Newport Beach Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer
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Slip and Fall Accident Attorney in Newport Beach, CA
Newport Beach has many eateries, dance clubs, hotels, and other activities. The owners and operators of these establishments must maintain their premises carefully and safely at all times. When they fail to do so, a slip and fall accident might occur. Should that happen to you, the first thing you should do is to call a Newport Beach slip and fall accident lawyer.
When a property visitor strikes the ground in a slip-and-fall, the chances are good that they will suffer a severe, possibly permanent injury. Unlike motor vehicle occupants, slip and fall victims lack an outer barrier or shell that protects them from their surroundings.
They fall to the ground because a property owner negligently failed to maintain their premises, they can file a claim against the responsible property owner’s insurance company. Alternatively, they can file a claim directly against the property owner. If you suffered injuries in a slip and fall accident on someone else’s premises, you need a lawyer who can recover the compensation you deserve.
Our Approach
The experienced Newport Beach slip and fall accident attorneys at Bentley & More LLP can meet with you to discuss your accident and how it occurred. If you can file a claim with the property owner’s insurer, we can help you do that. Moreover, we can negotiate with the insurance company’s adjuster and, if necessary, file a prompt claim in the California Court System to seek compensation for your injuries.
So many lawyers with strong but difficult cases call us for help because our legal team has a strong track record of success in settling and litigating slips and falls and other premises-accident cases, particularly catastrophic-injury cases.
For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with our Newport Beach slip and fall accident lawyers, please call us or contact us online for more information.
What Are the Common Locations for Slip and Falls in Newport Beach?
Slip and fall accidents can occur anywhere, but they are common in local grocery stores such as Pavilions at 3100 W Balboa Ave, nightclubs, and restaurants. Accidents are common in these locations because food or liquid is likely to spill onto the floor.
Slip and fall accidents may also occur outdoors, especially when property owners fail to maintain their sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, and parking garages in a safe condition. Concrete cracks, spalling, or potholes may cause a visitor to the property to lose their balance and suffer a severe slip and fall injury.
If you or someone you love suffered personal injuries while visiting someone else’s property, you should immediately hire a Newport Beach slip and fall accident attorney. Our legal team can help you file the appropriate claim with the right insurance company and help you pursue the monetary damages you need for your injuries.
Legal Duty of Care Owed to a Property Visitor
The legal duty of care that a property owner owes to a property visitor depends upon the visitor’s status on the property at a given time. A property owner owes a business invitee the highest legal duty of care. A business invitee visits another person’s property for the owner’s benefit. Patrons to a Newport Beach restaurant, grocery store, shopping mall, shopping center, parking lot, or parking garage are likely business invitees.
A property owner has a duty to promptly warn about or correct hazards and other dangerous conditions on their premises. For example, if they are aware of a spill on the floor, they must promptly clean it up or place warning placards around it.
Moreover, premises owners have a duty to regularly inspect their premises for latent, unknown defects. Again, if they discover a hidden defect during inspection, they must promptly warn of it or correct it for the benefit of their visitors.
Other Factors
Property owners also owe licensees a high duty of care. A licensee is an individual who visits someone else’s property for their own benefit. A typical example of a licensee is a social guest who visits someone’s home for a non-business purpose. As with business invitees, property owners have a duty to promptly warn about or correct known dangers and defects on their premises.
Finally, trespassers are present on someone else’s property without the owner’s permission. Unless the trespasser is a known trespasser, the property owner is unlikely to owe them a duty of care.
Status
A person’s status on someone else’s land may change over a period of time. For example, if a property visitor enters the premises during business hours, they are likely a business invitee. However, if they remain on the property after hours without the owner’s permission, they are likely trespassers. Therefore, the property owner’s duty of care to the visitor changes.
In most situations, people who visit a business’s premises are business invitees present on the property to benefit the business owner. If you suffered injuries while on another individual or entity’s property, you should seek legal help right away.
