accident Tag

3 Proofs Necessary for a Slip and Fall Suit

Slip and fall accidents happen all the time, but not every case leads to a settlement. If you want to seek compensation for your losses, including medical bills, then there are a few things that you have to be able to prove. Here are the three proofs you need to ensure the property owner will have to pay out.

• The owner or someone in his or her employ created the dangerous condition that led to the fall. This is the first requirement because you can’t hold the owner responsible for something that was your fault. If you spill a soda and then slip on the ice, you can’t hold someone else accountable for that.
• The owner or someone in his or her employ was aware the situation existed and didn’t do anything to correct it. Now let’s take things one step further. Let’s say someone else spills a drink right in front of you and you slip on it. That’s still not the owner’s fault. There was no time to discover the danger and correct it. However, if an employee saw the spill, went to get a mop, got distracted, and just left it there for a few minutes, now there was clearly time for someone to do something about it.
• The owner or someone is his or her in employ should have known about the dangers. What if there was uneven pavement on the front walkway of a building? It could have been there for years. There is no way the owner can say that he or she didn’t know about the problem, even if they only come to the property occasionally.

Getting Justice When You Suffer a Slip and Fall Injury in Southern California

Even if the company’s liability insurance is going to cover the claim, they will still want to get away with settling for as little as possible. Before you sign anything, call the personal injury attorneys at Petrov Law Firm in San Diego. We can help you to maximize your settlement. Schedule a consultation by calling 619-344-0360 today.

Causes for Trip and Fall Injuries in Southern California

A trip and fall accident involves stumbling over something or perhaps not raising the foot high enough to get over the hazard. What types of injuries are common in this sort of accident and what are some of the most common causes in Southern California?

Trip and Fall Injuries

When a person trips and falls, certain parts of the body are more prone to injury. Some of the more common injuries include:

• Face – If caught completely unaware, you may not have the chance to stop yourself from going face first into the ground.
• Fractures in the hand, wrist, or arm – Your first instinct when tripping is probably to throw your arms in front of you stop yourself from hitting your head. This is how most people sustain hand and arm injuries.
• Knee injuries – In a less severe accident, you may not go all the way to the ground. However, landing on one or both knees can still do a lot of damage.

Causes of Trip and Fall Accidents

Here are a few of the common ways that trip and fall injuries occur:

• An item left where it doesn’t belong
• A high door jamb
• An unmarked step up or down
• Uneven concrete or pavement
• Bunched up carpet

What to Do if You Suffer an Injury Due to a Trip and Fall in Southern California

Trip and fall accidents can happen to anyone. If you have suffered an injury and need compensation for medical costs and other losses, please contact the personal injury lawyers at Petrov Law Firm by calling 619-344-0360.

What You Need to Know About Slip and Fall Settlements

When a person suffers a slip and fall injury, a settlement usually takes place. However, there are a few things to keep in mind before signing a settlement agreement and before rejecting one. Here are two important things to remember.

• You only get one shot. Once you sign the settlement agreement, it will protect the defendant from further lawsuits. So to be sure you are getting the full compensation you deserve, you should seek the assistance of a personal injury attorney before signing anything. Many people try to reach a settlement themselves to avoid paying out a cut to an attorney, but the amount they get shortchanged would have more than paid the legal fees.
• You only have two years to file suit in a slip and fall case in California. That means you need to hire an attorney right away in case things do go to court. Once those two years are up, all settlements will be off the table because opposing counsel will know that you can no longer sue, no matter how serious your injuries were.

The Help You Need for a Slip and Fall Accident in Southern California

If you have suffered a slip and fall injury in the Chula Vista or San Diego areas, contact Petrov Law Firm today at 619-344-0360. Our experienced personal injury attorneys can help you to maximize your settlement and keep you from missing out on receiving compensation due to allowing the statue of limitations to lapse.

Slip and Fall Accidents – When Is It the Store’s Fault?

