Mistakes People Make In Slip And Fall Accidents

When you are in a slip and fall accident, nobody expects you to be your own personal injury attorney—in fact, that’s a very bad idea. And if you are injured in a fall, you likely will have other things on your mind, other than what the right and wrong things are to do. Still, it can be helpful to read about some of the typical things that many accident victims do, that can harm their case, or their chances at recovery, after an accident.

Leaving Without Reporting the Fall

Many people fall, and, if they are physically able to do so, they get up, and walk out of the store. Maybe they are too embarrassed to report the accident. Maybe they blame themselves. Maybe they just, at the moment, feel OK, and don’t think it’s worth making a report.

Whatever the reason may be for walking out of a store or property without reporting the fall, it is a huge mistake.

When you report your fall, the store or property owner knows to document the fall. The owner or insurance company knows to interview witnesses, take pictures, or save any surveillance cameras, all things that you may need later to help prove your case.

And while an insurance company can still compensate you for injuries even if you don’t report the fall, insurance companies and defendants look very suspiciously at people who make reports of falls, hours or even days after they happen.

Throwing Away or Washing Clothing

Once you do get home, your clothes may be soiled from whatever was on the floor, or even your own blood. It can be a natural reaction to immediately wash—or even just throw away—those clothes, or even the shoes you were wearing.

But those clothes are evidence in your case. Parts of whatever material was on the floor could be on those clothes. The location of dirt, grime, and blood, can evidence what part of your body hit the ground first, and what your body did when it fell. Your shoes can show the Defendant that you were wearing appropriate footwear at the time of the accident.

More importantly, as clothes are evidence in a fall case, you can get in trouble for destroying them; you have deprived the Defendant of the opportunity to inspect them.

Settling Too Early

This is one mistake people make days after the fall. Often, people find they are contacted by the property owner, or the insurance company for the property where the fall happened. They offer to pay some of your lost wages, or help you with some medical bills. They sound really friendly, and you could use the financial help.

But what you are doing is settling your case earlier than you should. That is a huge mistake, as you have now prohibited yourself from ever being able to recover any other compensation or damages in your case.

Contact the Miami personal injury attorneys at Velasquez & Associates P.A. for help today if you fell and were injured on someone else’s property.

Sources:

safetyculture.com/topics/incident-report/

incidentreport.net/whatisincidentreporting/