What is a personal injury claim?
A personal injury claim designates an injured person to compensation who has suffered a slip and fall accident from a broken pavement. Damages can be availed on the basis of the magnitude of the injury after a personal injury claim is filed.
A personal injury claim can help the injured person financially in a lot of ways if the accused is found guilty:
- The compensation amount can help resolve the medical bills of the victim.
- The compensation amount can provide the victim some well-needed time to recover, till he remains absent from work.
- All other expenses and losses can also be recovered from the compensation amount received.
Understanding injury situations and types
A slip and fall injury from a broken pavement mostly occurs either due to a fragile pavement or inattentiveness of the person involved in the accident.
The injuries sustained from slipping and falling from a broken pavement can prove to be dangerous. Also, its harmful effects might increase drastically over a period of time. A person receiving head injuries after a nasty fall off from a broken pavement might look unhurt initially. But the injury might resurface at a later stage and make matters worse for the injured.
There are different types of injuries that are known to occur during a slip and fall:
- Head injuries: Head injuries resulting from a fall may result in serious brain damage. A person suffering from brain damage could experience a lot of mental issues like memory problems and different behavior patterns.
- Neck, back and spine injuries: A person can also end up getting neck, back and spine injuries after a slip and a fall from a broken pavement. These types of injuries may further invite chronic pain or even a surgery if the condition worsens.
- Broken hips or broken pelvis: A slip and fall may also lead to gruesome injuries like broken hips or broken pelvis which inflicts a lot of pain for the sufferer and may take months to heal.
- Torn tendons and ligaments: These types of injuries tend to occur in feet, knees and wrists. The treatments for such injuries also consume a lot of time and the person who fell might suffer a permanent damage to the affected body part in some cases.
Determining the fault
Suppose the victim suffers an injury from a slip and fall due to a broken pavement on someone else’s premises. Then the victim can lay his claim for compensation on the pretext of any one of the following condition:
- The owner of the property or any of his employees should have played a part in the cause or emergence of that dangerous spot.
- The owner of the property or any of his employees should have known of the vulnerable spot but did not pay any heed to it.
- The owner of the property or any of his employees should have made efforts in knowing the accident-prone surface. They should have got it repaired as any other efficient owner would have.
Comparative fault in slip and fall
In the scenarios of slip and fall, the comparative negligence law is also examined carefully to find out whether the victim had any role in his injury or not. Some points can help determine whether the comparative fault rule could be applied or not:
- Whether the victim had any valid reason for being at that dreadful spot where he fell? And was there any chance that the owner could have spotted him? Was anyone else ever found in a similar position at that place?
- Whether any other person in a similar situation could have prevented or lessened the amount of injury being suffered.
- Whether the premises owner made people aware of the dangerous spot by means of a barrier or any warning.
- Whether the victim indulged in any action that lead to his slip and fall accident from a broken pavement.
Seeking legal aid
The first thing that comes to mind before filing a claim is how to search and hire a personal injury attorney. The statutes of limitations tend to limit the time period for filing a claim in case of slip and fall injury. A slip and fall attorney can review a personal injury case for free and efficient legal aid that can help achieve the claim in a relatively short span of time.
