Medicine Hat Slip and Fall Lawyer
A slip-and-fall can cause serious, life-altering injuries, especially for elderly people. Yet even young people can suffer from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) or serious spinal injuries after a slip-and-fall.
It’s important to take these cases seriously. Expenses can escalate quickly, and so can the ripple effects of your injuries.
If someone else’s injuries caused your slip and fall, you are likely to have a case under Alberta law. Let our dedicated and experienced slip and fall lawyers in Medicine Hat fight for you.
How Slip and Fall Cases Work
To win a slip and fall you must prove three things.
First, you must prove that someone was negligent. This would typically be the owner of the property where you got injured. The property owner has a “duty of care” to address hazards on their property or to post warnings so that people can avoid these hazards. This work must be done in a timely fashion.
The same is true for any hazard you might suffer on their property. For example, if you get hit by falling debris because a property owner failed to address a situation that caused it, then you can sue for those injuries as well. “Slip and fall” is really a layman’s term for “premises liability,” which covers any case where a person sustains any injury because a property owner failed to maintain their property to the appropriate safety standard.
Second, you must prove you were injured by this negligence. The slip or fall needs to have been a direct result of the hazard. Proving this is harder than it sounds.
In fact, property owners have all sorts of defenses they ca use to try to avoid responsibility. For example, they can try to say they didn’t have enough time to find out about the hazard. They can also say you knew about the hazard and interacted with it anyway, thus becoming responsible for your own accident.
They won’t pay up without a fight. The property insurance companies who are responsible for paying these claims will do everything they can do to win. At best, they may present you with a low-ball offer that won’t begin to cover your expenses.
That’s why you need a stellar slip-and-fall lawyer to help you win your case. We can help you negotiate for far more money than you’d get on your own, or we can help by pursuing the case in court, presenting the facts of the matter and holding the negligent party accountable.
What a Slip and Fall Lawsuit Covers
A slip and fall lawsuit will help you obtain compensation for:
- Medical bills that Medicaid won’t cover, including physical therapy bills, dental bills, and psychologist’s bills.
- Any wages you lost while recovering from your accident.
- Compensation for any services you had to pay for while recovering from your accident, such as housekeeping.
- Compensation for any medical equipment you now need, such as a wheelchair or walker.
- Compensation for future care needs.
- Compensation for your pain and suffering, capped at $370,000 in Alberta for major injuries.
A slip and fall lawsuit is not quite like a car accident case. You don’t tend to get the property owner’s insurance information right away. Yet even if you do you should not try to deal with that company on your own. They will give you the runaround and they will look for ways to avoid paying your claim. We can file the claim for you, and put them on notice that you won’t be taken advantage of.
After the injury you do need to inform the property owner or their representative on site right away. It’s also a good idea to get contact information for everyone involved, and photos of the site where you fell, of your injury and shoes, and more. Of course, we highly recommend that you get medical attention right away.
When is it time to hire a lawyer?
Ideally, you’d hire a lawyer as soon as you’ve received medical care after your slip and fall. There’s a two year statute of limitations, but waiting makes things harder.
Witnesses become impossible to contact. The facts of the case become harder to prove. Evidence has an unfortunate tendency to disappear.
If you call right away, we can file your claim and deal with the insurance company on your behalf. This prevents the insurance company from trying to lead you into making statements that can harm your case. It also prevents them from pressuring you to share medical records or other facts which could be used against you.
If you’ve already waited a little while, all is not lost. There is a two year limitations period in Alberta. If your two years is not up yet and your slip and fall had a catastrophic impact on your life, call us. We’ve helped thousands of people in similar situations. We know how to investigate your case to get the best possible results.
Yet if you have been waiting, you shouldn’t wait a moment longer.
Why choose us?
We’ve helped thousands of Medicine Hat residents navigate slip and fall cases just like yours. We have a long track record of helping our clients obtain maximum compensation for their injuries.
We’re known for being responsive and empathetic slip and fall lawyers who investigate the case from every angle. We are also known for being some of Canada’s savviest negotiators, which means you increase your chances of getting top dollar for your injury claim.
Our tough litigators will doggedly defend your interests in court if your case needs to go before a judge or a jury.
“This law firm’s team is fantastic. They keep me updated on case progress and informed me about the processes and what I needed to do. It appears to be a lengthy process to get the case to the settlement stage, but they seem to be very efficient and experienced.” -Alexander Robinson
Contact our office to schedule your case review today.