Minor Falls Should Not Be Ignored After A Slip And Fall
When someone falls down a flight of stairs and gets injured, that slip and fall incident has a personal injury lawsuit written all over it if there was negligence involved. But injuries from falls are not limited to the spectacular accidents that attract crowds and implore someone to call for an ambulance. Sometimes minor falls can be devastating as well, and anyone who is involved in a smaller scale slip and fall accident has the same rights as someone who falls down a flight of stairs.
An Airman’s Life Is Altered By A Minor Fall
Guy Leach was a young guy living his dream of being an air craft mechanic in the United States Air Force when he suffered what at first appeared to be a minor accident. In 2012, Leach was walking down the flight of stairs in his apartment complex when one of the stairs towards the bottom of the flight collapsed. He fell down the remaining stairs and thought that he had only suffered a sprained ankle. In true military style, Leach decided to try and walk it off and get back to work.
As time went by, his ankle did not get better and Leach noticed a whole variety of other problems. Eventually, Leach was told that his fall had caused complex regional pain syndrome, which would cause him to retire early from the Air Force in 2016, and also was grounds for him to sue the apartment building management company for negligence. In 2017, Leach won a $12 million settlement that is now in appeals. He can never work on aircraft again, as the fall took away his ability to do the job he had dreamed of ever since he was a kid.
Don’t Ignore The Initial Feelings Of Being ‘Okay’
You walk down an icy sidewalk, slip, and fall on your knee. You get up, brush yourself off, laugh at your fall with your friends, and move on. You think it is over, but that fall did damage to your knee that is deemed to be irreparable. You are classified as completely disabled and can no longer work at your job.
Adrenaline is a substance in the body that can take away the pain in the wake of a sudden personal injury accident. The seemingly minor falls people experience cause a rush of adrenaline that can mask the injuries from falls for some time. Pride can also get in the way as no one wants to admit that a slip on the ice or a tumble down a couple of stairs could put them out of commission for the rest of their lives. But it can happen, and you need to be prepared to file a personal injury lawsuit for your slip and fall accident if you want to get the compensation you need to put your life back together.
Suing for Slip and Fall Accidents
In the case of Airman Leach, those stairs could have been reported several times to the building management as
being unsafe. Your slip and fall accident on ice could have occurred in front of a store that was aware there was ice on the sidewalk but did nothing about it. If you are the victim of negligence, then you can sue for a slip and fall accident.
Negligence in a slip and fall case includes property owners who ignore problems that have been reported to them and, property owners who neglect to make their property safe for normal use. It is the responsibility of a store to remove ice from the sidewalks in front of its location and to make the sidewalks safe for foot traffic. When you are within your legal right to be on a property and the owner of that property is negligent in the property’s upkeep, then even the most minor of falls can result in a lawsuit.
If you had what seemed like a minor personal injury slip and fall incident that feels like it is getting worse, then contact your doctor immediately. Once your doctor helps you handle the pain, you need to contact an attorney to seek compensation for the damages you sustained from your seemingly insignificant slip and fall incident.
