Injuries sustained in a fall can be physically and financially devastating. In addition to incurring medical bills for treatment and physical therapy, you may miss work during your recovery.
If your slip and fall injuries occurred on someone else’s property or happened due to another’s negligence, you may have a slip and fall claim. A personal injury attorney can pursue a slip and fall settlement or jury verdict to compensate you for your accident-related losses.
Contact Brann Law Firm for a free consultation with a slip and fall attorney to discuss the value of your case.
Overview of Slip and Fall Compensation in Montana
Slip and fall accidents happen frequently. According to Montana’s statistics, fall accidents are the leading cause of unintentional injuries, accounting for 57% of trauma cases. In fact, the state recorded roughly twice as many trauma cases resulting from fall accidents as motor vehicle accidents.
Under Montana premises liability law, property owners, managers, and tenants have a legal duty to provide reasonably safe premises to their guests. This means they must take the following steps:
- Reasonably inspect their property for dangerous conditions
- Take reasonable steps to fix both hidden and visible hazards
- Post warning signs for dangerous conditions that are hidden or that cannot be fixed immediately
Property owners and occupiers who fail to take these reasonable steps may be held liable for slip and fall accidents occurring on the premises under their control.
Importantly, this rule applies whether the owner/occupier is a business or an individual. You may be entitled to seek slip and fall compensation for a trip on your neighbor’s sidewalk or a slip in a restaurant’s bathroom.
When a slip and fall accident results from the property owner’s negligence, it would be fundamentally unfair for the victim to have to pay for the resulting medical expenses and lost wages.
Many fall cases cause severe injuries, such as broken bones or traumatic brain injuries, that require extensive medical treatment. The burden of these losses should fall on the negligent property manager or owner and their insurance company rather than the innocent victim.
Thus, premises liability compensation is not a windfall. Instead, it is meant to ensure fall victims receive full and just compensation for their injury-related physical, emotional, and financial losses.
How Are Slip and Fall Settlements Calculated in Montana?
According to Montana Civil Jury Instruction 25.00, an at-fault party must reasonably and fairly compensate the victim for “all loss” caused by their actions. Thus, the starting point for your settlement will be the sum of all the expenses you incurred and the income you were unable to earn.
You will then add the future costs and income losses you may experience due to ongoing physical limitations.
Finally, you will include compensation for non-financial losses, such as pain and suffering. These are more difficult to quantify because they do not have an inherent value. However, they have a clear impact on your quality of life.
Under Montana Civil Jury Instruction 25.02, a jury exercises its calm and reasonable judgment to award just compensation for pain and suffering losses.
The sum of these values is your slip and fall lawsuit value. In other words, this is the maximum compensation you could request from a jury. However, your actual slip and fall settlement amount may differ from this value. The amount you receive after settlement negotiations depends on several factors.
Strength of Your Evidence
A stronger case will usually result in a higher settlement. Insurance companies settle cases to avoid going to trial. If the case is strong, the insurer may offer a more attractive settlement to the victim. If the plaintiff accepts the offer, the insurer avoids the risk that a jury will issue a large damage award at trial.
At-Fault Party’s Insurance Coverage
The at-fault party often has an insurance policy that covers its liability for the accident. For example, homeowner’s insurance, renter’s insurance, business property insurance, and general business liability insurance may cover claims by people injured on the covered premises.
These coverages have policy limits that cap the amount the insurer will pay to settle claims. This number may affect the size of a settlement because anything over the policy limit will require the victims to file slip and fall lawsuits against the at-fault party.
For example, suppose the victim incurred $300,000 in losses, but the property owner’s insurance coverage has a $250,000 policy limit. The victim could settle with the insurer for $250,000 and pursue a lawsuit against the property owner for the remaining $50,000.
Skill of Your Personal Injury Attorneys
Your lawyer’s skill can influence your slip and fall injury claim settlement amount. An attorney must build a strong case, document the victim’s losses, and negotiate a fair settlement. The lawyer will use their legal knowledge, experience with slip and fall cases, and negotiating skills to obtain the highest possible payout.
Average Slip and Fall Settlement Amounts and Typical Ranges
There is no average slip and fall payout because the amount claimants receive depends on their unique circumstances. Most falls will cause only minor injuries, resulting in an average that skews toward the low end of the range and obscures the payouts for serious injuries that some victims experience.
Even if you could calculate an average, it would not tell you what you could expect for your specific injury.
Despite these limitations, you can estimate the range of payouts based on the costs identified by researchers for various fall outcomes. According to one study, fall victims incurred the following average costs based on their case outcome:
- Fatal injuries cost about $206,000
- Serious injuries resulting in hospitalization cost about $105,000
- Minor injuries requiring an emergency room visit cost about $6,000
Thus, the answer to “How much can you get for a slip and fall?” ranges from $6,000 to $206,000, on average, depending on the injury severity.
If you assume that most fall injuries result in an emergency room visit rather than hospitalization or death, you can estimate that the typical slip and fall case would fall more toward the lower end of the spectrum of $6,000 to $105,000.
Slip and Fall Compensation by Injury Type
Slipping accidents happen when your feet lose traction and slide out from under your body. As you lose your balance, you will often fall backward, striking your hips, back, and head on the ground.
Tripping accidents often occur when you lose your footing due to a change in elevation or an object in your path. As your stride is disrupted, you fall forward, hitting your knees, chest, face, or head on the ground. You might also injure your hands and arms if you brace yourself against the fall.
Since settlements are heavily dependent on the specific injury, it is worthwhile to look at some of the common injuries caused by these falls.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Bruises commonly occur when victims strike the ground. Abrasions and lacerations may also occur if the surface is rough or sharp. For example, falling in a parking lot might result in bruises, cuts, and scrapes.
