Kentucky Slip and Fall Attorneys

Every year, 8 million people suffer slip-and-fall injuries in the United States. These injuries are frequently costly and may cause life-changing disabilities. In fact, slip-and-fall injuries are the #1 cause of expensive emergency room visits as well as the #1 leading cause of traumatic brain injuries. With that being said, slip and fall attorneys are here to help.

Slip-and-fall accident victims often face exorbitant medical bills, and their injuries can keep them from working short-term or even for years.

Fortunately, slip-and-fall accident victims in Kentucky can hold negligent property owners responsible for their damages after a fall accident occurs, including medical bills, lost wages, loss of future earnings, and more.

If you’ve suffered a slip-and-fall or another accident due to someone’s negligence, it’s critical to get in touch with a personal injury attorney to start a slip-and-fall claim.

The experienced attorneys at McCoy & Sparks can help you hold the right person accountable for your injuries. If you’re unsure what to do next about your personal injury claim, you can speak with one of our slip-and-fall lawyers for assistance.

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McCoy & Sparks: In Your Town and On Your Team

McCoy & Sparks has extensive experience with slip-and-fall accident claims and legal cases.
Our skilled personal injury attorneys have helped clients recover millions in damages for slip-and-fall accident claims.
McCoy & Sparks receives payment through contingency fees, meaning we’ll not charge legal fees until we win your case.
We’re located in Bardstown and provide legal assistance for victims across Kentucky of car accidents, slip-and-falls, nursing home abuse, and more with an emphasis in and around Central Kentucky.

How Will McCoy & Sparks Help Me?

Enlisting the expertise of a slip-and-fall accident lawyer is critical for ensuring you receive fair compensation for your injuries. Your attorney will investigate the circumstances surrounding your slip-and-fall incident. They’ll interview eyewitnesses and review your case paperwork.

An attorney’s assistance is crucial because they’ll ensure that you file correctly. Plus, they’ll handle most of the work that goes into building a slip-and-fall injury case. That way, you can focus on recovering from your injuries.

Here at McCoy & Sparks, we’ll:

Communicate with the negligent property owner and their insurance company.
Scrutinize inspection reports, the police accident report, medical records, and other documentation to strengthen your case.
Gain access to public records for evidence.
Explain slip-and-fall case law to help you understand what compensation you’re entitled to.
Present and evaluate legal options.
Help you gather photos, videos, and other evidence.
Negotiate a settlement on your behalf.
Represent you in court if we can’t reach a desirable settlement.

The vast majority of slip-and-fall cases are resolved outside of the courtroom. Your attorney and the negligent property owner or their insurer will likely negotiate a favorable agreement that prevents a lawsuit.

Reaching a settlement is usually in the best interest of both sides of a claim because lawsuits are more expensive and time-consuming. The property owner or their insurance company will most likely eventually agree to pay you a settlement, but you need plenty of evidence to support your claim.

At McCoy & Sparks, we’ll help you build an airtight case, and our legal team will work tirelessly to ensure you receive maximum compensation for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more.

What Is Premises Liability?

A slip-and-fall accident falls under the legal category known as premises liability. Essentially, this means that property owners are responsible for ensuring the safety of those on their property. If the property owner is aware of a safety hazard and fails to fix the problem or warn others, they may be liable for injuries.

Consider the common Caution: Slippery When Wet sign. Grocery stores and other businesses display this sign when the floor is wet in order to warn customers. They do this so that they won’t be held liable if someone slips and falls. If they fail to leave out a warning sign, the establishment could be held financially responsible for serious injuries.

Let’s say someone slips on a recently mopped floor in a grocery store with no warning sign. The dangerous condition could cause the injured party to require medical treatment, and they may struggle to work while in recovery. The property owner’s negligence led to the victim’s financial damages and pain and suffering. The slip-and-fall accident victim could seek compensation for their various damages.

Causes of Slip-and-Falls and Other Premises Liability Accidents

Many different hazards can cause someone to suffer fall-related injuries. Often, fall accidents happen because a property owner fails to address a maintenance issue. For instance, essential safety features can fall into disrepair, such as handrails on a steep staircase. If the property owner doesn’t fix the issue in a timely manner, they could be liable for a fall accident.

Some of the most common safety hazards that lead to injuries include:

Broken tiles
Loose floorboards
Poor lighting
Potholes in parking lots
Boxes and other objects on the floor
Missing handrails or guards
Uneven surfaces
Deteriorating walkways and sidewalks
Hazardous ladders, staircases, and escalators
Slick parking lots from ice, rain, and snow
Absent warning signage
Cords along walkways
Floor debris
Slick floors from liquids, wax, and grease
Tripping hazards from open doors, drawers, and cabinets

Where Do Slip-and-Fall Accidents Occur?

