Slip and fall accidents that result in neck injuries can be both painful and expensive. Neck injuries may linger and prevent you from engaging in your regular activities. When you suffer a neck injury in a fall, you may have legal recourse against the parties who caused your fall. Whether you slipped on a spill in a grocery store or tripped over a hole in the carpet in a hotel, you may have a claim against the property or business owners for the costs of your injuries. Hire a Punta Gorda slip and fall neck injury lawyer for advice.
Compensation through a personal injury claim can help ease your recovery and get the treatment that you need to get back to regular life. If your injury is permanent, compensation can help ensure that you receive ongoing treatment as needed and allow you to support yourself if you are unable to work. Perhaps most importantly, you will be able to hold negligent people or companies accountable for the actions that led to your fall. Call the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine today at 1-800-747-3733 and learn more about your legal options following a slip and fall accident in which you suffer injuries.
Slip and Fall Accidents Are Common
Slip and fall accidents can easily lead to many injuries, including neck and back injuries, spinal injuries, and broken bones. Neck injuries can be challenging to treat effectively and can cause long-term effects to your physical mobility, as well as the mental stress of constant pain.
Falls can be particularly dangerous for older Americans. The Florida Department of Health reports that unintentional falls among people ages 65 and over are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries in Florida. In 2014, Florida emergency departments treated older Americans for over 200,000 fall injuries, hospitalized over 68,000 people for fall injuries, and saw 2,445 people whose fall injuries were fatal. These numbers have continued to increase since 2005; for example, in 2019, 3,351 individuals died from falls in Florida.
Slip and Fall Liability for Business Visitors and Social Guests
If you are legally present on property belonging to others for a commercial or business purpose, the property owner owes you a legal duty of care. For property or business owners, this duty extends to customers shopping in stores, people eating in restaurants, and clients visiting offices.
These property owners must make reasonable efforts to identify and remedy dangerous conditions on the property that could harm others, including spills, poor flooring conditions, and other hazards that could lead to slip and fall accidents.
Injury victims who slip and fall on “transitory foreign substances” in businesses in Florida must prove that the property owners had either actual or constructive knowledge of the substances and should have taken steps to remedy the situation. These substances include things like water from weather conditions, spilled liquids, and excess floor cleaner or wax.
To prove constructive knowledge under Florida Statutes §768.0755, the injured parties must show that the hazard was a dangerous condition that occurred regularly and therefore was foreseeable or that the hazard existed long enough that a reasonably observant property owner should have discovered it.
A similar duty extends to private property owners who invite social guests to their homes, yards, or properties. This duty also exists for owners of properties open to public visitors, such as public parks or hospitals. These property owners are responsible if people are injured on their properties by a known dangerous condition or one that they reasonably would have discovered in the normal course of maintaining their properties.
Guests who suffer injuries under these circumstances may wish to consult with a Punta Gorda slip and fall neck injury lawyer for advice about their alternatives for legal relief.
Deadlines for Filing Slip and Fall Accident Claims
Injury victims who have the right to file personal injury actions based on negligence that led to slip and fall accidents only have a limited amount of time to file their claims. Florida Statutes §95.11(3) provides that injury victims normally must file their claims within four years of the date that the accident occurred.
While some exceptions to this general deadline or statute of limitations do exist, contacting legal counsel as quickly as possible following your accident is likely to be wise. Although some injury victims may have a longer time to file their claims, such as victims who are injured as minors, others may have a shorter time to file their claims, such as if their claims involve a public or governmental entity.
Allow Us to Handle Your Claim for Compensation
Personal injury claims can raise many complex issues, including the identity of all potentially liable parties, the status of the injury victim, and the relevant duty of the landowner to the injury victim. Every case is different, so details can make a huge difference in the outcome and compensation available in each case. Hiring a Punta Gorda slip and fall neck injury lawyer can help you get answers to these and many questions that you are likely to have about your potential claim.
If you or a loved one has suffered injuries from a slip and fall accident in Florida, you have the right to seek an attorney. Call 1-800-747-3733 today to learn more from the attorneys and staff of the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine.