slip & fall attorney orlando floridaIn the law, “slip and fall” cases are technically governed by premises liability law. And this law basically governs slip and fall accidents that occur in places where you might walk and fall. If you have had a slip and fall accident, even if you think that no one was to blame, you should call an Orlando slip and fall attorney, aka premises liability attorney, because some person or corporation might be liable for your injuries. And you absolutely must preserve evidence and witness testimony as soon as possible after any slip and fall accident, or else you could lose your potential case entirely because slip and fall law in Florida is not particularly friendly to plaintiffs overall (although a thorough and careful attorney will give you the best chance of recovering and likely will not accept your case unless they think it has merit under the law). The bottom line is that Florida law establishes specific evidentiary requirements that you must satisfy to proceed in a slip and fall case, so you need an Orlando slip and fall attorney to carefully evaluate whether there is sufficient and proper evidence in your case to sustain a claim for damages.

When Should You Consider Calling An Orlando Slip And Fall Attorney?

Basically you should call an Orlando slip and fall attorney anytime you or someone you love has fallen down anywhere and sustained serious injuries. These falls happen in places where you might spend money, like shopping malls, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, hotels, business establishments of any kind, and theme parks, and other areas where you walk around, like sidewalks, parking lots, stairways and hallways. You or your loved one might also have been injured or killed in a swimming pool accident. Sometimes these falls can result in very serious injuries, or even death, and sometimes the person or company who owns the business was doing something (or not doing something) that legally caused the fall (for example, grocery store leaving old banana peel on the floor with knowledge that it was there). I was working on a case recently where the plaintiff fell and sustained serious injuries at night in a parking lot with what all witnesses reported was clearly insufficient lighting. So the establishment owner was arguably responsible because they failed to install and maintain proper lighting.

How Can An Orlando Slip And Fall Attorney Help You?

Not uncommonly, people who have fallen do not have health insurance to cover their medical bills, but at the same time the defendant’s insurance company will be doing everything possible to minimize what they have to pay on any claim. You or your loved one may have sustained serious injuries including fractures, joint injuries, or brain injury or spinal cord injury, or even death. And the person or corporation who owns the property where you or your loved one fell may have been negligent for a variety of reasons, including poor lighting, hazardous flooring (for example, slippery or uneven), hazardous floor transitions from one part of a room to another, failure to improperly organize or monitor a room, location or event, failure to clean up trash or spills, and failure to keep floors dry and safe from the weather. The thing to understand is that business and property owners have a legal duty to keep their premises safe to protect their visitors and guests. So an Orlando slip and fall attorney first can help by evaluating (1) whether you have a potentially viable slip and fall case and (2) whether your Orlando slip and fall attorney can get the evidence needed to prove #1.

The way Florida’s laws are written, what caused you to fall is an extremely critical question. The law is very specific about which particular falls, in what scenarios, might lead to liability and those which cannot. One crucial aspect of maintaining any lawsuit is preserving evidence. As an Orlando slip and fall accident attorney, I can both evaluate whether you might be able to prove your case and, if I accept the case, then I will also work closely with you to do everything possible to discover and preserve necessary evidence. In particular, regarding slip and fall accidents, you must preserve the evidence of whatever caused you to slip. A photograph of the exact substance that caused your fall, taken as soon as practicable after any fall, is often the best evidence to help with the evaluation and later presentation of your case to both the judge and jury. You also really need the names of any witnesses to the area where the fall occurred, or to the fall itself. This advice might well be impossible to follow since you are likely reading some time after you or your loved one fell. And, after the fall, the business likely would have cleaned the area so a later photo of the floor will not be nearly as helpful. But still you should make every effort to get photographs and any and all witness names as soon as humanly possible after your slip and fall accident. Your Orlando slip and fall attorney will be asking for this evidence.

How Does An Orlando Slip And Fall Attorney Prove Your Case?

slip and fall accident lawyer orlandoAn Orlando slip and fall attorney will typically consult with a variety of different experts depending on the particular facts of any slip and fall case. The goal is to have the expert establish that some particular feature of the facility caused the fall. So these experts look at all sorts of mechanical/engineering issues such as light levels, floor and other construction, walkway, stairway, and interior and exterior building and landscape maintenance.

How Can You Lose Your Slip And Fall Case Without Ever Getting To The Jury?

Very often slip and fall lawsuits will eventually cause the defense attorney to file one or different motions that can lead to the dismissal of your case. These are called motions to dismiss and summary judgment motions. If the judge were to grant either the defendant’s motion to dismiss or summary judgment motion, then your case would be dismissed. The good news is that if the judge denies the summary judgment motion (typically filed someone in the middle of the lawsuit time-wise), then very often the defendant’s settlement offers will increase. But these can be extraordinarily complex motions, which require an exhaustive study of literally thousands of potential cases, along with a thorough and careful study of the facts of your particular case. Replying to these motions is not cookie-cutter activity. An Orlando slip and fall attorney employing creativity along with thorough research and a good dose of skill has the best chance of success, although again Florida’s slip and fall law is not very pro-plaintiff. So your Orlando slip and fall attorney will probably want to carefully evaluate the facts or your case before he or she agrees to the representation.

If You Or Your Loved One Was Injured In A Slip And Fall Accident, And Believe That Some Other Person Or Company Caused The Accident, Then Please Call My Office As Soon As You Possibly Can So I Can Get To Work Helping You Preserve Necessary Evidence. (407) 383-7290