The media has encouraged most people to treat slip and fall accidents as a joke. Many people don’t realize just how serious these cases can be.
Yet you can get serious, life-altering, independence-ending accidents from slipping, tripping, or falling, especially if you are an older adult. There are even wrongful death cases that involve slips and falls, when those slips and falls are the result of another party’s negligence. These cases are more common than you think; falls result in over 34,000 deaths every year.
Common Injuries in Slip & Fall Accidents
Among our slip and fall clients, we tend to see the following injuries:
- Broken bones
- Torn tendons and ligaments, especially in the knees
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Cuts, abrasions, and lacerations
- Spinal cord injuries such as slipped or herniated discs
Any one of these accidents could:
- Greatly reduce your mobility
- Greatly reduce your quality of life
- End certain careers and strip away your earning capacity
- Lead to a lifetime of chronic pain
Is it any wonder that 2.4 million people go to the emergency room for slip and fall injuries every year?
How big are the damages in a standard slip and fall case?
The general damages, that is, the actual hospital bills, are about $34,294 on average. Depending on the severity of your injuries it could take you weeks to fully recover. Take your weekly salary and multiply it by 12 weeks; that’s how much you stand to lose in income if the recovery time takes just three months.
There is no standard amount for pain and suffering damages in New York, but we usually use a multiplier of 1.5 and 5. A 1.5 multiplier is used in the least severe cases and 5 is used in the most severe cases. If your multiplier is two and your economic damages round out to about $50,000, then you stand to gain another $100,000 in pain and suffering costs.
Much will be left up to your NYC slip and fall lawyer’s negotiation skills. Nevertheless, if you had to go to the ER or had to undergo any surgeries to address the injuries from your slip and fall it may be well worth your while to pursue a case.
Get Help Today
No property owner is going to race to do the right thing if you get injured in a slip and fall case. Their insurance companies won’t either. And if the City of New York is the defendant, you barely have time to act—you have just 90 days to put the city on notice that you intend to pursue a claim.
We can help. Contact us to schedule a free case review today. We take your injuries very seriously, and will do everything in our power to hold the appropriate people accountable for your losses.
