What to Do After a Slip and Fall Accident?
Posted in Slip and Fall Accidents,Uncategorized on June 20, 2017
Have you been injured in a slip and fall accident? These types of injuries affect millions of Americans each year. In fact, they are the leading cause of emergency room visits in the United States. If you’ve been injured as the result of a slip and fall, considering speaking with an Atlanta slip and fall lawyer, as there are certain steps you can take to protect your potential personal injury case.
Report the Accident
In any personal injury case, proper documentation is crucial. Start by reporting the injury to the owner of the property. If you’re injured on commercial property, ask to talk to the highest-ranking person available. If you’re on public property, get in touch with the local government. It’s essential to report the accident as soon as possible; if you wait too long to make a report, the courts might question the veracity of your claim. Most companies have their own version of an incident report – ask them to send you a copy.
Get Contact Information from Witnesses
If there were witnesses to your accident, ask them for their contact information. Witnesses will be important to building your personal injury case, so ask for phone numbers and email addresses as well as names. If possible, make sure they’re listed as witnesses on the incident report.
Take Pictures
Mobile devices have been a wonderful boon for personal injury cases. Take out your phone and begin snapping photos as soon as possible: the unsafe condition (such as a puddle of water or broken stair), as well as your injuries. If you’re seriously injured and must leave the scene, ask a friend or relative to take pictures of the accident scene before the property owners get rid of the evidence.
Seek Medical Treatment
Seeking appropriate medical care is obviously important for your well-being, but it also serves another important purpose: it makes your injury a matter of official record. Be sure to tell your attending physician exactly how you were injured. This will provide consistency between the incident report and your medical records, which will add to the legal strength of your claim. Juries don’t like inconsistency, so be sure to tell the truth and use specifics.
Don’t Participate in Any Recordings or Sign Any Insurance Paperwork
After the accident, you might receive a visit from the company’s insurance provider. It’s essential to navigate these meetings very carefully. An insurance agent’s job is to pay the least amount of money possible. For this reason, it’s best not to allow a tape-recorded conversation or sign any paperwork before consulting a personal injury attorney in Atlanta. It’s possible that you will unwittingly say something contradictory or be unclear in the aftermath of the event.
Find Someone to Protect Your Best Interests
It’s important to remember that insurance companies don’t work for you – they work for the company responsible for your injuries and for themselves. They may try to intimidate or bully you into a lowball offer – we’ve seen it before. Hiring an injury lawyer at the beginning of the process ensures there will always be someone there to protect your best interests – not any company’s bottom line.
Keep All Your Scheduled Appointments
If you’re receiving rehabilitation or continued therapy, it’s important to keep all your appointments and follow your doctor’s orders. You don’t want to be in the position of having a jury decide that noncompliance affected your injury’s healing, affecting your settlement amount. Even worse, a jury may decide that your injuries aren’t severe enough to merit a payout if you regularly miss appointments. It’s in your best interest to keep your appointments, from both a medical and legal standpoint.