The knowledgeable Newport Beach slip and fall accident attorneys at Bentley & More LLP can review your situation with you, determine your eligibility for filing a personal injury claim, and help you take the appropriate legal action to pursue the compensation you deserve.
What to Do Right After a Slip and Fall Accident
The burden of proof in a slip and fall case is on the plaintiff, and the steps you take immediately following your accident can make it easier to prove your case. You should:
- Document everything in photographs and/or writing
- See a doctor as soon as possible after your injury
- Contact an attorney immediately
You should never accept the first settlement offered by an insurance company without speaking to a lawyer first. Insurance companies are notorious for offering low settlements to accident victims who don’t have legal representation.
Proving the Elements of a Slip and Fall Case
To recover monetary damages in a Newport Beach slip and fall case, the accident victim must satisfy several legal elements. First, they must demonstrate that the property owner owed them a duty of care when they were visiting the premises. In most instances, this element is relatively easy to establish—especially if the visitor was clearly on the owner’s property for a business purpose.
Next, the slip-and-fall victim must establish that the property owner breached their legal duty of care. For example, the property owner, manager, or supervisor might have failed to clean up a spill within a reasonable time, causing the visitor to slip and fall on the premises.
Next, the visitor must establish that as a direct and foreseeable result of the property owner’s negligence, the slip and fall accident happened. Finally, the injured visitor must show that, as a result of the accident, they suffered one or more physical injuries.
Disputes
In some instances, property owners and their insurance companies dispute fault in slip and fall accident cases. For example, they may argue that the apparent danger was open and obvious and that the property visitor should have noticed the defect before falling. Alternatively, the property owner may argue that they corrected the hazard or warned of it within a reasonable time.
To help you establish the legal elements of your slip and fall claim, our legal team can retain one or more professionals in your case. For example, we can retain an accident reconstructionist to draft a report in your favor after visiting the scene, reviewing the incident report, and speaking with eyewitnesses. If your case ultimately proceeds to trial, the accident reconstructionist who prepared the report can take the witness stand and testify in support of your case.
Potential Slip and Fall Injuries
When someone slips and falls, they will likely sustain injuries.
The injuries that a slip and fall accident may sustain will depend on:
- The degree of force with which they struck the ground
- The body part or parts that hit the ground
- How the accident victim falls to the ground
- The surface where they fall, such as concrete or macadam
- The way the accident victim lands on the ground when they fall
- Whether the slip and fall takes place indoors or outdoors
- The footwear that the accident victim had on at the time of their fall
Common Injuries
Slip and falls affect different accident victims differently. However, accident victims commonly sustain:
- Broken bones
- Rib fractures
- Hip fractures
- Traumatic head and brain damage
- Internal organ damage
- Internal bleeding
- Spinal cord damage
- Full or partial paralysis
If you sustained any of these injuries in your recent slip and fall accident, you should report the incident to a property manager or supervisor. If a store representative or someone from their insurance company contacts you, you should never agree to provide a recorded statement.
The only purpose of a recorded statement is to see if the insurance company can find damaging evidence in your case. They may eventually use this evidence to deny your slip and fall accident claim. Instead, following a slip and fall accident, you should seek same-day medical care for your injuries. You should also speak with the skilled Newport Beach slip and fall accident attorneys at Bentley & More LLP as soon as possible.
Our Team
Our legal team can handle the legal aspects of your case, allowing you the time you need to seek ongoing medical treatment and recover from your injuries. We can begin by explaining the relevant slip and fall laws and setting up a personal injury claim on your behalf, gathering the documents necessary to effectively present your claim to the appropriate insurance company.
Monetary Damages in Slip and Fall Cases
Slip and fall accidents frequently lead to severe and sometimes permanent injuries, along with mounting medical costs and other expenses. Not all slip and fall accident victims are eligible to recover the same types and amounts of monetary damages.
The total damage award that an accident victim recovers in their case will depend upon factors like the severity of their injuries, the extent of their medical treatment, the cost of their medical care, the extent of their pain and suffering, and whether or not they suffered a permanent injury in their accident.
