Slip and Fall

If you’ve slipped and fallen and you have sustained injuries as a result, contact this Miami Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer today. Mr. Quackenbush represents clients who have experienced slip and fall accidents due to all sorts of reasons.

A slip & fall occurs when you slip on a liquid or object on the ground/floor and fall as a result, possibly sustaining injuries. Liquids which may cause slip and fall accidents include water, soda, and juice. Any number of different objects may cause a slip and fall accident. If you sustained injuries as the result of a slip and fall accident, you may be able to pursue a personal injury case against the owner of the property where the slip and fall accident occurred.

If you slipped and fell anyplace in the State of Florida (including Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Palm Beach County, or West Palm Beach), contact Mr. Quackenbush at 786-294-7711. This Miami Slip and Fall Accident Law Firm will help to get you the compensation you deserve.

If you experience a slip and fall accident, there are a couple of things that you should do. Firstly, you should take pictures of the dangerous condition that caused your accident (i.e., the liquid or object that caused you to fall). This is because, after your accident, the dangerous condition will probably be fixed by the store, restaurant or other establishment where you fell (e.g., liquid will be mopped up, objects will be picked up, etc.). Once this occurs, there will be no way for you to prove exactly what the dangerous condition looked like. You may be able to give a description of the dangerous condition in your testimony, but, like they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It is therefore best to take a picture of the dangerous condition as soon as possible after your fall.

Secondly, after a slip & fall accident, you should report the fall to the store, restaurant, or other establishment where the fall occurred. Ideally, an incident report should be done. This is important so that you will have proof at a later date that the fall occurred.

However, if the restaurant, store or other establishment where you fell asks you to fill out an incident report yourself, you shouldn’t do so without first speaking to an attorney. After all, the store, restaurant or other establishment may be able to use what you say against you.

Nevertheless, if you have already filled out an incident report, you should obtain that report from the store, restaurant or other establishment that had you fill it out. You are entitled to anything you wrote yourself. If employees of the store, restaurant or other establishment filled out an incident report themselves, you will not be entitled to that report – but you are entitled to anything you wrote yourself.

Third, you should try to take down the names of any witnesses to your fall. After all, these witnesses will be able to testify that you did in fact fall. Also, if you didn’t take pictures of the dangerous condition that caused your fall, these witnesses will be able to verify the existence of the dangerous condition and describe it in their testimony. This can end up being quite crucial, especially if you aren’t able to do so for whatever reason.

Forth, you should request any surveillance footage of your fall. After all, many business establishments today have surveillance cameras. If your fall was captured on such video footage, you will want it for your case. The business establishment may not give it to you immediately, but it is worth asking.

However, it is important to do this as quickly as possible. This is because many such surveillance videotapes record on “loops.” This means that the cameras tape over themselves every so often (e.g., every three days, every ten days, etc.). Once the footage has been taped over, it is gone forever.

If you contact Mr. Quackenbush, he will likely send the business establishment where you fell a “preservation letter.” This preservation letter will instruct the business establishment where you fell to preserve the video footage (and not destroy or alter it). If the business establishment gets rid of or alters the footage after receiving Mr. Quackenbush’s preservation letter, there can be severe consequences in Court – including monetary sanctions.

Finally, after a slip and fall accident, it is important to seek medical attention as soon as possible. This is important firstly for your health, which is the number one priority. From a legal standpoint, it is also important for your potential personal injury case. This is because, in a personal injury case, it is important to show that your injuries were bad enough that you needed to seek medical attention quickly (rather than after a long time).

If you are injured in a slip and fall accident in a store, restaurant or other establishment, you will need to prove that the establishment had “notice” of the dangerous condition that caused your fall. That is, in order to succeed in such a personal injury case, you will need to prove that the store, restaurant or other establishment knew of (or should have known of) the dangerous condition. In order to gain compensation, it is not enough to show simply that you were injured on the property of another person or entity. You will need to prove that the store, restaurant or other establishment was aware of (or should have been aware of) the dangerous condition, and did nothing about it.

This notice can come in the form of “actual notice” or “constructive notice.” Actual notice refers to a situation in which the business establishment where you fell actually know of the dangerous condition that caused your fall. This can be the case if the employees of the business establishment created the condition themselves (e.g., spilled water on the floor) or if the employees were aware of it (e.g., saw it) and did nothing to correct it.

Constructive notice, on the other hand, occurs when the dangerous condition existed for a long enough time period that the business establishment should have known of it. After all, if the dangerous condition existed for long enough a period of time, it is reasonable to expect that the business establishment should have fixed it.

You can prove that the dangerous condition existed for some period of time in various ways. For one, you can use surveillance videotape. If surveillance in the business establishment captured the dangerous condition, you may be able to show how long the condition existed. Witness testimony may also help to do this. Finally, you may be able to use circumstantial evidence to prove how long the dangerous condition existed. For example, dirt, foot-prints or cart-tracks in water on the ground/floor may be used to show that the water existed on the floor/ground for a long period of time.

If you are able to prove that the business establishment where your slip and fall occurred had either actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition that caused your fall, then you will be able to pursue a case.

Mr. Quackenbush pursues cases based on slip and fall accidents that occurred in all sorts of business establishments. These include Supercenters – including BJ’s, Costco, Sam’s Club, Target, K-Mart, Walmart and others.

