A slip-and-fall accident is one of the more common incidents that can bring about a personal injury lawsuit. These types of lawsuits are not criminal. Instead, they are civil.
You can reach out to a Boise personal injury lawyer if you live there and you have experienced a slip-and-fall accident. To collect a judgment in your favor, though, you will need to be able to prove that an individual or business entity hurt you through their negligence or malicious actions.
There are correct ways to prove someone else is responsible for your slip-and-fall accident, as any experienced personal injury lawyer will tell you. Let us look at some of the more prominent ones right now.
Hire A Lawyer
When you’re hurt in a slip and fall on someone else’s property, hiring a lawyer should be your first step. You are entitled to compensation, but handling the legal process can be overwhelming. Different areas have different laws and rules. A lawyer will guide you through these complexities. Slip and fall cases come under Premises /liability. You can Learn more about premises liability by talking to your lawyer. They will discuss the best ways to collect evidence and prove the responsible party’s fault for your injury. Your lawyer’s expertise is crucial in ensuring you get the compensation you deserve. Don’t navigate this alone; professional legal help is essential.
Use Camera Footage
Some of the best evidence you can produce in civil lawsuits is visual evidence that a jury can’t ignore. Such evidence might include photos, but video evidence is even better if you can get it.
Let us say that you fell down in a store because an employee mopped the floor but then neglected to put up a wet floor sign. If you can produce video evidence that proves this sequence of events, you are much more likely to collect money for your injury.
You can compel the store to release video evidence to you. That’s provided you see there’s a camera positioned in such a way that it probably picked up footage of the employee mopping the floor and you falling. That video could prove to be the difference during your civil trial.
Find Any Credible Eyewitnesses
If you can’t find any video evidence of what happened, then looking for eyewitnesses becomes imperative. You might be able to locate someone who saw you fall. They may be able to tell the jury what happened and convince them that you’re telling the truth.
You need to make sure the eyewitnesses you use are credible, though. If your only witness has vision problems or they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they saw you slip and fall, that will not be very helpful to you if they take the stand.
Hire an Investigator
Maybe you and your attorney are having a hard time coming up with any credible evidence that proves your version of what happened. Without evidence, it might end up being your word against that of the store or property owner where you claim the injury occurred. The jury might not find your story to be more credible than that of the property owner.
If this happens, either you or your lawyer may need to hire a private investigator who can try to produce some evidence for you. They might have some ideas for finding evidence that you have not thought of yet.
The right investigator might end up producing the piece of evidence that wins your case. Without their help, you may end up losing your lawsuit if the decision goes to a jury and they don’t find your story credible enough to award you any damages.
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heather says
This was a really informative post and goes over some important points to keep in mind when trying to prove your case. I thing that camera footage is the best.
Elizabeth says
I was almost on a slip-fall case jury; it was the first time I realized how complex they can be.
Bea LaRocca says
Thank you for sharing this information, as I get older and my overall health continues to decline, the chances of sustaining permanent damage from a slip and fall injury has increased dramatically. It is nice to be properly informed of what to do in the event that this happens to me