Sometimes a client calls to let us know they would like to open a suit since they fell in a store. While the store owner may be at fault for the injury and the client may be due compensation, this is not always the case. There are certain factors that we will go over with the client to help you understand how personal injury suits work. Here are a few things you need to know:

• The store owner is not responsible for your safety. They are only required by law to provide reasonable care. In other words, an injury in a store is not automatically the owner’s fault.
• Negligence can be proven if the store was not properly inspected a reasonable amount of time before the injury took place. Here’s an example. Let’s say someone breaks a pickle jar in a grocery store. Three minutes later, you slip on the pickling liquid and fall. It’s not really reasonable to expect the store to notice the spill and clean it that quickly. But if it sat there for three hours, you have a much better case for negligence.
• You need facts, not guesses. If you slipped but are not sure what you slipped on, it will be tough to prove it was the store’s fault. They may be able to claim you fell on your own. If you slipped on soapy mop water or tripped over a part of the rug that was frayed, now you know exactly what led to the fall, and it can be traced back to the store.

Help for Your Slip and Fall Accident Case in California

As you can see, it is important to have experienced personal injury attorneys in your corner when you are dealing with a slip and fall case in California. The experienced lawyers at Petrov Law Firm will be happy to help you see if you have a case and to assist you to maximize your settlement. To learn more, call 619-344-0360 today.

3 Things to Remember When You Suffer a Slip and Fall

When you slip and fall, the first thing you need to do is get the proper medical attention. But while you are waiting for help to arrive and after you have seen a medical professional, here are a few things to think about.

• Document the Conditions – If you slipped on a wet floor with no sign or an obscured wet floor sign, use your smartphone camera to document the conditions. Or maybe you tripped because a sidewalk was not properly maintained or carpeting was worn and rippling. Whatever the cause of the fall, makes sure you can show what the conditions were like.
• Proving Negligence – Once again, this goes back to documenting the conditions. If you had reported the dangerous condition on a previous visit, note when it happened so you can show that there was plenty of time to fix the problem. Take pictures of the current situation so you can show why you didn’t notice the danger today.
• Report the Accident – Report it at the scene of the injury. Report it to the medical professional who tends to your injuries. And be sure to report it to a personal injury lawyer who can help you to build your case.

San Diego’s Personal Injury Attorneys

If you live in the state of California and have experienced a personal injury due to a slip and fall, bring your case to Petrov Law Firm. We can help you to determine if you have a viable case and what losses you can try to gain compensation for. Call 619-344-0360 to get started today.

What You Have to Prove for a Slip and Fall Case

If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident, you may want to seek compensation for medical bills and other losses. What do you need in order to prove that the injury was the fault of the property owner? Here are three ways to pin an injury on the owner of the property where the slip and fall occurred:

• The property owner or an employee created the conditions that led to the slip and fall accident. For example, if you fell due to a spill, was the spill caused by the owner or one of the owner’s employee’s. If you caused the spill or another guest of the property, the owner might not be at fault.
• The property owner or an employee knew the dangerous circumstances existed but chose not to act. In other words, was there time for the owner or employee to do something about it? If another customer spills something right in front of you and you immediately slip, there was nothing the establishment could have done. If a customer spilled something and an employee walked by, shrugged, and went on break, now the burden may be on the company.
• The dangerous situation is something the property owner or a representative should have known about. For example, if the carpet of a building is clearly uneven due to wear and tear and appears to have been like that for years, it would be tough to make the claim that they didn’t know, even if they only set foot on the property on rare occasions.

Help with Your Slip and Fall Claim in San Diego, California

If you have suffered an injury in a slip and fall accident near San Diego or Chula Vista, contact the personal injury attorneys at Petrov Law Firm. Our experienced team can help you to see if you have a valid case and will fight for you to get the settlement you deserve. Call 619-344-0360 today to get started.

Causing an Accident with Phone in Hand

In California there are two primary laws that define settlements or judgments for cases that include a driver using a handheld device. A recent study revealed that at any moment, more than 600,000 people are using a handheld device while driving somewhere in the US. And if any of them gets in an accident while using their phone, the blame for the accident will fall squarely in their lap.

If you were using your cell phone in any way during an accident, you will need a lawyer to defend you and help keep any judgement fairly within the law. Lawyers, police, courts, insurance companies, and the media are vocally critical of drivers who use their phone without a headset. And while the criticism is fair, sometimes those drivers take on a greater share of blame than necessary for the accidents.

To start, many drivers are embarrassed about causing an accident. They feel guilty and are willing to take on the majority of the blame out of a sense of obligation. The insurance companies are more than willing to use these feelings of guilt. Both sides of an insurance claim don’t want lawyers to drive up the cost of the claims; so when a driver is willing to to take blame, the insurance companies don’t protest.

