Care is not always taken to ensure fast food patrons can move safely around the restaurant at all times.
When this happens customers could slip and fall on food left on the restaurant floor or when visiting the bathroom. Injuries could be serious, meaning it could be months before you can return to normal life.
As long as the accident wasn’t your fault, you should be entitled to file a personal injury compensation claim for the hardship you have to endure as a result of the accident. Depending on the state you are typically given 2 to 3 years to file a PI claim. How long the PI claim will take will depend on how convinced their insurer is that the accident took place while on its premises.
How Soon Should You Settle?
You shouldn’t rush a claim like this as you have to be sure you know how long it’s going to take to recover. If you settle too early you may not get the true value of the hardship you will suffer in the long term.
If your injuries aren’t too serious the recovery time will be less than if you are seriously injured. If you have relatively minor injuries like bruising it shouldn’t take too long for you to recover.
However, if you need surgery to repair damage to your internal organs it may be difficult for your doctor to give a true evaluation of your expected recovery time. In this situation you are best off waiting until a full assessment of your health status has been updated. It may take a lot longer than you would prefer but in the end you may get a higher PI settlement for a slip and fall with a burger restaurant.
Why You Should Take Your Time to Settle?
There are several parts to a PI claim, such as the calculation of past and future medical expenses, lost earnings now and into the future, pain and suffering, loss of consortium and longer term disabilities. There is never a quick way of calculating these parts of a PI claim.
There may be no immediate certainty as to the length of recovery time. When there is, typically there is no reason to delay your PI claim.
How a Lawyer Can Help You
Your attorney will thoroughly calculate your PI claim and the full cost of your financial hardship will be calculated including an amount for pain and suffering. This will be presented to the insurer and you will get a settlement that better reflects your financial hardship than if you tried to take on the PI claim on your own. To talk with a personal injury lawyer about your claim, complete the Free Case Evaluation on this page.
*Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against McDonald’s, or any other party, you may not be entitled to any compensation.
