Boynton Beach Slip and Fall Attorneys Dell & Schaefer Settle Case for $55,000 in Spite of Lack of Photographic Evidence

When you slip and fall and hurt yourself on somebody else’s property, oftentimes taking pictures of the scene will not be the first thing that comes to your mind. You may be in a lot of pain. You may be in a state of shock as well. It may not occur to you to take pictures in order to preserve evidence of the way the scene looked at the time of the accident. However, if you can remember to do this (or if you remember later after the accident), you should definitely make an effort to take pictures of the scene. After all, many times after an accident, the property owner will make changes to the site of the accident in order to prevent future accidents (or to prevent you from taking pictures!). If you don’t take pictures of the scene before this happens, you may be stuck in a situation where you can’t preserve evidence of the appearance of the scene as it was at the time of the accident.

Boynton Beach Fall Results in Hip Fracture

Our client was a 72-year-old grandmother of two. At the time of her accident, our client was located at the community pool of the condominium where she lived. She was hanging out with some friends for the day by the pool. Immediately before the accident, our client was swimming in the pool with a couple of these friends.

At some point, our client decided to get out of the pool. She ascended the pool’s steps and began to walk to her chair. Unfortunately, our client never made it to her chair. She slipped on the pool deck and fell to the ground, badly injuring her hip.

This was a pool deck that was maintained in very poor shape. Other people in the community had complained numerous times of the pool deck’s condition. Apparently, the surface that had been applied on the pool deck had no non-slip substance. It was thus dangerously slippery. When this had been brought to the condominium association’s attention in the past, many other options for surfacing the pool deck had been considered. Nevertheless, nothing had ever been done. This left the pool deck in a condition where it was unnecessarily slippery, and it was this that led to our client’s fall.

In any case, after the fall, our client’s hip hurt extremely badly. In fact, she could barely walk. She was thus transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. There, she was diagnosed with a fractured hip. Apparently the fall on the pool deck was so forceful that it had caused our client to break her hip.

Our client was checked out of the hospital that day and told to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon. Within days, our client had visited the office of a local orthopedic surgeon. The doctor prescribed her a strict physical therapy regimen. Our client was forced to attend numerous physical therapy sessions a week for many months.

Boynton Beach Slip and Fall Lawyers Settle Case for $55,000

Soon after the accident, the condominium association decided to put in a new pool deck – this time, a pool deck that would include a non-slip surface. The association had previously known there was a problem, and our client’s accident was apparently enough to convince the association that something needed to be done.

Unfortunately, the new pool deck was installed before our client had a chance to take pictures of the dilapidated condition of the old pool deck (or to hire an expert to test the old pool deck for its slipperiness). Because of this, our client thought she might not be able to pursue a case. After all, reasoned our client, without pictures of the terrible condition of the old pool deck, how would she be able to prove that it was this condition that caused her to fall? She could have just slipped because the pool deck was wet.

Thankfully, our client decided to call the slip and fall attorneys at Dell & Schaefer before making any quick decisions not to pursue a case. We told our client that the case was worth pursuing. Our client decided to pursue the case and we took the case. Our attorneys immediately contacted our client’s friends who had been with her at the pool at the time of the accident. The friends all said that they would testify that the pool deck was in a poor condition. The defense attorneys on the case took the depositions of these witnesses, and the testimony was very effective.

Moreover, our attorneys argued that the accident had had a disastrous effect on our client. As stated above, our client is the grandmother to two young grandchildren. Taking care of two young children, as any parent knows, can be a tremendously physical job. After her accident, this became too much for our client to bear, and her relationship with her grandchildren suffered as a result. These arguments allowed us to settle our client’s case for $55,000.

Our client was very happy with the result. She realized that she was fortunate to obtain the settlement in spite of the fact that there was no photographic evidence of the pool deck that caused her fall. If you slip and fall and hurt yourself on somebody else’s property, make your best effort to take pictures of the scene. If you are unable to do so, call the slip & fall attorneys at Dell & Schaefer. We will send an investigator out to the scene to take pictures, preserve evidence and ensure your case is strong.