More severe injuries in falls can happen when you hyperextend your soft tissues during the fall or the subsequent impact. You might strain muscles or tendons, sprain ligaments, or rupture cartilage.
These injuries range in severity. Some will heal without medical treatment, while others may require surgical repair. In many cases, victims will need physical therapy to rehabilitate the injured tissues.
Fractured Bones
An impact on the ground can break bones. Some bones commonly fractured in falling accidents include the hips, wrists, and arms. More severe falls might result in fractures to the skull or facial bones.
Bone fractures typically need at least eight weeks to heal. During that time, the bone may be stabilized with a cast or brace, limiting your ability to use the injured body part. In some cases, doctors may rebuild and stabilize the bone using plates and screws. After the bone heals, the doctor may prescribe therapy.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
According to the state trauma statistics, falls are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in Montana. When you fall and strike your head, your brain shifts inside your skull. If it strikes the inside of the skull, you may suffer a life-threatening cerebral contusion.
Even if the brain does not move hard enough to strike the skull, the jolt can cause a concussion. In fact, you do not need to suffer head trauma to have a concussion. The shock your body experiences from a hard fall can rattle your brain hard enough to cause a concussion, even if you do not hit your head on the ground.
Damages You Can Recover in a Slip and Fall Case
Answering “How much can you get for a slip and fall?” depends on two types of losses. Economic damages encompass the past and future financial costs of your accident, including:
- Past and future medical expenses for treatment, surgery, medication, and physical therapy
- Past lost wages
- Future lost income due to a chronic condition or a permanent disability
- Out-of-pocket expenses for ambulance transportation, over-the-counter drugs, or other costs
- Replacement services, if you must hire someone to perform household tasks due to your disabilities
- Reimbursement for property losses, such as broken eyeglasses or torn clothing
Non-economic damages, also called pain and suffering damages, cover the past and future impact of the injuries on your quality of life. These losses result from physical pain, mental suffering, emotional distress, disability, disfigurement, and other intangible losses.
In both cases, more severe injuries will result in greater compensation for a slip and fall victim. Severe injuries will result in larger medical bills. They will also have a more profound impact on the injury victim’s quality of life. However, even minor injuries may impact the victim’s finances and physical health.
Thus, almost any injury could justify some compensation for covering basic medical treatment and pain and suffering losses.
Evidence That Increases Slip and Fall Case Value
The injured victim bears the burden of proof in a slip and fall lawsuit. This means a lawyer for slip and fall lawsuit plaintiffs must gather evidence that proves the following elements of negligence:
- The property owner/occupier owed the guest a duty of care
- The property owner/occupier breached the legal duty by exposing the guest to a risky condition
- The guest suffered physical injuries and financial losses
- The breach by the property owner/occupier caused the losses
The quality of the evidence can affect the value of a slip and fall case. For example, security video can show how the accident happened. This video can verify the victim’s explanation of what occurred. It can also counter any attempt by the at-fault party to shift blame to the victim for the accident.
For example, a property owner might claim that the victim was not paying attention or was running when they slipped on a wet floor. Security video might disprove these defenses.
Likewise, witness testimony can help increase slip and fall case value, particularly when the witnesses are unbiased. Evidence from the victim, bystanders, or the at-fault party’s employees can explain what happened.
This evidence can also describe what the property owner knew and when they knew it. Thus, a victim’s slip and fall case would be significantly bolstered by a witness who testifies that they reported a spilled drink to a restaurant manager more than an hour before the victim slipped in the puddle.
In this case, the victim has a strong argument that the manager carelessly left a known hazardous condition that posed an unreasonable risk to guests.
The victim must also prove that their losses were caused by the slip and fall accident. Medical records from a visit to a hospital or doctor’s office promptly after the accident are particularly helpful. Receipts, bank statements, and pay records are also useful to prove your losses and how they occurred.
How Legal Representation From a Montana Slip and Fall Attorney Maximizes the Average Settlement
Most slip and fall accidents are covered by insurance. This means the at-fault party will have resources to pay for your injury-related expenses. However, to recover fair compensation, you will need to battle a powerful insurance company and its aggressive legal team.
Representation by an experienced attorney can help you level the field. Slip and fall cases typically start with an insurance claim. Your lawyer will prepare your claim, explaining how your injuries resulted from the property owner’s negligence and documenting the damages you suffered.
If the insurance company refuses to pay the claim, your attorney can respond to the claim denial with additional evidence and legal arguments.
Most cases are settled when the insurer accepts liability and offers to settle the case. The initial offer usually undervalues your case. Your lawyer negotiates with the insurer to obtain a fair settlement that covers your losses, including any pain and suffering you experienced.
In some cases, your lawyer must file a lawsuit to pressure the insurer to settle your case. This will typically happen when the insurer refuses to withdraw its claim denials or fails to offer fair compensation for your injuries.
Even after filing a lawsuit, your law firm will continue to negotiate with the insurer. In many cases, your lawyer will eventually reach a slip and fall settlement that fairly compensates you for your losses before the case reaches trial.
If settlement negotiations fail, your lawyer will present your case to a jury and advocate for a fair damage award.
Discuss a Settlement for Your Fall Injuries With a Slip and Fall Lawyer at Brann Law Firm
How much can you get for a slip and fall accident? The amount you seek in your slip and fall case depends on your specific circumstances. Experienced personal injury attorneys can review your specific situation and estimate the value of your case based on the severity of your injuries and the resulting losses.
Contact us to schedule a free consultation to discuss your slip and fall accident and the settlement you might expect from the at-fault party.
