Rosenbaum Personal Injury Lawyers | July 17, 2024 | Slip and Fall Accidents
When you visit a grocery store or another public place, you expect that you’ll be reasonably safe. You don’t anticipate encountering slippery floors, broken concrete, and other tripping hazards. And even though “slip and fall” is an innocuous enough term, the truth is that slip and fall injuries can be incredibly serious.
If you’re considering filing a personal injury lawsuit against the organization responsible for your injuries, you might find yourself wondering how much your settlement could be. Here’s a closer look.
What Factors Influence the Amount of a Slip and Fall Settlement?
A settlement amount will be determined from a variety of factors. When evaluating your case, a personal injury lawyer will consider the following:
Negligence
Your legal team must be able to prove that the person in charge of the property where you were injured was negligent. Extreme or egregious negligence may mean that you could receive a greater payout.
Severity of Injuries
Injuries that have a more significant impact on your life (and especially those that cause long-term disability) often lead to higher settlements.
Medical Costs and Lost Wages
The cost of a slip and fall injury adds up fast, and if you’re facing high medical bills or related expenses, that will likely be reflected in any settlement you receive. Similarly, if you are expected to need ongoing care, the cost for that will likely be included in your settlement.
Long-Term Impact
Fortunately, even severe injuries often heal with time. However, if your injuries are predicted to cause permanent disability or otherwise have a far-reaching impact on your life, most courts will award additional damages.
Calculating Slip and Fall Settlements
You can ask a personal injury attorney to review your case for an informed estimate of how much compensation you could receive for a slip and fall. If you want a more general idea of its worth, you can consider what’s commonly called the pain and suffering multiplier. This is a method often used to gauge the monetary value of pain and suffering.
To use the pain and suffering multiplier and discover what your case may be worth, start by adding up your economic damages. These are the quantifiable damages like medical bills and lost income that have resulted from your injury. You then multiply that amount by a number between 1.5 and 5. Usually, the worse the injuries are, the higher the multiplier used.
For example, imagine you slip and fall at a grocery store, and as a result, you face $10,000 in medical bills and $5,000 in lost wages. Your economic damages come to $15,000. Because your injuries are substantial but should heal quickly, you decide that a 1.5 multiplier is best.
Since 1.5 times $15,000 is $22,500, you might reasonably expect a pain and suffering award of about that amount.
How Much Is My Slip and Fall Accident Claim Worth?
While there are methods to help you guess, you can’t accurately predetermine exactly how much of a settlement you could get for a slip and fall case. Each situation is unique, and there are many factors influencing a case’s value.
However, when you work with an experienced personal injury attorney, they can thoroughly evaluate your case and give you an idea of what it may be worth — and you can use this knowledge to decide on your next steps. Get in touch for a free consultation.
Contact Our Slip and Fall Accident Law Firm in New York City
If you’ve been injured in an accident in Manhattan, NY, and need legal help, contact our New York City slip and fall accident lawyers at Rosenbaum Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation.
Rosenbaum Personal Injury Lawyers
100 Wall St 24th Floor
New York, NY 10005
(212) 514-5007