The Brown Law Firm can help you when you’re hurt in a slip-and-fall accident in Juneau. It sounds simple, but even a seemingly minor slip-and-fall can have far-reaching problems for you. What’s worse, they can happen anywhere in Juneau, at virtually any time. You shouldn’t be left dealing with the consequences on your own, and with our team, you won’t have to. Set up a free consultation today.
When a Lawyer Makes Sense After a Slip-and-Fall Accident
Think about the places you visit every week around Juneau. Most of the time, you don’t think twice about where you’re walking. You expect grocery stores, restaurants, apartment buildings, hotels, sidewalks, and other properties to be reasonably safe.
But all it takes is a wet floor, icy walkway, broken stair, loose handrail, uneven pavement, poor lighting, or something left in a walkway to turn an ordinary day into a serious injury.
And even though people sometimes think of a slip-and-fall as a “simple” accident, the injuries can be anything but simple. You could end up dealing with a broken bone, back injury, head injury, or something that keeps you from working for weeks or months.
That’s usually when talking to a lawyer starts to make more sense. Our Juneau slip-and-fall accident team can:
- Walk you through your options without all the legal jargon
- Gather the photos, records, and other evidence needed to support your claim
- Figure out what caused your fall and who may have been responsible
- Deal with the insurance company so you don’t have to
- Take your case to court if that’s what it takes to get a fair result
While you focus on healing and getting back on your feet, we’ll handle the paperwork, phone calls, deadlines, and insurance issues. The goal is pretty simple: make the process easier for you and your family.
Where Slip-and-Fall Accidents Happen in Juneau
Slip-and-fall accidents can happen pretty much anywhere, but some places naturally create more opportunities for them. Around Juneau, that can include:
- Downtown Juneau. There’s a lot of foot traffic around shops, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. Wet sidewalks, uneven pavement, stairs, and other hazards can create problems.
- Grocery stores and other businesses. Spills, wet floors, leaking equipment, cluttered aisles, and recently cleaned floors can all become dangerous when they’re not dealt with properly.
- Apartment buildings and condos. Broken stairs, loose handrails, poor lighting, icy walkways, and other maintenance problems can make common areas dangerous.
- Parking lots and garages. Potholes, uneven pavement, poor drainage, ice, snow, and slippery surfaces can all lead to a serious fall.
- Sidewalks and public walkways. Cracks, uneven surfaces, snow and ice, or other hazards can create problems for pedestrians.
- Hotels, restaurants, and other high-traffic areas. These properties deal with a lot of people coming and going, which means spills, wet floors, and other hazards need to be addressed quickly.
A lot of these accidents are preventable. Sometimes it’s as simple as cleaning up a spill, fixing a broken step, clearing an icy walkway, or putting up a warning sign. When property owners don’t take those basic steps, people can get hurt. That brings up a lot of questions, but initially, it’s about getting good information.
Information That Can Help Your Slip-and-Fall Claim
A slip-and-fall can catch you completely off guard. One minute you’re walking into a store or across a parking lot, and the next you’re on the ground trying to figure out what happened.
Even still, your health comes first. Get medical help if you need it. Then, you need to do something crucial:
- Report the accident to someone in charge of the property. That kicks everything off. It alerts the owner or management of the issue.
From there, the ball is in their court. But for your purposes, there are also a few things worth getting at the scene:
- Pictures or videos of whatever caused your fall before it gets cleaned up, repaired, or removed.
- Names and contact information for anyone who saw what happened.
After you get medical treatment, start keeping track of information that could help support your claim. You don’t have to gather everything yourself, but things like these can be important:
- An accident report from the store, restaurant, apartment complex, hotel, or other property where you fell.
- Medical records, including ER visits, doctor’s appointments, X-rays, prescriptions, and physical therapy.
- Surveillance footage from nearby cameras. This can be especially important because businesses don’t necessarily keep video forever.
- Your medical bills, receipts, and records showing missed work or other expenses.
- Your own notes about your pain, injuries, and how the accident is affecting your everyday life.
You don’t need to have everything figured out right away. Even a few pictures and your medical records can give you a good starting point. From there, the focus becomes figuring out what caused the fall and who was responsible.
Who’s Responsible For a Slip-and-Fall Accident?
A slip-and-fall is generally a premises liability claim, which means the big question is pretty simple:
- Who was responsible for keeping the property reasonably safe?
That could mean showing the property owner or manager:
- Knew about a dangerous condition and didn’t fix it, or
- Should have known about it and failed to do anything about it.
Usually, that means looking closely at the property owner or whoever was responsible for maintaining the area. But depending on what happened, other people or companies could be involved too, including:
- Employees who didn’t clean up a spill or respond to a reported hazard
- Landlords or property managers who ignored maintenance problems
- Maintenance or cleaning companies that created or failed to fix a dangerous condition
- Government agencies if the accident happened on public property
Alaska also follows comparative negligence rules. So even if someone argues that you were partly responsible for your fall, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t bring a claim. Your potential damages could simply be reduced based on your percentage of fault.
What Damages Can I Get After a Slip-and-Fall Accident?
When you’re hurt in a slip-and-fall, you’re probably not thinking about an injury claim right away. You’re thinking about your injuries and what you’re going to do next. But if someone else’s negligence caused your fall, you may be able to seek compensation through:
- An insurance claim
- A personal injury lawsuit
Many claims start with insurance. If the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement, a lawsuit may be the next step. Even then, many cases are resolved before they ever reach trial. Depending on your situation, you may be able to recover damages for:
- Medical expenses
- Future medical treatment
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
In Alaska, the general deadline for a personal injury lawsuit is two years from when the claim accrues, although exceptions can apply. And waiting can create other problems, too. Surveillance footage can disappear, witnesses can become harder to find, and dangerous conditions can be cleaned up or repaired. If your fall happened on public property, there may also be additional requirements and shorter deadlines to deal with. No matter what, though, you don’t have to deal with it by yourself.
The Brown Law Firm’s Juneau Slip-and-Fall Lawyers Can Help You
A slip-and-fall can happen in a split second, but the injuries and problems that follow can stick around for a long time. You don’t have to deal with all of that on your own.
Our Juneau slip-and-fall accident lawyers at The Brown Law Firm can help you understand your options, look into what caused your accident, and figure out whether someone else may be responsible. Set up a free consultation today to talk through what happened and what comes next.
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