Hollywood Attorneys Dell & Schaefer Resolve Lawsuit for $20,000

When you slip and fall and hurt yourself in a store, your first thought is probably not to take photographs of whatever substance caused you to fall. After all, you may be embarrassed that you fell. You may be in shock. And, finally, your injuries may preoccupy you to the extent that you don’t think to preserve evidence of the substance that caused you to fall. What’s more, when you first slip and fall, you probably don’t consider a lawsuit immediately. You have other things on your mind. The thought of filing a lawsuit doesn’t typically cross an injured person’s mind until much later after the accident.

Nevertheless, if you can remember, it is always best to take pictures after a slip and fall. This will prevent the owner of the store from claiming that there was nothing on the floor in the first place. Photograph evidence can be used to rebut these claims and solidify your case.

Hollywood Slip and Fall Results in Neck Injury

Our client was a 57-year-old mother of one teenage boy. At the time of her accident, she was shopping in a Save-A-Lot Grocery Store. Specifically, she was shopping in the meat department of the grocery store. At some point while shopping, our client stepped onto a mat that was located in the meat department. Our client looked at some meat that she was considering buying and then proceeded to step off of the mat.

Unfortunately, as our client stepped off of the mat, her foot encountered a puddle of water on the floor. Apparently, the mat was soaked, and the water had leaked out onto the floor around the mat. Our client’s foot unfortunately slipped out from under her, and our client crashed to the ground.

Our client immediately began to feel pain in her neck. She decided to go home and hope that her injuries improved on their own. Unfortunately, the pain didn’t subside, and our client’s injuries became increasingly worse over the next couple of months.

Within a few months of the accident, our client was in the office of a local chiropractor. The chiropractor put our client on a strict physical therapy regimen. For several months, our client was forced to go to physical therapy several times a week.

When this didn’t help, our client was referred to an orthopedic surgeon. That Doctor ordered an MRI of our client’s neck. The MRI revealed multiple disc herniations in our client’s neck. The possibility of surgery to correct the herniated discs was raised, but our client was too nervous about the surgery to undergo such a procedure.

Hollywood Slip and Fall Lawyers Dell and Schaefer Settle Case for $20,000

After our client’s treatment was finished, she was contacted by the insurance company for the grocery store. The representative for the insurance company told our client that they could not offer to settle her case because there was no proof of water on the floor of the store at the time our client fell. It was true that our client hadn’t taken any pictures of the puddle she slipped on. After all, after the accident, she was in a state of shock. As mentioned earlier, our client felt pain right after her fall, and the thought of a lawsuit was the last thing on her mind. As a result, she did not think to take pictures to preserve evidence of the puddle on which she slipped.

Undaunted, our client contacted the Hollywood Slip & Fall Lawyers at Dell & Schaefer. We took the case and argued to the insurance company that, at the time of her fall, our client was accompanied by her son. Our client’s son had seen the puddle on the floor after his mother’s fall. This, in essence, made up for the lack of photographic evidence.

We also argued that our client’s son was an extremely active teenager; because of this, our client had much work following her son around and getting him around to his various activities. After her accident, this was much harder for her to do. Our client’s son recounted the story of the time he heard his mom crying in her bedroom because of her pain and saying she couldn’t go on. This had a serious impact on the insurance company, which knew that a jury would really take this story to heart.

As a result of these arguments, we were able to settle our client’s case for $20,000. Our client was thrilled. She now had a $20,000 settlement in spite of the fact there was no photographic evidence in the case.

Nonetheless, if you slip and fall and hurt yourself, make an effort to take pictures of the condition that caused your fall. This particular client was very fortunate, but the situation is not always so fortuitous. Doing something as simple as taking a picture can create photographic evidence that can turn a case around.

Whether you’ve taken a picture or not, contact the Hollywood Slip & Fall Attorneys at Dell and Schaefer if you fall in a store and hurt yourself. We know the recipe for handling a successful case and obtaining a favorable result.