When Should You Hire a Slip & Fall Lawyer?

Slips, trips, and falls can result in very serious, catastrophic, and even fatal personal injuries. It is obvious that someone who suffers any of these injuries in a slip, trip and fall may be entitled to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover damages. However, falls causing these types of injuries are not normally the case. Most slip, trip and falls result in only some mild embarrassment and maybe a bruise or scrape. These types of falls are what most people will encounter at some point in their lives and do not give rise to a lawsuit. But where it can get tricky in deciding whether you have a potential lawsuit and should hire a slip, trip and fall lawyer is when your injuries are between a scrape and a catastrophic injury.

This is why the experienced slip, trip and fall attorneys in Philadelphia, PA, at Law Offices Bernard M. Gross P.C. offer FREE consultations to help victims of slip, trip, and falls determine whether they may have a claim to damages under Pennsylvania law. There is no obligation to retain our services, and we only get paid our counsel fees after we recover compensation for you (no win, no fee). This means there is no financial risk to hiring our law firm.

There are some important factors when considering if you need legal representation for a slip, trip and fall in Pennsylvania. Some of the most important factors to consider include the following:

Were You Hurt on Another Person’s Property?

Slip, trip, and falls are called premises liability cases. These are cases that involve the use of land such as a store, business, office, building, sidewalk, home, government property, or another location. However, if you slip, trip and fall on your own property, you generally will not have a claim unless some third party caused or contributed to your injuries (i.e., a landscaper made a hole in your yard and you fell in).

Therefore, the threshold consideration is 1) whether you were on the property of another person, business, or government agency, or 2) whether a third party caused you to fall on your own property.

Did You Need Medical Treatment?

Even if another person or business caused you to fall, that is only the liability portion of a claim. You need to also have damages. There are many different forms of damages. In a slip, trip and fall, generally, personal injuries are the largest source of damages. If you needed medical treatment for your injuries after a fall, you may want to speak with a lawyer regarding your possible claim.

Did You Lose Time From Work?

Any time a fall results in time lost from work due to the accident, medical treatment, appointments, or your disability from pain, you should seek a lawyer’s help in Philadelphia, PA. The law allows you to recover compensation for lost wages, which can become a sizable part of your claim if you require surgery or have some type of permanent disability.

Has an Insurance Adjuster Called You Offering Money?

You may want to seek a slip, trip and fall attorney whenever an insurance adjuster for the landowner or property renter calls you to offer some sort of settlement. That is a clear indication that there may be a strong claim for both liability and damages. This is because calling right away and offering money to settle a claim is a tactic used by an insurance company to get you to accept much less compensation than you may be entitled to before you realize you are entitled to more.