
Elderly seniors living in or near Winter Park, Florida may be more prone to suffering from slip and fall accidents. There are a variety of reasons why the elderly tend to fall more often than middle-aged adults.
One of those reasons is that older seniors suffer from imbalances in their bodies and brains. This is often referred to as imbalances in balance and gait, according to the National Institute on Aging (NIA). This can cause an older person to weave slightly in their walking and tumble over due to the imbalance.
Another reason is that many seniors in Florida tend to use walkers, canes, and other devices to assist the person to walk. These are often solid to help in the task of walking, but on other occasions, seniors using these devices can slip and fall and suffer injuries. This can happen when the wheel on a walker gets derailed on a sidewalk, for example, or a person’s cane end gets accidentally stuck in a rut on the ground.
Are you currently helping an elderly spouse, family members, or a relative recover from injuries suffered in a fall? If so, then you should also reach out to the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine. A Winter Park elderly slip and fall lawyer can build a strong case on your loved one’s behalf.
Our team can work with you to understand the extent of your loved one’s injuries. We will help determine who might be at fault for the fall, and work to recover any damages that might be owed to your elderly senior from their fall. Contact our team today for a no-fee consultation at 1-800-747-3733.
Common Slip & Fall Injuries
When reasonably healthy people between the ages of 40 years and 65 years old take a stumble, they are often able to get up, dust themselves off, and carry on with their day. But folks over the age of 65, 70, or even older find that when they slip and fall, they sustain a fair amount of injuries.
Elderly seniors are likely to break a bone or dislocate a hip when they fall. They may even fracture bones in the hands or elbows as they try to stop themselves from falling. These are just some of the minor injuries.
If a senior slips and falls on a wet set of stairs, and falls down to the bottom of the set of stairs, this type of slip and fall can result in much more serious injuries. The older senior could possibly receive severe injuries like broken vertebrae, spinal cord injuries, concussions, or even brain damage from such a fall.
That’s why it’s so critical to get medical attention if you or a senior loved one has had a serious slip and fall accident. These kinds of falls can produce injuries that may come on slowly over the course of a few days.
Don’t let your elderly senior’s pride get in the way of finding proper medical attention or deciding to work with a personal injury lawyer. You should be able to seek damages for your accident and recover financial compensation for these injuries.
Learn more about the legal implications of your elderly senior’s slip and fall from our Winter Park elderly slip and fall lawyer when you call the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine at 1-800-747-3733.
Finding Fault for a Slip and Fall
Finding fault in a legal claim is the difficult part of a negligence slip and fall claim. Normally, if your elderly senior suffers a slip and fall on a public property, the owner of the public property would be identified as the at-fault party.
However, if the fall happened on property belonging to a resident, the government, or a business, that could alter the exact number of parties who may be liable for this accident.
In general, when our legal team at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine moves forward with our due diligence in a slip and fall case, we are looking for evidence that shows negligence, like when:
- A wet floor causes a slip and fall accident and the owner or one of the employees created the hazard.
- The owner was aware that the wet floor presented a hazard to your elderly senior but chose not to repair or didn’t warn visitors about it.
- This negligence displayed by the owner created a hazardous condition, which led to the slip and fall injuries.
There are exceptions to this negligence at times. The owner of the property probably won’t be liable for damages if a person who got injured in a slip and fall was ‘uninvited’ to a property, was trespassing on the grounds illegally, or completely ignored warning signs.
Law of Comparative Negligence
The legal doctrine of comparative negligence under the Florida state laws of negligence may come into play for the slip and fall accident suffered by your elderly senior. This means that the property owner’s lawyers may try to pin liability on your elderly senior for the slip and fall accident. They will argue that the fall was partially caused by your loved one, because your elderly senior is elderly, and this aspect somehow contributed to the slip and fall.
Your elderly senior would be assessed for blame in the accident. If found to be comparatively negligent in the fall, the injured plaintiff would then have any damage recovery money subtracted by a percentage from an eventual settlement.
Call Today for Your Free Case Review
If you need legal support for your elderly senior who suffered a slip and fall accident in Florida, connect with a Winter Park elderly slip and fall lawyer at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine. Contact our team today for a no-fee consultation at 1-800-747-3733.