When property owners, managers, and supervisors do not safely maintain their premises, slip and fall accidents can occur and injure property visitors. Following a slip and fall accident, an injured property visitor may need to go to the emergency room, undergo surgery, attend physical therapy appointments, and receive other medical treatment. In addition, they may not work for a significant period, losing considerable wages following their accident.
If you or someone you care about suffered injuries in a recent slip and fall accident, you should have a skilled attorney representing you right away.
The New Jersey slip and fall accident lawyers at Reinartz Law Firm can help you handle every stage of your personal injury claim or lawsuit, from the initial investigation up until trial or binding arbitration. We can also help you make the best possible legal decisions while your case is pending and work to maximize the total compensation you recover for your injuries. For a free case evaluation and legal consultation, please reach out to our firm for more information.
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Getting Results for Our Clients
Our firm commits itself to obtaining the most favorable outcome in every injury case we handle, including slip and falls and other types of premises liability claims.
Some notable results for past clients include:
- $1,320,000 for client who slipped and fell in a residential building
- $575,000 for a client who fell down a poorly-maintained staircase
- $575,000 for a fall at a condo complex due to snow and ice
- $300,000 for a client who slipped and fell on commercial property
To learn more about how we might help in your case and what your claim might recover, consult our legal team immediately.
Where Do Slip and Fall Accidents Happen?
Slip and fall accidents can occur anywhere on someone else’s property, both indoors and outdoors. Outdoor slip and falls typically happen when snow or ice is on the ground, and the premises owner fails to shovel or remove the snow/ice promptly.
Outdoor slip and fall accidents may also occur when property owners fail to maintain their premises safely, such as where a sidewalk or driveway contains deep potholes, cracks, or spalling.
Indoor slip and fall accidents are common at restaurants and grocery stores when food and liquid spill onto the floor. When a premises owner, manager, or supervisor fails to warn about or clean up the spill within a reasonable time, and a customer slips and falls, the owner and their insurance company may be responsible for the resulting injuries and damages.
If you recently sustained slip and fall injuries on someone else’s property, the experienced legal team at Reinartz Law Firm is ready to step in and assist you with your case. We can investigate the circumstances surrounding your accident and determine your eligibility to file a slip and fall claim or lawsuit against all potentially responsible parties.
Who is Responsible for Slip and Fall Accidents and the Resulting Injuries?
In most instances, property owners and their insurance companies are responsible for slip and fall accidents and the resulting injuries. Property owners owe visitors a duty of care depending upon the visitor’s status on the property at a given time.
Property owners owe business invitees the highest legal duty of care. A business invitee is someone who visits the premises for the benefit of the property owner. For example, a customer at a grocery store or restaurant is a business invitee on the premises.
A property owner has a legal duty to warn about or correct known dangerous conditions that exist on their premises. Also, concerning business invitees, property owners must regularly inspect their premises for any unknown, latent conditions that might present a hazard to property visitors. If they encounter a dangerous condition or defect during their inspection, they must warn about or repair it within a reasonable time.
On the other hand, licensees are typically social guests who go onto someone else’s property for their own benefit rather than the owner’s benefit. A property owner owes a licensee a similar duty of care as business invitees. Specifically, the property owner must promptly repair or warn about known hazards on their premises.
Finally, trespassers are present on someone else’s premises without the property owner’s permission. A premises owner typically does not owe a trespasser a legal duty of care unless the trespasser is a “known” trespasser whom the property owner knows to frequent the property on a regular basis. In that instance, the property owner may owe the known trespasser some legal duty of care.
What Injuries Can Slip and Fall Accident Victims Suffer?
Individuals who fall on someone else’s property can suffer extremely serious injuries. These injuries are especially common if the accident victim hits the ground with significant force. The injuries that a slip and fall accident victim receives will depend upon how they fall to the ground and which body part(s) they strike.
For example, if the accident victim lands on their elbow, knee, leg, or arm, they can suffer a serious fracture that may require multiple surgeries. In addition, if they hit their head on the ground, they might sustain a traumatic head or brain injury, such as a concussion. Moreover, if the accident victim lands on their neck or back, they may suffer a spinal cord injury that can lead to either full or partial paralysis.
Other common slip and fall injuries that victims may suffer include rib fractures, internal organ damage, bruises, and open lacerations that require stitches.
If you think you may have suffered an injury in your slip and fall accident, it is best to follow up at a hospital emergency room so that a qualified medical provider can examine you and order X-rays and MRIs. That medical provider can then refer you to a specialist if your injuries warrant additional treatment.
While you focus your attention on getting better, the knowledgeable New Jersey slip and fall accident attorneys at Reinartz Law Firm can begin gathering your medical records and bills, along with other potential evidence, to prove the legal elements of your personal injury claim or lawsuit.
How Do I Prove a Slip and Fall Injury Case?
In addition to demonstrating that the property owner owed you a legal duty of care, you must demonstrate that the owner breached or violated that duty in some way. For example, the property owner might have failed to properly secure carpeting to the floor, clean up a spill, or repair a staircase within a reasonable timeframe.
You are halfway there if you can demonstrate that the property owner violated their legal duty. Next, you must demonstrate that this violation caused your slip and fall accident. In most instances, the fall hazard must not have been open and obvious, such that a reasonable person should have noticed the defect under normal circumstances. Moreover, the accident victim must demonstrate that as a direct result of their slip and fall accident, they sustained at least one physical injury.
To prove all of these legal elements, your lawyer can retain one or more experts to testify on your behalf at a deposition or in court. For example, your lawyer can retain an accident reconstructionist if the insurance company is disputing fault for your accident.
An accident reconstructionist can review photographs, visit the slip and fall accident scene, read through incident reports, review eyewitness statements, and draft their own report about how the accident likely occurred. Moreover, if your case goes to litigation, an expert accident reconstructionist can testify at a deposition or trial about how your accident occurred and who likely caused it.
Next, your lawyer can call upon a medical expert, such as a treating doctor or surgeon, to causally relate your injuries to the slip and fall accident. If you suffered a permanent injury in your accident, a medical provider can testify to that effect at a deposition or jury trial in support of your case.
At Reinartz Law Firm, we can retain the necessary experts on your behalf to help you prove each legal element of your slip and fall claim or lawsuit.
Will My Slip and Fall Case Go to Court?
Most slip and fall cases, like other personal injury cases, settle before the case goes to trial. Even if a personal injury lawyer files a lawsuit arising from a slip and fall accident, the case may still settle at some point during the litigation process.
Under certain circumstances, however, your lawyer may need to litigate your slip and fall case all the way to a jury trial. In the context of a slip and fall, jury trials are common when the insurance company disputes fault for the accident.
For example, the settlement adjuster handling your case might allege that you contributed to the slip and fall accident in some way or that the hazard which caused your fall was open and obvious. In those circumstances, you may need to take your case all the way to trial.
Slip and fall accident victims may also take their cases to trial if the insurance company adjuster refuses to award them favorable monetary compensation for their injuries. For example, the insurance company might contend that one or more injuries are unrelated to the accident, that they are pre-existing, or that they resulted from degenerative changes—or changes related to the normal aging process.
If you decide to litigate your case in the New Jersey Court System, the skilled legal team at Reinartz Law Firm will be by your side every step of the way. We can attend all court proceedings with you, including your jury trial, and introduce the appropriate evidence to help you maximize your recoverable monetary compensation.
Can I Recover Monetary Damages for my Slip and Fall Injuries?
If you can legally demonstrate that your slip and fall accident and injuries directly resulted from someone else’s negligence, you should recover monetary damages to compensate you for your losses.
Since every slip and fall accident scenario is different, and the injuries that accident victims suffer are different, monetary damages can vary widely from case to case. Generally speaking, the more serious your injuries and the more extensive your medical treatment, the higher the monetary damages you can recover for your injuries.
As part of a New Jersey slip and fall accident case, you can recover monetary compensation for your:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Mental distress
- Loss of earning capacity
- Loss of quality of life
- Loss of spousal companionship
- Loss of the ability to use a body part
- Permanent disfigurement or disability
At Reinartz Law Firm, we can assist you during slip and fall settlement negotiations—or at trial—and advocate for all of your legal interests. We will attempt to convince the at-fault property owner’s insurance company, or the jury, to award you fair damages that truly compensate you for all of your accident-related losses.
Speak to a New Jersey Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer about Your Legal Matter Today
If you suffered injuries in a recent slip and fall, you should have a skilled legal team by your side advocating for you every step of the way. Given the short statute of limitations for personal injury cases in New Jersey, always retain skilled legal counsel as quickly as possible to advocate for you.
Slip and fall accident victims in New Jersey only have two years from their accident date to file a claim or lawsuit for monetary damages. This statute of limitations time frame begins to run on the date of your slip and fall accident. It expires exactly two years later. Therefore, if you have not taken legal action within that time period, the court will prevent you from recovering any monetary damages for your injuries.
At Reinartz Law Firm, we can take legal action in your case right away and secure your ability to recover the monetary damages you deserve for your slip and fall injuries. For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with an experienced New Jersey slip and fall accident lawyer, please call us today at (201) 778-4878 or contact us online for more information.
The Reinartz Law Firm - Hackensack Office
Court Plaza South - West Wing
21 Main St Suite 205,
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Phone: +12012898614
Testimonial
HEATHER F.
"Richard guided me in my suit and made me feel confident in my decisions during my entire case. He made recommendations that I otherwise, would not have known about."
