The average slip-and-fall settlement is between $10,000 and $50,000. If you’ve been in a slip-and-fall accident, you may be entitled to significant compensation. The settlement can help cover medical bills, lost wages, and other accident-related damages.
The settlement amounts in slip-and-fall cases can vary. They depend on a variety of factors, including the amount of lost wages and injury severity. A personal injury lawyer can help fight for compensation.
What Affects the Size of Slip-and-Fall Settlements?
While the average compensation is high, each slip-and-fall case is unique. The eventual payout depends on several factors, including:
Injury Type
The settlement amount depends on how badly you’ve been injured. Severe injuries result in higher medical bills, more lost wages, and a serious impact on your life. All the above can increase the payout size significantly.
If you’ve suffered minor injuries, the settlement amount could go down. However, even a minor injury could affect your day-to-day life and prevent you from going back to work. That’s why it’s imperative to contact an experienced personal injury attorney even if your injuries aren’t severe.
Permanent injuries mean that you will have to deal with medical bills in the future. This can increase the size of a settlement to help you cover ongoing medical expenses.
Evidence
Slip-and-fall cases rely heavily on collected evidence. It includes:
- Photos of the slip-and-fall scene
- Witness testimonies
- Security camera footage
To strengthen your case, it’s imperative to gather evidence as quickly as possible. Some of it can disappear within minutes. For example, if you’ve slipped on spilled liquids in a grocery store, the cleaning team will remove the puddle right after you get up. Meanwhile, witnesses of the accident could leave the scene immediately without sharing their contact details.
It’s easy to feel lost and confused after a slip-and-fall. That’s why you should consider calling an attorney right after the accident occurs to get clear instructions on how to proceed.
Medical Bills
Just like photos of the slip-and-fall site, medical bills are also evidence. To prove that you’ve suffered due to a slip-and-fall accident, you need to demonstrate how much money you’ve spent on recovering from it.
The amount of medical bills has a direct impact on the size of the settlement. To get higher compensation, you need to provide detailed medical documentation, including treatment records. You may also need testimony from a doctor who can comment on the extent of the injuries.
How Is the Compensation for a Slip-and-Fall Accident Calculated?
The compensation for a slip-and-fall accident comprises of:
- Tangible economic damages
- Non-economic damages (pain and suffering)
Tangible economic damages include:
- Medical expenses — these are present and future medical expenses backed by medical bills and doctor’s testimony.
- Long-term care — if you’ve suffered severe or permanent injuries, you may need long-term care or home health care.
- Rehab therapy — some injuries require rehabilitation therapy, which can last for months or sometimes years.
- Medications — these are meds that you need to take to heal your injuries. In some cases, slip-and-fall victims may need to stay on medication for life.
- Lost wages — you may need to miss work while recovering from the injury. Meanwhile, permanent injuries could affect your performance capabilities, thus increasing the payout.
Besides being compensated for economic damages, you may be entitled to payouts for pain and suffering. These damages include:
- Physical pain and suffering — chronic pain can last for months or even years after the accident.
- Emotional pain and suffering — mental anguish after a slip-and-fall accident can last for many months. It can include fear, insomnia, worry, and frustration.
- Loss of consortium — in rare cases, slip-and-fall accidents are fatal. In this case, spouses, partners, or family members can seek compensation for pain and suffering due to the death of a loved one.
- Loss of self-esteem — if the accident leads to scarring or permanent disability, you can seek compensation for the loss of self-esteem associated with the consequences.
Non-Economic Damages
To prove non-economic damages, you need to provide evidence such as:
- Doctor’s notes
- Personal journals that document pain
- Therapist’s notes
- Medical bills
- Medical prognosis
While often much more damaging, pain and suffering are harder to prove than tangible economic damages. To improve your chances of getting maximum compensation, you need to work with a qualified attorney.
What Is Premises Liability?
The outcome of many slip-and-fall cases depends on the concept of premises liability. To get compensation, you need to prove that the owner of the property where the accident occurred was negligent with respect to the property ownership or maintenance.
For example, the grocery store owner didn’t clean up a puddle of milk immediately after the spill occurred, which caused a customer to slip and fall on it.
If you slip-and-fall on someone’s property, it doesn’t automatically mean that you are entitled to compensation. Meanwhile, even if you slipped and fell due to an unsafe condition on the property, it doesn’t mean the owner was negligent.
To win a premises liability case in Nevada, you need to prove:
- That you faced a dangerous condition on the premises.
- The property owner knew about the dangerous condition.
- The dangerous condition caused your injuries.
To do this, you need to work with a competent slip-and-fall attorney. Otherwise, you may not get the desired compensation.
Why You Need an Attorney
While average slip-and-fall settlements are high, it can be tough to get the compensation you deserve without professional legal assistance. From gathering evidence to proving premises liability, an experienced personal injury attorney can make sure you take all the right steps toward being compensated.
At Pacific West Injury Law, we focus on helping slip-and-fall accident victims achieve a fair outcome. For more information, please contact us at any convenient time.
