Slip, trip, or fall accidents can cause painful injuries, permanent disability, or even death. Though some of these accidents are caused by our own inattentiveness or clumsiness, many occur due to someone else’s negligence. If you have been the victim of a slip, trip, or fall accident that was someone else’s fault, in the greater New York City metropolitan area, you may be entitled to substantial compensation through what is known as a premise liability lawsuit. Not only do the personal injury attorneys at Scaffidi & Associates have excellent credentials, but our practice has a track record of successful outcomes. We have won many hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for our clients over the years. Once you engage our services, our NYC personal injury lawyer will fight vigorously to make sure you receive every dollar of compensation you deserve.
Premise Liability Attorney Helping New York City Residents
According to New York State law, every property owner has a responsibility to provide visitors with a safe environment. This law, known as “premise liability,” means that property owners are legally required to repair broken surfaces, steps, banisters, and sidewalks, provide adequate lighting, clear water, ice, snow, and other slippery substances from pathways, and generally maintain their property safely. If you have been seriously injured in a slip, trip, or fall accident that occurred because of someone else’s negligence, our attorneys will be able to sue the offending party to obtain reimbursement for your medical expenses and compensation for your pain and suffering.
Circumstances that Increase the Risk of A Premise Liability Lawsuit
In most cases, property owners want to avoid falls on their premises, not just to be good neighbors, employers, shop owners, or landlords, but to avoid costly, time-consuming lawsuits. Nonetheless, a number of people are lazy, thoughtless, or negligent, allowing dangerous conditions to exist on their property. If repair or maintenance of hazardous conditions could have prevented your accident, the skilled slip, trip and fall attorneys at Scaffidi & Associates are well-prepared to confront those who are liable.
Common Premise Liability Hazards Indoors and Outdoors
Unfortunately, the following hazards are all too commonly found to be the cause of serious injuries:
- Poorly lit hallways or stairs;
- Wet or otherwise slippery floors;
- Frayed carpeting or uneven rugs;
- Littered pathways, indoors or out;
- Broken stoops, stairs, and banisters;
- Uneven or broken flooring tiles;
- Unmarked steps at entryways.
It is important that, once your medical needs are being attended to, you get in touch with Scaffidi & Associates so that we can begin investigating your accident. For one thing, there is a three-year statute of limitations for filing a premise liability lawsuit in New York against a private landowner (and a much shorter statute of limitations for government or municipal property owners – sometimes as short as 90-days). For another, the more quickly our attorneys begin to investigate, the more likely your lawsuit is to be successful. Premises liability offenders who have been very slow to clean or make necessary repairs can be amazingly efficient when it comes to removing evidence in order to avoid a costly lawsuit. Our team will bring in any expert technical witnesses to assess the situation and take photographs to document the site, and we will also begin collecting medical data to document your injuries.
Compensation You Can Receive for Premise Liability Injuries
In most premise liability accidents, assuming we can prove negligence or even recklessness on the part of the property owner, our attorneys will seek both economic and non-economic damages from the defendant.
Economic damages include reimbursement for actual expenses, such as:
- Medical, surgical, and rehabilitative costs;
- Lost wages, present and future;
- Healthcare for permanent disability;
- Property damages.
Non-economic damages are paid for conditions that are difficult to assign monetary value, like:
- Pain and suffering;
- Emotional distress;
- Permanent disability (e.g. paralysis or cognitive deficit);
- Scarring or other disfigurement;
- Loss of sight or hearing;
- Loss of a limb;
- Loss of consortium;
- Loss of enjoyment of life.
If the defendant has behaved in a particularly awful manner, for instance, if he or she has ignored repeated requests to repair the property at the very spot the accident occurred, Scaffidi and Associates may be able to successfully sue for punitive damages over and above compensatory ones.
Why You Need Our NYC Premise Liability Attorney
Handling a personal injury lawsuit on your own would be very difficult. In your present circumstances — simultaneously recovering from a serious injury, coping with medical bills in addition to your regular bills, unable to work, and possibly arranging for household help, nursing care, child care, and/or pet care — makes handling legal matters alone impossible. At Scaffidi & Associates, we will fight with skill and determination for your right to the compensation you deserve, always supporting you with strength and compassion. We can be reached by phone or by filling out one of the contact forms on our website.