Frequently, the blame is far closer to 50-50. In order to determine the true distribution of blame, you will need a good lawyer to ask some tough questions of the other driver. Instead of letting you be the default reason for an accident, a good lawyer will dig deep and look at other factors such as the other driver’s speed, driving record, and condition of his or her vehicle. Frequently, when a good lawyer analyzes the other driver, blame can be shared more evenly.

Being on your phone without a headset while driving is against the law. And if you caused an accident, you should expect to pay a fine for your choices. However, the financial cost of the accident doesn’t have to fall entirely on your shoulders. Have a good lawyer to help you determine a fair and equitable determination of fault.

What Do I Do If I Caused the Accident?

But I thought I had full coverage?

“Full coverage” isn’t an insurance term. It’s a term consumers use, but it doesn’t have any defined meaning inside the insurance industry. Every insurance policy is made up of dozens of options and line items. Very few people tell their insurance agent to activate every option and extend coverages to the max. Those kinds of “full coverage” insurance policies are very expensive.

But I have liability coverage, right?

If you have insurance, you probably have liability coverage. California requires you to carry a minimum of insurance in case the accident is your fault. Unfortunately, that minimum is far below the actual cost of most car accidents. If you only have the minimum liability coverage, you are probably going to spend some of your own hard-earned cash to settle the case.

Bias Against Bikes

If you ride your bike on a regular basis, you already know there is a bias against bike riders. And while it’s true that some bike riders don’t share the road well with cars, the vast majority of bike riders are responsible, careful riders.

Frankly, bike riders have to be careful. Regardless of who is right or wrong in any given accident, bike riders have a bigger incentive to be safe riders — their life. In the game of car v. bike, the car is always going to weigh much more than what the bike weighs.

Despite the inherent logic, many drivers and police officers tend to blame bicyclists for accidents. The police are known to go as far as to ignore witness statements that would defame the automobile driver.

If you are on your bike and you are in an accident, call a lawyer! Even when (you think) you are to blame for the accident, sit down and talk to a professional. Many bicyclists feel ashamed and embarrassed when they break the rules of the road and there is an accident.

The laws that govern traffic are complicated, and they change from state to state. Bike riders are responsible for sharing the road, but they are not considered to be moving vehicles. Bike riders are pedestrians and typically fall under pedestrian right-of-way laws.

Pedestrian right-of-way laws are not simple and cannot be summarized in one sentence. However, automobile drivers always have the burden of being conscientious and considerate of anyone walking or riding a bike.

Calling a lawyer is not about trying to take advantage of an accident to get a new bike or get a break from work for a few weeks. A good lawyer will ensure the bias against you as a bike rider does not become additional pain and suffering.

The automobile driver has the benefit of an insurance company on its side. That means lawyers, adjusters, and insurance agents working hard to keep you from suing their client. You deserve at least one lawyer on your side.

PERSONAL INJURY 101: Teen Deaths Rise Due to Cell Phone Use While Driving

In response to a growing number of accidents involving inexperienced drivers talking or texting of their cell phone, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a ban of drivers with learner’s permits or intermediate licenses from using cell phones, pagers or any other electronic device while driving.

We all know too well the dangers associated with young inexperienced drivers on the road. We are disheartened to hear that a recent study showed that wrongful auto deaths of teen drivers rose 20% over the past six months.

It’s just not possible to pay proper attention to the road when looking at a cell phone, and it’s frightening to see people drive similar to someone who has been under the influence of alcohol. In one bad decision, lives can be shattered.

This year, sadly, teen driver deaths have risen, as last year demonstrated a 3% percent increase, ending an eight year reduction. Experts relate the increase in teen auto accident wrongful deaths to a turn-around in the country’s economy.

When a families’ income is higher, they tend to drive more. Other causes include distracted driving will lessen with the passing of a recent law prohibiting texting while driving.

Auto accidents involving teen deaths were not the only related rise in auto accidents. Traffic fatalities are expected to rise approximately 8% the next year. We can only hope that we continue to pass common sense bills, like the texting ban, to get back to reductions in needless deaths.

Using a cell phone when driving is a very risky. Texting while driving is an even higher risk. We now know that cell phone use is a factor in many more crashes than texting. Talk to your teens about the risks. Help your teens stay safe on the road by discussing the life and death consequences of using their cell phone while driving. We urge all drivers to stay alert and drive defensively.