Slip in Fall in Chain Restuarant

[Big_Tony]

My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: MI

MY wife was out to eat for lunch at a local place. After eating on their way out she slipped on apiece of cement floor that was protruding in the place. She fell and severly bruised here arm/knee the pain which has gotten worse over the last few days.

She saw the family doctor who checked her out and at the moment there was no serios injury. He was concerned about long term risk arthritis, etc.

The store manager said they have been meaning to get that floor fixed but havent gotten it done yet. My wife has so far:

Made a statement with their "claims dept". They wanted her to release the medical exam from our doctor which we had no problem doing.

Taken pictures of the accident scene and of her injures.

We havent spoken to an injury lawyer yet because the company seems very friendly are we being naive? Should we have an injury attorney taking over at this point? What if they offer us a settlement without us having an attorney?

Any help you could give would be great. If anymore information is needed we will be happy to post whatever we can.

Thank you in advance.

[jk]

=Big_Tony;605160]My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: MI

MY wife was out to eat for lunch at a local place. After eating on their way out she slipped on apiece of cement floor that was protruding in the place. She fell and severly bruised here arm/knee the pain which has gotten worse over the last few days.

slipped? How does a protrusion cause one to slip and fall?

If you want your damages covered, just allow things to take their course, for the moment. If you believe you have won the lawsuit lottery and are looking at this as a retirement plan, contact a personal injury attorney to review the case.

Do not sign any releases until the full extent of the damages are known.

She saw the family doctor who checked her out and at the moment there was no serios injury. He was concerned about long term risk arthritis, etc.

sounds like somebody is shooting for the lawsuit lottery direction rather than simply a desire to have damages compensated. Unless a doctor can testify that whatever injury your wife sustained (which, so far, is: no serious injury i.e. she got a boo boo) can cause some unnamed long term problem, you will not win in court based upon this wild ass guess that it might lead to something long term.

[Big_Tony]

Perhaps we should clarify the floor situation. Its on a cement slab and one of the slabs was raised up about an inch higher. Thats the part she tripped over and fell down. The manager stated they have been meaning to fix it and were aware of the problem. There were no signs or any type of warnings about the floor.

[cbg]

The fact remains that you can't sue for what has not yet happened and may never happen. The fact that she MIGHT at some time in future develop some condition related to this fall does not mean you can sue now.

[jk]

Perhaps we should clarify the floor situation. Its on a cement slab and one of the slabs was raised up about an inch higher. Thats the part she tripped over and fell down. The manager stated they have been meaning to fix it and were aware of the problem. There were no signs or any type of warnings about the floor.

so she tripped. I suspected that is what you meant but didn't want to put words in your mouth, so to speak.

[SChinFChin]

I had a business, and had a customer come after me for a slip and fall. He came by and gave me protographs where he was all black and blue.

When he first told me this, I offered to pay his doctor's bills, up to $300.00, or just pay him $300 for his incovenience. He turned me down, and presented a chiropractor's bill for over $3,000 some time later, whereupon I turned it over to my insurance.

My customer shopped around for a lawyer, about a dozen turned him down, finally had one guy said it's worth more than $15,000, so the lawyer told the insurance company that he'll sue. My insurance company said "good, sue us".

A few month's later, my customer got back to me for the $300 saying his lawyer stopped returning his calls. I checked with my insurance who told me he had no case, maybe the insurance would settle for $2,000 to avoid litigation and no more. But it's certainly not worth over $15,000, and the amount of work to get a $15,000 payday on a contigency basis is not worth it, which is why the lawyer stopped returning calls.

You can gauge your chances checking with local attornies to see who'll take it on a contingency basis. Based on my customer's experience and one in our family where my sister was killed in a car accident, you might get turned down by a dozen lawyers before one would take your case. And because of statute of limitation issues, you can't wait forever to see if arthritis comes up, and if it does, and a long time went by, you might not even be able to prove the linkage.

Good luck.