing an insurance claim, working with a Florida-licensed attorney helps you gain a much better understanding of the legal process. One of the most important decisions you can expect to make concerns whether to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages.

The attorney from Morgan and Morgan assigned to your case provides you with the legal advice you need to make the right decision every time.

Gives Healthcare Provider Referrals

Our more than three decades of experience have allowed Morgan and Morgan to build an impressive list of healthcare providers that we trust to take care of our clients. Sustaining one or more injuries as a result of a slip and fall might require you to meet with a specialist to address a serious healthcare issue. Morgan and Morgan can recommend the right specialist to take care of your serious injury. We also help clients deal with the mental and emotional distress issues that frequently arise after a serious personal injury incident.

Calculates the Value of Compensation

Your personal injury attorney must calculate a reasonable value for monetary damages or run the risk of having your insurance claim denied or your civil lawsuit ending with an unfavorable decision issued by the judge hearing your case. Calculating tangible expenses such as medical bills is easy to do, but determining the value of non-economic damages is much harder to do. An experienced slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville knows how to calculate a fair value for non-economic damages.

Acts as an Intermediary With the Insurance Company

Insurance companies prefer to interact with policyholders directly because most policyholders do not know the details of insurance laws. Policyholders also do not possess the same strong negotiating skills that are possessed by experienced attorneys that handle slip and fall accidents. Once an insurance company discovers that you have retained legal counsel, the insurance company should review your claim with objectivity. Working with a highly-rated lawyer at Morgan and Morgan prevents the insurance company from taking advantage of you, such as denying a valid claim or offering a value for compensation that falls below what you deserve.

Negotiates a Favorable Settlement

Most slip and fall accidents never see the light inside a civil courtroom. Instead, both parties agree to make an attempt to negotiate a settlement. Your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville from Morgan and Morgan submits an initial offer that the other party can accept, reject, or send back with a counteroffer. A series of counteroffers might follow until both parties agree to a settlement or decide to take the case to the trial phase of the litigation process. You might have to go through several rounds of counteroffers before resolving your case.

Proves Negligence

If your case reaches the trial phase of the litigation process, your personal injury attorney must prove the presence of the four elements of negligence. Your lawyer must show the judge that the other party owed you a duty of care to protect you against sustaining one or more injuries. Then, you have to demonstrate the other party violated the duty of care doctrine, which resulted in the cause of your injuries that produced financial losses.

Without proving the four elements of negligence, the judge hearing your case should rule in the favor of the defendant.

If your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville can prove the four elements of negligence and you do not assume any of the liability for causing the incident, then the defendant must assume 100 percent of the legal liability for causing your injuries. However, many personal injury cases do not involve one party accepting 100 percent of the blame for causing a personal injury incident. Because of the number of shared-liability civil lawsuits, many states have adopted some form of the comparative fault principle. Florida follows the standard comparative fault principle for judges to assign blame for slip and fall accidents.

According to the pure comparative fault principle, the judge hearing your case has the legal power to distribute fault among the parties for causing a slip and fall incident. For example, if you slipped and fell over a slick surface that had a Wet Floor sign placed over it, you can expect to share some of the blame for causing the slip and fall incident. The judge hearing your case might assign part of the fault for the accident to the other party for not taking steps to dry the slick surface. You might assume some of the fault for not paying attention to the Wet Floor sign.

Let’s say the other party has to assume 60 percent of the legal liability by not acting with a sense of urgency and you must assume the remaining 40 percent of the fault for ignoring the Wet Floor sign. If the judge hearing your case awards $100,000 in monetary damages, the value of the compensation awarded to you declines from $100,000 to $60,000 to adjust for the 40 percent of the blame assigned to you by the judge.

Outside of getting you the compensation that you deserve, the most important role of your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville from Morgan and Morgan is to ensure you file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Each state has established a deadline for filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Most states have set the statute of limitations for filing a personal injury lawsuit between two and four years. However, a few states allow as long as six years and as short as two years for plaintiffs to take legal action. Florida provides plaintiffs with four years to file a personal injury lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. The clock usually starts to tick on a personal injury lawsuit on the date of the incident. Your personal injury attorney might ask for an exemption if you sustained injuries that developed delayed symptoms.

Four years gives you a considerable amount of time to put together a persuasive case. Nonetheless, you should act with a sense of urgency for two important reasons. First, your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville from Morgan and Morgan wants to interview witnesses as close to the date of the incident as possible. Witness accounts tend to be much more reliable the closer they are given to the date of personal injury incidents. Second, the sooner you file a civil lawsuit seeking monetary damages, the sooner you might qualify to receive compensation. Until you receive compensation for your injuries, you are responsible for paying off medical bills.

If you fail to file a personal injury lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations, you can expect the court clerk processing your case to remove it from the judicial docket.

If you and your slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville from Morgan and Morgan decide to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damage, you request three primary types of compensation: Special compensatory, general compensatory, and punitive. The fourth type of compensation is called wrongful death damages that either you or a loved one can seek.

Special Compensatory Damages

Also referred to as economic damages, special compensatory damages cover the tangible costs associated with your case. The most substantial type of tangible compensation concerns the value of medical bills. You have the right to recover the financial losses generated by diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. If applicable, you have the right to ask for compensation to cover prescription drug costs, as well as the costs connected with using an assistive device.

You also have the right to ask for special compensatory damages for repairing damaged property. Perhaps a slip and fall severely damaged an electronic device, such as a table or a Smartphone. If a slip and fall incident caused you to sustain serious enough injuries that forced you out of work, you should ask for compensation to recover lost wages.

General Compensatory Damages

Sustaining physical injuries caused by a slip and fall might not be the only type of damage you suffered. General compensatory damages involve non-tangible costs like the pain and suffering triggered by a personal injury incident. Although slip and fall accidents typically do not produce as serious of emotional issues as opposed to car accidents and medical malpractice cases, sustaining one or more injuries as a result of a slip and fall can lead to the development of prolonged negative feelings such as fear and anxiety. Your personal injury attorney calculates a value for general compensatory damages by using a formula that factors in the value of special compensatory damages.

Punitive Damages

Judges do not award punitive damages to help defendants pay for tangible and non-tangible costs. Instead, punitive damages punish a defendant for committing one or more acts of negligence. Judges also award punitive damages to deter defendants from committing the same act or acts of negligence in the future. For a slip and fall case involving gross negligence, the judge hearing your case might award punitive damages that exceed the combined value of special and general compensatory damages.

With more than 30 years of experience litigating personal injury cases in Florida, Morgan and Morgan has compiled a proven record of success in getting our clients the compensation they deserve. The attorney assigned to your case specializes in handling slip and fall cases, which is a huge plus when you file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. Our team of personal injury attorneys has established a reputation for responding to emails, phone calls, and text messages as quickly as possible. If you have a general legal question after business hours, call our toll-free, 24 hours a day number at 877-515-6977 for immediate assistance.

Before you schedule a free case evaluation with a slip and fall lawyer in Jacksonville from Morgan and Morgan, spend a little time reading the positive reviews left by our clients on sites such as Yelp and Google. You should discover several common themes, such as how Morgan and Morgan's personal injury attorneys operate with a high degree of integrity and transparency.