First, slip and fall accident victims can recover compensation for their past medical costs. Moreover, if a medical provider anticipates needing future treatment, such as surgery, they may recover those anticipated medical expenses as part of their personal injury claim.
Recovering Lost Income
In addition, if the accident victim had to miss time from work, they can recover their lost income, along with compensation for loss of earning capacity, if they had to switch jobs at a reduced pay rate.
In addition to economic damages and other out-of-pocket costs, a slip and fall victim can recover monetary compensation for their intangible losses, including loss of spousal companionship due to their injuries, loss of life enjoyment, loss of use of a body part (such as from paralysis), inconvenience, past and future pain and suffering, permanent disfigurement, mental distress,
Reasons to Hire a Slip and Fall Lawyer
In 2024, falls were the leading medical problem bringing people to local emergency departments for care. A total of 910,938 people received emergency care for falls that year, with 169,920 hospitalized for their injuries. If you’re one of the many people who have fallen due to another party’s negligent care of their property within the past two years, you can hire a slip and fall lawyer to help you recover compensation.
Our legal team can work to get you fair compensation by:
- Aggressively negotiating with insurance company adjusters and highlighting the strengths of your case while downplaying any case weaknesses.
- Threatening the insurance company with litigation and, if necessary, filing a claim seeking monetary damages through the court system
Taking your case to a civil jury trial or binding arbitration proceeding, introducing professionals, and presenting other evidence on your behalf
FAQs About Slip and Fall Accidents
What Is the Average Settlement for a Slip and Fall Case in California?
There is no average settlement for a slip and fall case in California. Every claim is different. Typically, you’ll get more compensation for a severe injury that will impact the quality of your daily life indefinitely, such as a traumatic brain injury, than you would for something minor like a broken bone.
How Hard Is It to File a Successful Slip and Fall Claim in Newport Beach?
It can be hard to file a successful slip and fall claim in Newport Beach. These cases can be complex, and proving the defendant’s negligence often requires substantial evidence. You can benefit from working with a skilled slip and fall attorney who has experience negotiating with insurance companies and litigating similar cases in court.
What Is the Average Time to Settle a Slip and Fall Case in California?
The average time to settle a slip and fall case in California depends on the complexity of the case and whether it goes to trial. It takes less time to settle a claim through negotiation than to take the case to court. However, you may need to take the latter approach if the responsible party’s insurance company does not offer you a fair settlement.
Does an MRI Increase Your Slip and Fall Settlement in Newport Beach?
An MRI can increase your slip and fall settlement in Newport Beach because it can act as strong evidence of the severity of your injury. However, not all slip and fall injuries are visible on an MRI. It’s difficult to gauge the severity of traumatic brain injuries based on imaging alone, to give just one example. In most cases, though, your lawyer can use the images obtained from an MRI to bolster your case.
Talk With Our Newport Beach Slip and Fall Accident Attorneys Today
Medical bills and other expenses can quickly pile up following slip and fall accidents. This problem is especially likely when accident victims cannot work following their slip and fall due to the injuries they suffered. Reach out to a Newport Beach personal injury lawyer. Time is also of the essence in a slip and fall injury case. Under California’s statute of limitations, accident victims must file most personal injury claims within 2 years of the accident date.
f they fail to file a timely claim, they forever waive their right to recover monetary damages for their accident-related injuries. Therefore, the sooner you take legal action in your slip and fall case, the more likely you will recover a favorable result. At Bentley & More LLP, our experienced legal team welcomes the opportunity to pursue settlement negotiations with the insurance company on your behalf or litigate your case in the court system.
Whatever you decide, our lawyers will be on your side, aggressively advocating for you and pursuing the monetary damages available for your slip and fall injuries. For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with a Newport Beach slip and fall accident lawyer, please call us at (949) 870-3800 or contact us online for more information.
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Bentley & More LLP – Newport Beach Office
4931 Birch Street
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Phone: (949) 870-3800
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