Question: How do you begin a personal injury claim?
Asked in Atlanta, GA | November 22, 2024I slipped and fell at a grocery store a couple days ago due to a slick floor with no warning signs. What should be my first steps in pursuing a personal injury claim? The fall injured my wrist, and I had to visit the emergency room. I took photos of the area but it just looks like a shiny floor.
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Free Consultation First, I'm so sorry you are hurt. There are two (2) things you should do right now:
- make sure you are going to all doctors' appointments and
- consult an attorney
There may be video footage of not only your fall, but when the liquid on the floor got there. An experienced attorney knows how to secure that evidence from the store, but it is very time sensitive. Without requesting the preservation of the evidence, it may be written over automatically by the store's computer system. This could greatly affect your case.
You want to hire an attorney that can take care of all the legal burdens while you focus on getting better.
The first step in beginning a personal injury claim is to contact a lawyer who handles slip and fall cases. You are already off to a very good start; taking pictures of the area preserves the way the scene looked at the time you fell. If you filled out an incident report, it is important to ask for a copy. Also, get the names of any individuals who you spoke with or who witnessed your fall.
Contacting a lawyer early in slip and fall cases is especially important. The lawyer will notify the store and make a request for any video footage that may exist which shows the area where you fell, including the fall itself, and/or the events directly before and after your fall, including whether the area was recently cleaned or how often the area is inspected. Contacting a lawyer early avoids the disappearance or “spoliation” of this and other important evidence.