A fall injury can happen anywhere, but some of the most common locations include:

Grocery stores
Retail stores
Malls
Restaurants
Private residences
Retirement homes
Public venues
Hotels and motels

Regardless of where your fall happened, you need to file a claim and seek a fair settlement for your various damages. Get a free case evaluation today with McCoy & Sparks to explore your legal options.

Common Slip-and-Fall Accident Injuries

A serious slip-and-fall accident may cause you to suffer from debilitating and costly injuries, or they may result in minor injuries.

Common types of injuries include:

Broken bones
Dislocations
Ankle injuries
Hip fractures
Soft-tissue injuries
Face and head injuries
Concussions and other types of traumatic brain injuries
Spinal injuries
Herniated disks
Nerve damage
Knee injuries

If your accident only caused you to suffer minimal injuries, you should still seek damages if you accumulate medical bills or other expenses. There’s no reason why you should have to pay out of pocket for damages that aren’t your fault.

Can I Recover Compensation For My Slip-and-Fall Accident Injuries?

Whether or not you can recover damages will depend on whether the property owner was negligent. Just because you suffered an injury from a slip-and-fall doesn’t inherently mean that someone was negligent.

For instance, let’s say that an intoxicated patron enters a shopping center. They stumble and fall down an escalator due to their inebriated state. The person may suffer injuries, but that doesn’t mean that they’re entitled to compensation. The shopping center didn’t cause the patron to suffer injuries. Instead, it was their own actions that caused the accident.

On the other hand, suppose that a patron falls down an escalator due to a mechanical failure, resulting in a serious fall injury. The injured individual may be able to recover a settlement if the shopping center’s negligence caused the mechanical failure.

Who Can Recover Compensation for Slip-and-Fall Accidents?

To be entitled to compensation, you’ll need to have been either an invitee or licensee on the property. A licensee is someone who was invited to the property by the owner, and the invitation has nothing to do with business. For instance, if you go to a party at a friend’s house, you are a licensee. The owner of the home consented to you entering their property for social reasons.

A property owner owes what’s known as a “duty of care” to licensees. They have a duty to those entering their home to ensure their premises are safe.

Let’s say that someone hosting a party has an inconspicuous but hazardous extension cord along the center of their living room floor. If someone trips and suffers an injury, the party host could be liable for the injured person’s damages. The accident occurred due to the property owner’s negligence.

A property owner also owes a duty of care to invitees. An invitee is similar to a licensee but involves the property owner inviting people onto their premises to complete business transactions. For instance, if you go to a grocery store or another shop, you are an invitee.

Like with licensees, an invitee can hold a property owner financially accountable if they suffer damages due to the owner’s negligence.

Both invitees and licensees have explicit permission to enter a property. If you don’t have permission to enter a premises, the owner does not owe you a duty of care. For instance, if a burglar breaks into a store, the property owner does not give them consent to enter the premises. The owner wouldn’t be liable for injuries if the thief slips and falls.

When Is the Property Owner Liable For My Injuries?

To recover damages from a property owner, their negligence needs to have caused your injuries. They failed to exercise what’s known as “reasonable care” to protect those entering their property, which then caused your injuries.

Reasonable care means that people must behave in a reasonable way to protect others. For instance, if a property owner failed to fix a hazard, such as a broken step, they didn’t behave as a reasonable person would. They would have fixed the dangerous condition or warned you about it.

One important aspect of reasonable care is that the owner must have been aware of the problem. For instance, let’s say a patron of a grocery store accidentally spills motor oil in the store parking lot. Moments later, another patron slips and falls because of the oil. The grocery owner and their employees weren’t aware of the issue and may not be liable.

On the other hand, there are situations in which a property owner may not know of a hazard, but they should have been aware of it. For example, let’s say you slip and fall in a store due to a malfunctioning freezer unit. The freezer leaked out water that accumulated in the aisle, leading you to slip and suffer injuries. The owner and their employees may not have been aware of the issue, but they would have discovered the hazard if they had performed routine equipment inspections. You suffered an injury because the owner failed to regularly inspect the equipment. They should have known that the freezer units could leak and cause an injury.

Open and Obvious Slip-and-Fall Accidents

Just as a property owner must exercise reasonable care in keeping others safe, you must exercise reasonable care when entering another person’s property. If a hazard is open and obvious — meaning that a reasonable person would have noticed it — it will be much harder to prove negligence in your personal injury claim.

