Please take a look at this week’s blog entry by the accident lawyer in Boca Raton (injury attorney North Lake, accident lawyer North Palm Beach, injury lawyer Wellington, accident attorney Manalapan, accident lawyer Palm Beach, injury lawyer Pompano, injury attorney Fort Lauderdale).
There are several issues in this question. As we have spoken about on this blog before, generally, solely because you fall at a business establishment like a supermarket does not mean necessarily that you are entitled to any money UNLESS you can show the supermarket is at fault. Here there is no reference to how the fall took place or whether the supermarket had anything to do with the fall. For example, if the person tripped on their own shoe laces (in other words, the supermarket did nothing wrong), then generally there would be no negligence against the store and no case. IF there was a leaky cooler that was an ongoing problem, then there would be a much stronger case against the store.
Further, under Florida law, even if the store was negligent, in fall cases a common defense is comparative fault. This means that the supermarket argues to the jury that the person that fell bears part of the fault for the fall (common arguments are that the person that fell was not paying attention and should have seen the dangerous condition that caused the fall) and if a jury would assign the injured person some percentage of fault, then the damages would be reduced accordingly.
In terms of damages, if a neck surgery can be causally related to an injury case, these damage awards can be large. They can be large because the cost of neck surgery is tens of thousands of dollars and many jury verdicts on these types of cases are sizable based on pain and suffering and what is involved generally in neck surgeries. Obviously there are many types of neck surgery and this would also affect the amount a case like this is worth. Plus, neck surgery would often involve missed time from work and this would have to be factored into the damage award.
If you have been in a slip and fall accident, car accident or any other accident where you believe you were injured due to another’s negligence, please call Drucker Law Offices for a free consultation at (561) 483-9199 for Palm Beach County (main office Boca Raton); (954) 755-2120 in Broward County (satellite office Coral Springs); or (305) 981-1561 in Miami-Dade County (Satellite office Miami).
Every case is unique and should be judged based on the specific facts of the case. The advice in this blog is intended to be general and should not to be construed as specific advice for a case or your case. A minor difference in the facts of the case in a fact pattern such as above could change the result. Also, this blog is, as the web site suggests, based on Florida law and the laws of any other states could vary from Florida.
