What is the Average Settlement for a Slip-and-Fall Injury?
Model depicted not actual client
A settlement for a slip-and-fall case depends upon many factors and ranges from a few thousand dollars for a minor accident to hundreds of thousands or even seven figures for severe injuries. It certainly depends upon the injuries which can include disc herniations requiring neck and back surgery, paralysis or traumatic brain injury. Other factors include whether the business or property owner had notice of the dangerous, defective condition and failed to correct it in advance of your fall.
What is the value of your slip and fall case? The premises liability lawyers at The Villari Firm can tell you for a free consultation. With over twenty years of experience helping victims of slip and fall accidents get the compensation they deserve, Heidi G. Villari and her team of experts explain how to calculate monetary damages in a slip and fall case.
Did you suffer any injury in a slip and fall accident? Call us to evaluate your case. Put our proven experience to work for you.
How is Compensation Determined in a Slip and Fall
Compensation in a slip and fall accident comes in two forms: economic damages, which are the actual costs incurred by your injury, and non-economic damages, which include emotional distress and pain and suffering.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are calculated by adding up the actual costs you incur due to your injuries. Your attorney’s experts help determine whether you are entitled to compensation for future costs, such as loss of earning capacity or continuing medical expenses.
Medical Expenses
The costs you incur to treat your injury may include diagnostic procedures, surgery, medications, hospital stays, doctor’s visits, and therapeutic or assistive devices such as a wheelchair.
Rehabilitation or Physical Therapy
The costs of your rehabilitation or physical therapy sessions are compensated. Your attorney’s experts consult with your doctors to ensure you receive compensation for the amount of rehabilitation or physical therapy you need.
Lost Wages
You are compensated for the money you can’t earn because you miss work due to your slip and fall accident. You may also get compensated for future earnings, if your injury impairs your ability to work in the future.
Long-Term Care
If you require continuing medical care because of your slip and fall accident, you get compensated for that.
Non-Economic Damages
It is essential to have the help of your personal injury attorney and their team of experts to assess how much you should be compensated for non-economic damages such as emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of companionship, and loss of enjoyment of life caused by your slip and fall injury.
Emotional Distress
If you were permanently disfigured or cannot perform your usual activities due to your slip and fall injury, you may be entitled to compensation for your emotional distress.
Pain and Suffering
If you experience ongoing pain from your slip and fall injury, you may be entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering.
Loss of Companionship or Consortium
If your slip and fall injury affects your relationship with your spouse, your spouse may be entitled to compensation for loss of companionship or loss of consortium.
Loss of “Enjoyment of Life”
If you cannot perform the life activities which bring you joy due to your slip and fall injury, you may be entitled to compensation for loss of enjoyment of life.
How Non-Economic Damages Are Proven
Too often, insurance companies offer settlements far below what you deserve in non-economic damages. To argue for a higher settlement, your attorney and their team of experts use your medical record as well as your statements regarding how the slip and fall injury has impacted your life. They may call medical experts and other witnesses such as your spouse, children, or friends to testify as to how your slip and fall injury affects you.
You can help your attorney get the non-economic damages you deserve by keeping a journal of your life following the slip and fall accident. Record all of your medical appointments, the medication you must take, the therapy you attend, and the activities you can no longer enjoy due to your injury.
Premise Liability in a Slip and Fall Case
Under the doctrine of premises liability, a property owner, manager, tenant, developer, or builder is liable to someone who is injured on their property.
A premises liability lawsuit in Philadelphia gets filed under a theory of negligence or strict liability. A property owner is strictly liable for protecting people from very dangerous hazards on their property, such as construction sites. Most of the time, a property owner is responsible for remediating or warning of hazards they know or should have known about.
Pennsylvania is a comparative negligence state, meaning the victim of a slip and fall accident on someone’s property can get compensation for their injury, but may have their compensation reduced if they were partially to blame for the accident. For example, if a slip and fall victim is 20% to blame for the accident, they can receive 80% of the settlement or money judgment from the party who was 80% to blame.
A slip and fall victim has two years from the date of the accident to file their premises liability lawsuit.
How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
Compensation and comparative negligence are the most hotly contested issues in slip and fall cases. Of course, you want to maximize compensation and minimize your fault for the accident. The defendants want to minimize compensation and maximize your fault. Under Pennsylvania and New Jersey law, there are defenses that the business owner, shopkeeper or general contractor can assert including the defense of open and obvious conditions, and statutory employers defenses. The Villari Firm and Heidi G. Villari can analyze the facts and apply the law so as to avoid defenses.
This is when you need an experienced slip and fall lawyer in Philadelphia. Don’t become a victim twice. Put our experience and zeal to work for you and get the slip and fall settlement you deserve. Call today.
