Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up! Don’t worry!!! Help is on the way! But before you get ready to look into a slip and fall legal action, or a lawsuit against the establishment where you fell, one part of the fall is very important. Why did you fall?
Take this situation into consideration. You are at a restaurant in Chicago and need to go to the bathroom which is located downstairs at the restaurant. You are a few stairs from the bottom and you fall, badly breaking your ankle. You scream in pain and are rushed to the closest hospital where you have surgery with pins and a metal plate put in to your ankle to hold it in place.
Do you have a good slip and fall lawsuit?
While it seems like a great case, we need to figure out why you fell. Did you just miss a step? If so, that’s a bad case. Were the stairs wet? It could be a case. It depends on why they were wet. If you can’t prove why, you probably lose. If it’s from a customer who spilled a drink a few minutes ago, you probably lose. Restaurants don’t have to monitor the stairs 24/7. If it’s from a leaky pipe then it’s probably a great case. If a waiter spilled a tray of drinks on the stairs you’d likely win too.
Maybe you fell because the stairs were poorly lit and you couldn’t see where you were stepping. That’s likely a strong case. Same if the handrail broke or there was a tear in the carpet that caused you to trip. In some places not having a handrail could be enough to win the case.
When you are laying on the ground in tremendous pain you of course aren’t thinking of anything other than how bad it hurts. Unfortunately this causes many people to lose their slip and fall case because if you can’t prove that you fell because of negligence, you can’t win. So if you did have an accident and didn’t have a chance to inspect the property, send a friend back ASAP or even better yet, go back yourself and take pictures. If there were witnesses try to get their information.
In general, Illinois slip and fall lawsuits are challenging and many personal injury lawyers don’t take them. We know the ones that do and they get great results for their clients. If you’d like to speak with one of our lawyers for free and find out if you have a case and/or get an attorney referral, call us for a free consultation at (312) 346-5320. We cover all of Illinois.