Comedy routines may portray slipping on a banana as funny, but in reality, slipping and falling is no laughing matter. Indeed, a slip and fall accident can cause extreme injury and even death. In fact, hundreds of people die each year as a result of a slip and fall accident. Slip and fall survivors make up the majority of these types of accidents, but it can still cost them a lot – in medical bills and lost earnings. In order to recover from your financial loss, you need to be able to take the case to court and prove that your fall was a result of someone else’s negligence. However, if you don’t have proof, it will be hard to win your case. Here is how to go about proving liability in a slip and fall accident.
First, you need to take pictures of the area where you slipped. If you can remember to take a few cell phone photographs after you fall, you want to capture everything – the lighting, the floor conditions, the type of floor and so on. If the floor is wet and there is no sign around warning people of the risk, you want to take pictures of that too. Also, before you submit a slip and fall claim, you want to be sure that your photos are time stamped.
After you have solid photographic evidence, you want to make sure that you have photos of the actual injuries sustained. You can ask the doctor to take these pictures or a friend visiting you in the hospital. If you have any visible injuries, like bruising, scrapes or abrasions, you want to get nice crisp photographs – you also want to get a few macro shots too – just for context.
Next, you may also want to gather medical records. If you speak to a law firm, like the Reiner and Slaughter Law Office, your lawyer will want to see these medical records before the case goes to court. These medical records should include notes and recommendations by your doctor or surgeon, prescriptions, and even medical bills and receipts. If you want to prove how much you owe in medical bills and want to be reimbursed, you want to make sure that you have all of these records all neat and organized. If you don’t have medical records, it will be difficult to file a claim, because there is no burden of proof.
Lastly, you may want to take other measures to prove liability. For instance, you can ask the manager of the facility where you slipped and fell for surveillance videos. There may be actual footage of you falling. You want to secure this footage right away, because it could be deleted. You may also want to get witness testimonies and even phone numbers. Having a few witnesses can be a great way to prove liability. In the end, the more evidence you have, the better – immediately after your fall, you want to be prescient enough to start building your case.