How a Slip-and-Fall Led to a $300,000 Settlement
You don’t expect to get hurt when you walk into a place of business. You expect to do business and move on with your day.
But when the unexpected happens, you need someone in your corner who knows how to bring order to the chaos and get you the compensation you deserve.
We recently celebrated a win in a slip-and-fall case where our client claimed that the defendants’ restroom floor was wet and caused her to fall, injuring herself to the point of needing medical attention. The defense denied that the floor was wet at all. Basically a “he said she said” scenario. But in the end, we won.
How we did it
Video footage of the store around the time of the incident would have revealed important information, proving our client’s claims true, but the footage was not pulled before it was deleted by the system. This clearly violates their own company policy.
The fact of the matter is that the employees failed to get the videos of the store around the time of the incident, which would have been important evidence for both our client and the defense. Instead, they captured videos two hours after the incident and tried to pass it off as the right time. The defense had the chance to save the videos, but they didn’t make any effort to do so. They even argued that the loss of the correct videos was just an innocent mistake. When questioned further, it came out that there was an email chain from the risk management department asking for the tapes. Their claims were false.
There was no doubt in our minds that this was an attempt at a cover-up. Keep in mind, the incorrect videos and the incriminating email chain came up after a diligent effort by our attorneys to discover the truth as we questioned witnesses for the defense almost a year after our client filed a claim; they had tried to hide it up until this point. At this moment, we knew we had won.
Why we don’t take what defendants claim at face value
Our persistence and diligence in conducting our own investigation instead of taking the defendant’s word paid off, allowing us to secure the $300,000 settlement we originally demanded for our client.
This is just one shining example of how our team listens and responds to our clients. We are invested in the southwest Georgia community, and we don’t want any of our neighbors to suffer.
Mistakes you can avoid
We often find that people don’t know what to do when they get hurt on a business property. Unfortunately, mistakes are easily made that can jeopardize the results of the case. Here is a link to download our free quick reference guide about the 5 biggest mistakes people make when they are injured.
No one plans to get hurt on any given day, but when life happens, we are here to represent your needs. Our experience with premises liability cases and our understanding of the law will get you the compensation and results you deserve.