A good West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer should seek to educate people about premises liability law in Florida. Many people are confused: how might slip-and-fall law apply to your situation? In this essay, we will consider three widely believed myths about Florida slip-and-fall accidents and help you to start to think right about them.
Myth #1: It’s easy to tell a serious slip and fall injury from a minor one.
Reality: Not necessarily.
If someone hit you on the thumb with a hammer, you would “not feel good” immediately. There would be no gap between the stimulus (the hammer blow) and your recognition of the injury (“Ow! My thumb hurts!”). But slip-and-fall injuries can be more challenging to identify. For instance, say you fall off a stepladder and bump your head slightly. You get a headache, but this goes away after a few hours. Unfortunately, the bump could have caused a minor concussion: you may not even notice the impact of your brain injury for a few days or even weeks.
Myth #2: If the property owner has no money, you can’t obtain compensation.
Reality: Other sources of money may be available.
This is another example in which our intuition fails us. Say you visit an acquaintance’s home. The person is going through foreclosure. As you leave, you step through a rotted step and break your leg. The property owner has no money. So how can you rely on her to compensate you?
The short answer is that other sources may be available. For instance, the homeowner might have homeowner’s insurance. If so, her insurance company should pay for damages. Alternatively, maybe she has access to a family trust or other assets that can be leveraged to pay for your care. A canny Florida liability lawyer knows that it’s important to overturn every legal rock.
Myth #3: The only expensive injuries are ones that are painful and acute.
Reality: Even “minor” injuries can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Say you suffer whiplash after a fall down a flight of stairs. You might not be in that much pain. But over time, if the pain doesn’t recede, you may wind up visiting chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, orthopedists, neurologists, and other medical professionals. The bills mount up.