These also include drug stores including CVS, Walgreens and others. Drug stores (or other business establishments) frequently hire cleaning companies to keep their property clean. If you slip and fall and it can be proven that it was the fault of a cleaning company (e.g., the cleaning company cleaned the floor but left it overly slick), then you may be able to pursue a case against the cleaning company. However, even if your accident was caused by the cleaning company, you should still be able to pursue a case against the drug store or other business establishment itself. This is because the property owner (or the business which has “control” of the property) has a “non-delegable duty” to keep the property safe. In other words, the business owner or business in control of the property can hire other companies to clean their property, but they can never delegate away the duty to keep the property safe. They must always ensure that their properties are kept safe and, if they don’t, they will be responsible – even if it is the fault of another company (such as a cleaning company).

Many drinks are sold in grocery stores, and liquids are frequently spilled on the ground/floor there. Slip & fall accidents are therefore frequent. Mr. Quackenbush handles personal injury cases which occur in grocery stores such as Southern Wine & Spirits, Total Wine, Save-A-Lot, Albertsons, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Winn-Dixie, Publix and others.

Slip and fall accidents also occur in gyms – including Gold’s Gym, Planet Fitness, LA Fitness, and others. One issue that frequently occurs in the case of gym slip and fall accidents is that most gyms require attendees to sign waiver forms. Such a waiver may successfully prevent you from bringing a personal injury case against the gym where you fell, although there may be ways around this. For example, if the gym was grossly negligent or disregarded the safety of its patrons (more than simple negligence), then you may still be able to pursue a personal injury case against the gym. If you signed a waiver and a gym and then were later injured in the gym, contact Mr. Quackenbush to determine your rights.

Slip and fall incidents also occur at amusement parks – including SeaWorld, Universal, Disney and others.

They also occur in retail stores – which include Men’s Warehouse, Supercuts, Hair Cuttery, Circle K, the Athlete’s Foot, Burlington Coat Factory, Sherwin-Williams, ACE Hardware, Claire’s, Party City, Foot Locker, RadioShack, Pets Supermarket, PetsMart, Advance Auto Parts, Autozone, Game Stop, 7-Eleven, Bed Bath & Beyond, BuyBuy Baby, Babies “R” Us, Toys “R” Us, Dollar Tree, the Dollar General, the Apple Store, Dick’s Sporting Goods, City Furniture, Old Navy, Ikea, Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, the Gap, Marshalls, Ross, Bealls, TJ Maxx, Kohl’s, Sears, Saks Fifth Avenue, Burdines, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Jiffy Lube, Tire Kingdom, Big Lots, Kinkos, Best Buy, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Lowes, The Home Depot, Brandsmart, and others.

Slip & fall incidents also occur in restaurants. As drinks are frequently carried around restaurants, liquid can easily wind up on the floor – and slip and fall accidents can occur. Restaurants where slip and fall accidents occur include fast-food restaurants such as PDQ, Miami Subs, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Hardee’s, Krispy Crème, Dunkin Donuts, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Quiznos, Subway, Pollo Tropical, Arby’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, McDonalds, and others. Sit-down restaurants where slip and falls may occur include J. Alexanders, Mellow Mushroom, Macaroni Grill, Einstein Brothers Bagels, Auntie Annie’s, Au Bon Pain, Tropical Smoothie Café, Smoothie King, Dairy Queen, Baskin-Robbins, Firehouse Subs, Twin Peaks, Tilted Kilt, Tijuana Flats, Sweet Tomatoes, Skyline Chili, Sbarro, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Rainforest Café, Jimmy John’s, Pei Wei, Chipotle, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Jamba Juice, Five Guys, Panera Bread, The Original Pancake House, Miller’s Ale House, IHOP (International House of Pancakes), Houston’s, Hooters, Golden Corral, Papa John’s, Little Caesars, Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza, Dave & Buster’s, Dairy Queen, Cold Stone Creamery, Cinnabon, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Chili’s, Chick-fil-A, Carvel Ice Cream, California Pizza Kitchen, Boston Market, Kilwins, Baskin-Robbins, Bahama Breeze, Applebee’s, Tony Roma’s, The Melting Pot, The Cheesecake Factory, Maggiano’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, P.F. Chang’s, Ruby Tuesday, T.G.I. Friday’s, Cracker Barrel, Red Lobster, Yard House, Capital Grille, Starbucks, Benihana, Season’s 52, Outback Steakhouse, Longhorn Steakhouse, the Hard Rock Café, Duffy’s, Carrabba’s, Bonefish Grill, Olive Garden, Checkers, Denny’s and others.

Lastly, slip-and-falls may occur in motels, hotels and resorts. These include Starwood, the Ritz, Microtel Inn, Travelodge, Budget Inn, Red Roof Inn, Disneyland Resort Hotels, Walt Disney World Quality Inn, Comfort Suites, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, Courtyard, Sheraton, Best Western, Super 8, Red Roof Inns, Ramada, Radisson, Motel 6, Hilton, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Econo Lodge, Doubletree, Days Inn, La Quinta, Howard Johnson, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Marriott, and others. If you are injured in a slip and fall incident anyplace in Miami-Dade County (which includes Aventura, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Biscayne Park, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Doral, El Portal, Florida City, Golden Beach, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Homestead, Indian Creek, Key Biscayne, Medley, Miami, Miami Beach, Miami Gardens, Miami Lakes, Miami Shores, Miami Springs, North Bay Village, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Opa-Locka, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, South Miami, Sunny Isles Beach, Surfside, Sweetwater, Virginia Gardens, and West Miami), contact Mr. Quackenbush at 786-294-7711. He will happily give you a free, no obligation consultation.