Consider a situation in which ice accumulates outside of a store. If the ice is obvious, you’ll have a much harder time recovering compensation if you slip.

Unfortunately, what qualifies as open and obvious can be confusing, and the negligent owner’s insurance company may argue that a hazard was open and obvious even if it wasn’t.

For these reasons, it’s important to consult with a slip-and-fall lawyer. An attorney will help you understand your rights to compensation, and you’ll learn whether or not you have a case.

You can schedule a free consultation with the slip-and-fall attorneys at McCoy & Sparks online here to discuss the legal process of your case.

Shared Fault in Slip-and-Fall Cases

Sometimes, both a property owner and a victim are considered partially responsible for a slip-and-fall accident. Fall accident victims can still recover damages in these situations, but their percentage of blame will directly impact the amount they can recover.

Suppose that a man drinks too much alcohol while attending a house party. He fails to notice a conspicuous object on the floor due to his inebriated state. The man trips over the object and falls because of his impaired motor skills.

In this situation, perhaps the intoxicated man would be considered 85% liable for his injuries. A sober person might avoid falling in this scenario, but the party host still had a potential hazard on the ground that contributed to the injury.

With Kentucky’s pure comparative negligence system, the man can still file a claim against the party host. Because he’s considered 85% liable for his injuries, they can only recover 15% of what they ordinarily would. If their total damages amount to $2,000, they could only recover $300 from the party host or the insurance company.

What Should I Do After a Slip-and-Fall Accident?

The most important thing to do after a slip-and-fall accident is to receive immediate medical attention. You may have suffered serious or even life-threatening injuries that require prompt treatment. If you believe you require emergency attention, call 911 and wait for first responders to arrive.

Even if you don’t think you’re seriously hurt, you should still see a doctor as soon as possible once you leave the scene of the accident. You may have suffered from delayed onset injuries that are not yet apparent. Make sure to follow your doctor’s instructions and keep all medical records and expenses. These documents will be important for proving that you suffered damages.

Before leaving the scene of the accident, you should report the incident if you’re physically able. If you require emergency medical attention, have someone else do it for you. Have them inform the owner of the property or a manager so that they can deliver an accident report to their insurance company.

Gathering evidence while at the scene is also vital, but you may need someone else to do it if you suffered serious injuries. Take photos and videos of anything that may have contributed to your slip-and-fall, such as the floor, lighting, or broken handrails.

In addition to photos and videos, you should interview anyone who witnessed the accident. Again, you may not be able to do this if you’re injured, but eventually obtaining eyewitness testimony can be invaluable in proving your claim. When speaking with witnesses, write down their first-hand accounts and their contact information.

You should also avoid washing or disposing of the shoes and clothes that you wore at the time of the accident. You can use these items as evidence to support your claim.

Finally, avoid discussing the incident on social media. Posting something as seemingly trivial as “I’m doing fine” can be misconstrued and used against you. The property owner’s insurer may argue that your social media post indicates that you didn’t actually suffer substantial injuries from the accident.

How Much Can I Recover for My Slip-and-Fall Injury?

The amount you can recover for a slip-and-fall injury will depend on the damages you suffer. You can recover economic damages to compensate you for various expenses and potential earnings lost.

Depending on your slip-and-fall case, you may be able to recover money for:

Doctors visits
Prescriptions
Surgeries
Physical therapy
Occupational therapy
Other out-of-pocket medical expenses
Lost wages
Loss of future earnings

Additionally, you may be able to recover money for non-economic damages in your slip-and-fall claim. These damages compensate you for non-financial losses. For instance, if you suffer a catastrophic head injury, you may struggle to enjoy life in the same way as before the incident. You can seek damages for the pain and suffering your injuries have caused you.

Slip-and-Fall Accident Statute of Limitations

The statute of limitations for slip-and-fall accidents in Kentucky is one year. You’ll only have one year after your accident to file a lawsuit against the negligent property owner or their insurance company.

Slip-and-fall injury cases take time to build, so it’s important to get started and take legal action as soon as possible.

Schedule a Free Consultation with Our Slip-and Fall-Attorneys Today

You shouldn’t have to pay out-of-pocket expenses for your slip-and-fall accident. Contact our law office today to schedule your free and confidential consultation. We’ll ask questions about your situation and help you understand what to do next.

Not all law firms are the same. Trust us with your case. We’ll work tirelessly to get you the result you deserve. Call the firm for a free consultation at 844-459-9467.