What Damages Can You Recover After a Slip & Fall in NY?
After falling on someone else’s property due to negligent maintenance, what damages can you recover by filing a lawsuit in New York?
Lawsuits for slip and falls can cover all reasonable medical expenses from an accident, including any emergency room trips, surgeries, long-term therapies, or pain management medications. Claims can also compensate victims for lost wages if they can’t go back to work while recovering. Our lawyers will need information like income statements and paychecks to prove lost wages. On top of financial losses, your pain and suffering are compensable. Our lawyers will use the necessary equations to calculate non-economic damages and ensure an appropriate recovery, relying on expert testimony to support our calculations. Many victims keep incurring damages after their lawsuits are over, so our lawyers can fight for you to get compensation for future damages as well.
The Carrion Law Firm’s New York slip and fall accident lawyers can review your case for free when you call (718) 841-0083 now.
Which Damages Can Victims Get for NY Slip and Fall Accidents?
With help from our experienced attorneys in New York, victims can get compensation for all damages due to a slip and fall accident, including those related to medical expenses, lost wages, and emotional pain and suffering.
Damages for Medical Costs
Victims are typically most concerned with recovering medical damages, which are often the most costly and impactful losses. An emergency room visit alone can be very expensive. When you add on prescription medications, surgeries, physical therapy, and other treatments, the cost may be extreme. Slip and fall accidents are not minor events, and victims could sustain sprains, fractures, or more serious injuries, like head and neck injuries.
To get damages for medical care, our Islip, NY slip and fall accident lawyers must show your exact losses from treatment. To do this, we will carefully track all bills and charges from the accident’s date onward. Although the toll of continuous medical care might be financially and emotionally draining for victims, it is important to stay committed to your physical recovery. Letting any gaps form in your treatment could mean you do not have enough medical records to prove your injuries or bills or your need for compensation.
Damages for Lost Wages
If you can’t go back to work after a slip and fall accident in New York, you might lose your source of income temporarily. Fortunately, lost wages are compensable in premises liability claims, which our lawyers can help you pursue.
Our lawyers will need certain information and records, such as recent tax returns or paychecks, to assess and prove your lost wages. Compensation for lost wages is not limited, meaning victims can recover all missed income from an accident.
Damages for Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Slip and fall accidents might lead to innumerable out-of-pocket expenses for victims in New York, many of which are compensable. For example, suppose you sustained a debilitating injury in an accident and need medically assisted transportation to and from the hospital throughout your treatment. In that case, our lawyers would record the cost of those transportation services and request compensation for them in your claim.
Furthermore, victims might need to make alterations to their homes to accommodate their injuries temporarily or permanently. This might include installing wheelchair ramps or other necessary accommodations to make living spaces more accessible. Since these out-of-pocket expenses are only necessary because of the defendant’s negligence, they should be covered in your lawsuit.
Damages for Emotional Pain and Suffering
In New York, victims are entitled to non-economic damages from negligent property owners in slip and fall claims. The trauma involved in sustaining serious injuries, going to the emergency room, and having to alter your life to accommodate bodily injuries might be extensive, and you deserve compensation for those losses.
There are two ways our lawyers might calculate damages for emotional pain and suffering in New York, and which method we choose will depend on which will optimize your recovery. First, there is the multiplier method. With this method, we will choose a multiplier between 1.5 and 5. The chosen multiplier will reflect the seriousness of the victim’s injuries, with a multiplier of 5 indicating that the victim’s injuries are very severe. Once identified, we will apply the multiplier to the victim’s total economic damages. So, tracking your economic damages is not only important for your recovery of financial losses but may be necessary to calculate your non-economic losses as well.
The second option is to use the per diem method. In this method, we assign a daily rate to a victim’s pain and suffering and multiply that amount by the number of days the victim expects to experience emotional distress. When using either method, having statements from medical experts may be necessary. For example, a medical expert’s statements may support our chosen multiplier, the daily pain and suffering rate, or our estimation of the length of your pain and suffering.
Damages for Future Losses
On top of recovering damages for losses you have already incurred up to this point in your case, you might also get damages for losses you have not incurred yet. Getting compensation for future damages is tricky, as they are more abstract. Expert testimony can help victims recover future damages, as can their medical bills. Experts can explain anticipated future medical treatment to juries based on victims’ injuries.
For example, suppose your treatment plan involves several surgeries to correct a broken bone sustained in a slip and fall in New York, and you have yet to get all of them. In that case, physicians can testify about your need for future surgeries and the cost of those surgeries. Such testimony can also show the long-term impact injuries have on a victim’s earning capacity, helping them recover compensation for future losses.
Call Our NY Lawyers for Help with Your Case Today
The Carrion Law Firm’s Long Island slip and fall accident lawyers can assess your case for free if you call (718) 841-0083.