Our attorneys have been assisting the Orange County and Southern California communities for over 40 years.
If you recently sustained a slip and fall injury, contact the law firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo today. Our experienced Orange County slip and fall lawyers can help you get the compensation that you deserve. We have years of experience handling personal injury claims in Orange County.
When you have been injured due to the negligent actions of a property owner, you need to turn to a team with years of experience handling complex claims.
Although they seem unlikely, slip and fall accidents are far more common than you realize. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, slip and fall accidents account for over 8 million emergency room visits each year and are the leading cause of workplace accidents and missed work days.
Furthermore, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1-in-3 elderly people will have a fall each year. Of those, only half of slip and fall victims tell their doctors. However, many slip and fall accidents result in serious injury. In fact, 1-in-5 will result in a severe issue, such as a broken bone or a head injury.
Aside from severe medical problems slip and fall accidents can cause, they can also be expensive to treat. The U.S. spends roughly $34 billion every year on slip and fall medical treatment.
You may be wondering if your slip and fall accident was due to someone else’s negligence. In many cases, slips and falls are simply accidents. However, slipping cases can also involve premises liability and injuries caused by a negligent property owner, landowner, maintenance crew, management company, or occupant. In most cases, property owners have a responsibility to keep their property free from dangerous conditions at all times. In general, there are three different distinctions of visitors that can affect slip and fall cases:
As can be seen from above, the rules dictating liability for premises liability and slips and falls can change depending on the relationship between the person injured and where it happens. In general, every property owner from private individuals to business entities has a duty to act in a reasonably responsible way toward other people. That means cleaning up spills, keeping entryways free of obstructions, and other common-sense behaviors. When a person doesn’t fulfill this duty, he or she may be considered negligent.
For example, if you tripped on a broken section of walkway outside your local grocery store or there was a spill, the owner could be held responsible for your injuries. It was his or her duty to make sure the pathway to the business was safe, and failure to do so indicates negligence. However, if you were trespassing on someone’s property or went into the restricted area of a store, these same protections may not be afforded to you.
If you recently sustained a personal injury due to one of the reasons listed above, reach out to a slip and fall attorney in Orange County now. They will provide you with the best steps for you to take next to get the settlement that you deserve.
Individuals who sustain slip and fall injuries in Orange County will likely be able to recover a range of compensation for their losses. This includes various types of economic and non-economic damages related to the incident and the aftermath.
Economic damages. These damages are also referred to as “special damages,” and they revolve around the most obvious calculable expenses that individuals sustain after a slip and fall incident occurs. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Non-economic damages. These damages are also referred to as “general damages,” though they revolve around less calculable expenses than the ones mentioned above. These are more immeasurable expenses and revolve around a slip and fall accident victim’s:
There is no standard amount of money paid out to slip and fall accident victims in Orange County. Rather, the total amount of compensation paid to victims will vary depending on the particular factors related to a claim. Some of the main factors that can affect how much a slip and fall claim is worth include the severity of the injuries, whether or not an individual can work while recovering, the total length of the recovery, whether or not there was any shared fault, and more. Claims can range anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on various factors.
Calculating the economic expenses after a slip and fall injury revolves around gathering bills and receipts that come in as a result of the incident. However, properly calculating non-economic damages is more challenging, and this may involve securing assistance from economic and financial experts. Because these are more immeasurable losses, an attorney may use a “multiplier method” to show the insurance carrier or jury how these losses should be compensated. The multiplier method involves totaling all of the economic expenses and then multiplying that total by a set number (typically a number ranging from 2 to 5).
For example, if a person sustains $50,000 worth of medical bills and lost income as a result of a slip and fall incident, an attorney could use a multiplier of “three” to reach a non-economic total of $150,000. Overall, the attorney would seek $200,000 on behalf of the client.
Individuals can sustain a range of injuries as a result of a slip and fall incident. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Regardless of how severe slip and fall injuries seem, it is crucial for an individual to seek medical treatment so a doctor can conduct an evaluation and look for any unseen injuries that may have occurred as a result of the incident. Along with these visible traumatic injuries, slip and fall accident victims could suffer from a range of emotional and psychological trauma, including feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression.
Every state handles negligence differently, and it can sometimes be hard to prove because there are many factors at play. You could be partially responsible for your own accident, but the other party may be even more to blame.
Luckily, in California, you are allowed to collect compensation, even if you are somewhat at fault. This is called “comparative negligence”. Depending on how liable you are for your own accident, your compensation will be reduced by that amount. For example, if you are 20% at fault, you will only collect the remaining 80% of the total compensation. If you are 70% at fault, you’ll only collect 30%, and so on.
At DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo, we proudly handle slip and fall injury claims in Orange County on a contingency fee basis. This means that clients never have to worry about how they are going to pay for an attorney. Under a contingency fee, our team handles all of the upfront and ongoing costs related to the case. In fact, we will not collect any legal fees until after we successfully recover the compensation that our clients are entitled to. The final legal fees will be an agreed-upon percentage of the total settlement or jury verdict, but if we do not win, clients pay absolutely nothing.
We believe that this type of fee arrangement helps slip and fall victims, and others who sustain injuries caused by another party, afford the legal assistance they deserve even if they do not have the money up-front. That contingency fee offers a better sense of justice because individuals can take the steps necessary to protect themselves.
It is imperative for slip and fall victims to file their claims as soon as possible. In the state of California, there is a personal injury statute of limitations in place. Victims have two years from the date their injury occurs to file a lawsuit against the alleged negligent party. Failing to do so could result in a slip and fall victim becoming unable to recover any compensation for their losses.
In addition to the personal injury statute of limitations, slip and fall victims need to be aware of the deadlines in place with insurance carriers involved in their claims. In many cases, there are insurance carriers involved in settlement payouts after an incident occurs, but these insurance carriers we’ll have various reporting guidelines that you need to be aware of. If you have any questions about deadlines related to your particular slip and fall accident claim in Orange County, we encourage you to reach out to an attorney as soon as possible.
It’s imperative that you work with a personal injury attorney in Orange County who specializes in slip and fall cases. Your counsel’s job is to decrease your own fault in the accident while increasing the number of your total damages.
Damages are any expenses you incurred as a result of the accident and injury. In slip and fall cases, this usually includes medical expenses, lost wages from missing work, property damage, and pain and suffering. Your Orange County slip and fall attorney will try to maximize the amount of each damage award to get you the most compensation possible.
DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo has the expertise you need to win your slip and fall case. We have a long history of success in personal injury lawsuits. Proving the other party’s negligence can be difficult depending on the circumstances, but we have the skills and resources to do so. In fact, we’ve been working with clients in Orange County and the surrounding community since 1979. Contact us at (714) 783-2205 to begin building your case.