Slip and Fall on a Wet Floor

[lunabluize]

My question involves injury or loss that occurred in the state of: Colorado

I am new here and have already read some great advice. I'm hoping that someone can help me. This is how it all happend.

PART ONE:
July 07. I was just about finished with my day at work. I was walking along the hallway, and before I knew it I was on the floor. I had slipped and fell do to water on the floor. It's a white marble floor, I didn't notice the water one bit. As I was falling, I put my hand down to try and break the fall. Instead it broke my right arm. To be precise it was a bad radial head fracture. My co worker helped me file out an accident report before I left to go to the ER. They did x rays, and confirmed a fracture to right elbow. Sent home with a sling and pain meds. I had to wait to get approval first to get treated. In the meantime, I hired a workers' comp attorney. To make a long story short. Nine months of treatment involving, weekly Dr visits, specialists visits, medication, physical therapy 2x a week. All of those being hard with having no car and no daycare. As I'm sure most of you know, it's very hard taking care of small children when you're injured. As for my work, I could only provide a certain number of manicures and pedicures in a day. My Dr ordered a worksite evaluation. I was to give her a pedicure. As I started removing the nail polish she said that motion of my wrist would aggravate my injury. She told me to try with my left hand. This went on throughout the whole pedicure. In her report, she suggests using my left hand for almost everything, and basically if I continue to use my right arm, the injury will get worse. It was very upsetting news since this has been my career for 14 years. I love my job, and I made really good money. I work off of commision and tips only, so getting lost wages was hard. I reached MMI about 8 months ago. The Dr provided a rating for cumulative trauma disorder. Permanent parcial disability, 6% upper extremity impairment. I recieved a check from workers' comp for $5100, attorney took his 20%fee.

PART TWO:
My attorney advised me to file a Personal injury claim against the negligant person who caused the accident to happen. I'll try to make this short. There was construction being done at the time of accident. The new shampoo bowl wasn't cocked yet. Thats what caused the water to leak onto the floor. They were supposed to come back that next week to finish all the work. Which they did right after they heard about what had happened to me. No one was told not to use it. Everyone thought they were ready to be used. My co worker was washing a clients hair when I fell. She is the #1 witness. Ok, so as time went by I would follow up with my attorney. "This all takes time" is what his answer always is. He said he still needed some medical records and the worksite evaluation. I told him I would go get them if it's easier. He said not to worry, he would do it. About a month later I made an appt. to meet with him to discuss the case. I asked if he got the worksite eval yet. "I'm working on it", well I got a copy just for this reason,and I gave it to him. We worked on a letter to the insurance company, stating what happened and how it's affected my life. He said he was going to include an offer letter demanding $80,000. I was shocked. I wasn't expecting to ask for so much. I was feeling more hopeful now that the ball seemed to be rolling. I realized at that point that I hadn't signed any fee agreement for this PI case. We only did one for the Workers' comp case. I asked him, and he said don't worry about that now. He was supposed to send me a copy of the demand letter within the next week. After a couple weeks of me running to the mail box, I called his office. He was away for the week so I spoke with his paralegal. She informed me that she is doing most of the work on this case and there is no letter, no offer. She said they are still waiting on medical bills,and also need me to give a statement to the adjuster. She felt bad that he basically lied and got my hopes up. She said he does this all the time. I was so upset when she told me that news. I made an appt. to discuss all this for the next week. During that week I interviewed three bankruptcy attorneys. With me not going back to work fulltime and no health insurance, medical bills kept coming and coming. $30,000 to give you an idea. Then just when you think what more could go wrong. I was on my way to work, and got in a pretty bad car accident. I really lost my mind at that point.

PART 3
I was in shock and completely overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do first. I knew I needed an attorney. Since we already had a meeting scheduled, I figured I would ask his advise. He told me he would take my accident case for no charge. From them on he was in charge of the case which is a whole other story. I will post my crazy auto accident case in the "auto accident" thread.
Getting back to the PI case. It's the end of September and still nothing had been done. I told him I'm facing bankruptcy, I want to settle this ASAP! He told me in a month it would be settled. He wanted me to set up a time for him to talk with my co worker #1 witness. His job was to set up a time to give that statement to the other parties adjuster. So I set up meeting with my co worker. He never called her, he never set up time for statement. He said we would do it the next week. Again, I explained I need this setteled ASAP. especially now I'm out of work from car accident. I called my co worker to see if he called her yet, she said no. I called him and said, please call her right now. Finally he did it. I was still waiting to give my statement. This past Tuesday he wanted me to take him to the site where the fall happened. So we did that. Again, I explained I need to settle this NOW! Even if it's not going to be a huge amount, I want it done. I asked him about the statement. He said he would set it up for Thursday (today). Well, guess what? I called to confirm, he hadn't set it up again. He said next Monday. I was so mad. I told his receptionist to have him call me right away. When he called me back I told him that it's been almost 2 years since my accident and he's gotten no where. He sounded shocked. He had no idea I was so unhappy with his representation. Anyway, he wants me to meet him tomorrow (Friday), to discuss all this.


If anyone has gotten this far in my post, I want to thank you for your time. I would appreciate any advise on what to do. Time is running out, I'm still out of work with no wages. I don't even have the money anymore to file for bankruptcy. Does anyone think I can settle this on my own? Does anyone think I might not have a good case anymore?
I am so fed up with him at this point, I think I want to just get my files and settle this case on my own.
I have not signed an agreement with him. I mean, is this how lawsuits are supposed to go?
I don't know what's going to happen when we meet on Friday.

Thanks again for your time and any suggestions.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Why would you have unpaid medical bills from a slip and fall at work? Why isn't worker's comp picking up those bills?

[lunabluize]

Workers' comp did cover all the bills. He needed to get them all in order he said. I went to meet with him on Friday, and he had a complete binder finished with all my bills, records etc. After he knew I was very unhappy, he must have got it all together. He apologized for not being 100% honest. I am supposed to be giving my statement tomorrow. After that he said we are going to make an offer that day. He said most insurance adjusters like to get claims out of the way by the end of the year. Since I am wanting to settle the case now, and not getting a Dr to say I can't do my job again, which would make my settlement a lot more, he thinks they will accept the offer. I hope I'm doing the right thing. With my arm being broken, and now a back injury, I'm started to wonder if I should be going back to my job.