Riverside Slip and Fall Lawyer

Riverside Slip and Fall Attorney

There are thousands of private residences, business properties, and public properties in Riverside. The owners or managers of all these types of properties have a legal responsibility to protect their visitors from hazardous property features. One of the most common types of accidents to occur as a result of a property owner’s negligent care and maintenance is a slip-and-fall.

Contrary to popular belief, slip-and-fall accidents are not minor. Instead, this type of accident can produce serious injuries and cause major financial and psychological impacts on the sufferer’s life. If you’ve been injured in a slip-and-fall accident, the personal injury claims process can be used to seek compensation. While the process is complicated, an experienced Riverside slip-and-fall lawyer from Setareh Law can help you with your claim so you can get the compensation you deserve.

How to Seek Compensation After a Riverside Slip-and-Fall Accident

When an individual is injured in a slip-and-fall accident in Riverside, they can seek compensation for their injuries by filing a claim against the at-fault property owner’s property or homeowners insurance policy. This process usually begins when the injured party obtains the assistance of an attorney. The attorney will investigate the claim to determine the proper source of the liability. While this is often the property owner, it can also be a manager of a property, such as a company that leases a building to operate a retail store.

Once the liable party has been identified, the attorney and their legal team will also determine their insurance resources. When your injury has stabilized, the Riverside slip-and-fall lawyer will establish a value to the claim based on several factors, such as the severity of your injury, the expenses you incurred as a result of the injury, and the presence of any permanent injuries that will impair your ability to earn an income in the future.

When the claim is made to the insurance provider, a claims adjuster will evaluate the claim to determine whether compensation is available for the claimant, and how much. The claim can either be accepted, denied, or settled for another amount. However, if the insurance provider does not fairly compensate the claim, it can be filed as a personal injury lawsuit in civil court for a judge or jury to determine how much compensation is owed to the claimant.

How Does a Riverside Slip-and-Fall Lawyer Prove Liability?

Those who control property in Riverside either through ownership, a lease, or another type of legal arrangement have the responsibility to regularly inspect their property and repair issues, such as torn flooring materials or parking lot potholes, that can injure others. A Riverside slip-and-fall lawyer will gather evidence to connect the property owner or manager’s negligent care and use of the property to the accident that caused the claimant’s injury. 

Some of the types of evidence that can be used to show that the accident was the result of negligence can include video surveillance footage or accounts from eyewitnesses at the scene. Photos of the hazard that caused the accident are also helpful, as they can reveal whether the property controller had placed a prominent warning sign in the area that would let guests know to avoid the area.

The claimant’s official report of the accident to the property controller is also important evidence, as are other complaints that may have been made by other visitors to the property who encountered the same hazard.

What Type of Compensation Is Available After a Slip-and-Fall?

There are two types of compensation that Riverside slip-and-fall claimants can seek, which are:

• Economic damages: These involve compensation for the monetary costs of the injury, such as the cost of medical treatment, wage loss, or even permanent loss of earning capacity.
• Non-economic damages: These involve compensation for the psychological impacts the claimant incurred as a result of the accident. This may include physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, and more.

These damages can be assessed by your Riverside slip-and-fall lawyer to help determine what kind of compensation you may be eligible for following a slip-and-fall. These damages may be increased if there was gross negligence on part of the property owner. An example of this is when they know there is a dangerous issue on their property and did nothing about it. 

Some of the expenses and impacts that most commonly appear in personal injury claims include:

• Medical expenses
• Wage loss and loss of future earning capacity
• Property damage, such as damage to your phone or clothing resulting from the fall
• Physical pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Loss of enjoyment of life

In order to receive compensation for a slip-and-fall claim, the claimant must be able to not only present evidence proving liability, but also show documentation that proves the severity of their injury and gives a glimpse of the types of impacts that were incurred as a result of the accident.

The Time Limit For Filing a Slip-and-Fall Accident Claim in California

The statute of limitations for most personal injury claims in California is two years from the date of the injury. This is an extremely important deadline, as missing the statute of limitations not only bars the claimant in most cases from having their case heard in court, but also frees the at-fault property owner or manager’s insurance company from the obligation of compensating the claim. 

It is important to understand that the case does not need to be resolved within two years, but a lawsuit must be filed within this period of time. An experienced Riverside slip-and-fall lawyer can help a claimant meet this deadline by helping them to gather the documentation needed to prove the claim, working with the at-fault property owner or manager’s insurance provider to negotiate a fair settlement, and ensuring that the lawsuit is filed in time.

What Needs to Be Proven in Order to Have a Successful Slip-and-Fall Claim?

In order to have a successful claim, the claimant and their attorney must be able to show through evidence that:

• The defendant owned, leased, managed, or controlled the property
• The defendant was negligent in the care and use of the property
• The claimant was injured as a result of a slip-and-fall accident on the property
• The accident was caused by the defendant’s negligence

Additionally, slip-and-fall claimants must be able to produce documentation to show what their expenses and impacts were in order to justify the claim’s value. Some of the types of documentation used to do this include medical records and bills, wage loss information from the claimant’s employer, or medical documentation that details the claimant’s injuries.

If You Were Injured in a Slip-and-Fall Accident, Call Setareh Law

Being injured in a slip and fall can be devastating, both physically and emotionally. The legal team at Setareh Law understands that not only do those injured in slips and falls face serious and painful injuries but that the legal process to gather compensation is overwhelming. We have been committed to helping those injured by the negligence of others to receive the compensation they need for more than 15 years.

For a free case evaluation with our Riverside slip-and-fall lawyer, call us at (310) 659-1826 or contact us online. Our team also speaks Spanish.