Claiming Slip and Fall Injury Benefits
If you have recently been injured in a slip and fall incident—whether on an icy patch of street or an uneven curb—you could be entitled to thousands of dollars in compensation. When public property hasn’t been maintained by a municipality or private property, its property owner, your injuries form the basis for a personal injury claim. Our personal injury lawyers will work around the clock to ensure your claim is presented accurately and comprehensively, to get you the compensation you deserve.
Ensuring a timely slip and fall claim
As with many other claims, slip and fall claims are subject to time limitations, meaning if you don’t enter your claim quickly you may not be able to get the compensation you need. Ontario Law states that any slip and fall claim must be filed within two years of the accident, for accidents on or after occurring after January 1, 2004.
If your injury occurred prior to 2004, your limitation period could be anywhere between three months and six years to file your claim. However, these time statutes depend upon where and when your injury took place and, in some cases, you may only have a week to notify the at fault party before you even file a claim.
A free phone consultation with us can get you started on the right track to a successful personal injury claim, one that will allow you to remain stress free while we figure out what you’re owed—including income replacement, medical bills, physical therapy, and any attendant care—and who is going to pay it.
Our Personal Injury Lawyers will guide you through the claim process
Sometimes victims of a slip and fall will try and simply “walk it off” if their injury seems minor. But just because an injury doesn’t feel all that serious doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to financial compensation. Injuries from a slip and fall can include muscle and soft-tissue damage—and even psychological trauma. An invisible injury is not a non-existent one. Our lawyers are determined to help you formulate a strong case for recompense—whether you suffered a sprained ankle, or needed stitches.
The next step in proceeding with your claim is to identify which party, or parties, are at fault for your injury.
Slip and Fall Injury Claims on Private Property
For a slip and fall victim to successfully sue a private party, our lawyers must help you prove the private property owner was not taking reasonable measures to keep people on their property safe. This doesn’t mean private property owners need to be consistently maintaining their property—like shoveling snow around the clock during winter storms—it just means their level of inspection and maintenance needs to be in accordance with proper safety standards.
For example, suppose a private property owner tried to save some money one month by canceling scheduled maintenance. If that maintenance included plowing and salting and you happened to slip on a dangerous ice patch, that would be a factor substantially supporting your slip and fall claim.
The idea of what constitutes reasonable inspection and maintenance varies, however. It is a theme that can come up against considerable challenge in court, and often depends upon how heavily trafficked the property is by the public, whether the victim was taking proper precautions such as wearing proper shoes for the conditions and how fast the victim was walking or running across the property.
Our Toronto slip and fall lawyers have a high success rate for exposing fault with private property owners, whether your personal injury claim is leveled against one or a number of private parties.
Slip and Fall Injury Claims with Cities at Fault
If you have slipped, tripped or fallen on public property due to bad lighting, poorly maintained premises, a puddle of water or a track of slippery ice it’s likely you are entitled to compensation. It is up to the city and municipalities to prevent slip and fall accidents on city streets, sidewalks and any other pedestrian walkways. It is the civic duty of these entities to protect you as a citizen. If they have failed to upkeep premises, they are very much to blame for your accident. It is your right to file a personal injury claim against the at fault party.
However, it is important to remember that if you have injured yourself on municipal property time is of the essence. As a slip and fall victim, you may have as little as a week to give notice of a personal injury claim against the municipality. Without notifying the proper municipal authorities you may not be entitled to a claim at all.
Even if you are not an Ontario resident, if you’ve been the victim of a slip and fall and a provincial entity is to blame, you may still be able to file a claim. Our Ontario lawyers can help you determine if you are eligible to do so.
Winter in Toronto means more slip and fall injuries
In recent years, economic studies have shown cities take a solid hit during winter, taking the blame for a number of slip and fall cases. These studies have revealed many cities in the Greater Toronto Area are purposely taking a negligent stand against maintaining sidewalks and alleyways during winter, finding it fiscally wiser process each slip and fall claim as it comes. However, GTA judges are wise to this, supporting the GTA’s strong victim compensation system, and frequently favoring the victim.
Our personal injury lawyers know it’s cheaper for the city’s coffer to pay out on personal injury claims, rather than spend the money maintaining these pedestrian routes. Additionally, our lawyers know exactly how to expose this municipal fallacy, so that your claim can get you optimum benefits.
And cities and municipalities aren’t the only entities at fault. Our lawyers have also successfully recovered victim compensation from hotels, amusement parks, malls, and grocery stores.
What kind of compensation are you eligible for?
Depending upon a number of factors your injuries could entitle you to thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. A case in which a simple wrist fracture entitles the victim to more than $30,000 is not unheard of.
Our lawyers can discuss how much your claim seems worth, factoring in the nationwide cap on compensation for pain and suffering, which Canada’s Supreme Court issued in the 1970s. Last year in 2008, the cap (subject to inflation) was between $300,000 and $350,000. This is just for a victim’s pain and suffering and does not mean your claim is destined to max out at this cap.
Victims of a slip and fall are also entitled to benefits like past and future medical costs, lost wages, diminished earning potential and lost competitive advantage. Unlike pain and suffering, more often than not these benefits are not subject to a cap.
Cash Settlements for Slip and Fall Victims
You recently slipped while walking down a drugstore’s icy stairs. Falling hard and hurting your hip, you think you may have seriously injured yourself, while the store manager calls you an ambulance. Your attending emergency room doctor says you broke your hip.
A week later, the owner of the drugstore in front of which you fell offers you a hefty cash settlement—as long as you sign a few papers. It’s a lot of money, but should you take it?
The answer is not without consulting a personal injury lawyer. This private property owner could be trying to quickly quiet you, and by avoiding a slip and fall claim he or she could be denying you full compensation. A cash settlement is usually only a fraction of what you could be awarded in an Ontario court.
Sometimes people avoid lawsuits, fearing the negative impact it will have on the at fault party. Many slip victims don’t feel as though the onus of their injuries falls upon one person when it was an indirect object that caused the accident. This is most often the case when the victim knows or is friends with the at fault party.
There is no reason, however, for a victim of a slip and fall to forgo financial compensation. When you sue a private party it is that party’s insurance that pays for your compensation, not your friend, neighbor or local shopkeeper.
Experienced Toronto injury lawyers to fight for your rights
Here at Accident Advocates we have well-experienced personal injury lawyers who handle your claim with the highest due diligence, resulting in the recompense your injuries deserve—guilt-free and stress-free.
