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What to Do Following an Accident Due to Slip and Fall Pt 2

May 6, 2019 0 Comment Category: Personal Injury

Have Your Injuries Evaluated by a Doctor

If you have sustained severe injuries, then seek immediate medical treatment. Even if you feel that your injuries are not all that severe, you should have a medical professional assess you soon after your accident. Tell your doctor how it all happened, and have the professional note in their medical records that your injuries owe to an accident of a specific type.

Any delays between your injury and a doctor’s evaluation can present the negligent party with a chance to argue that you are at fault, which is to say your injuries resulted from a different incident which occurred after the accident in question. Avoiding that is not the only good reason for seeking urgent medical attention though – letting things be and hoping your body will heal by itself could be dangerous. For instance, if you hit your head as you slipped and fell, you could be carrying a concussion, and any failure to treat it appropriately could bring serious effects in the long term, including the rare fatal ones.

Follow your doctor’s recommendations while you recover. The negligent party might argue that your failure to follow your doctor’s recommendations is evidence enough that your injuries are not significant.

Deadline for Filing a Slip and Fall Lawsuit

There is a time limit to file a lawsuit following an accident. In legalese, this is known as the “statute of limitations”. In California, this is two years, except as provided by statute. That means, unless statute gives you more than two years to do it, you should file your claim inside that time. If you do not, then you run the risk of having any attempt dismissed outright by the court.

Refrain from Agreeing to or Signing any Documents

A business or its insurer may prompt you to sign one statement, waiver, or put pen to paper on some other deal once you report the accident to the concerned business’s manager. It may seem that these documents are innocuous at first, but there is always fine prints to be watching. A document that is prepared on behalf of the negligent party may contain language which absolves that business from responsibility, or else limits or shifts the blame for your injuries. That is why you must not sign anything without consulting with a very skilled and experienced slip fall attorney. Your lawyer should get the chance to review documents which you were told to sign, in order to confirm that their client does not waive any of their rights to recover the full compensation amount they are owed.