The Next Steps After a Trip and Fall Accident in NYC

Think about your daily life as a New Yorker; you walk on sidewalks, visit stores, and go to work. You implicitly trust these locations to maintain their premises so that they are safe. If you’re injured in a slip/or trip and fall accident, then you are entitled to seek compensation. The New York slip and fall lawyers at The Dearie Law Firm, P.C. are experts in Premises Liability law and want to set you up for success after your personal injury.

Both local and statewide laws in New York require that property owners and their employees (including managers and contractors) maintain safe conditions in the workplace. If a location fails to do this and you are injured because of it, you should consult with personal injury lawyers in NY. Even before that, however, The Dearie Law Firm suggests these next steps you can take after a slip (or trip) and fall accident.

The first step of any slip and fall accident is to identify the exact circumstances that led to your injury. This includes:

• The location of the injury (down to the address or the adjacent address in sidewalk accidents);
• The specific location inside the premises, i.e. the staircase or floor you were on;
• A description of the faulty condition (both its placement in the premises and what was wrong with it); and
• The action you were taking when the injury happened. Did you trip on an uneven surface, or slip on a wet surface? Were you alert and undistracted, or maybe looking at your phone as you were walking?

It’s best to be as specific as possible. A New York accident lawyer can only benefit from having too much information; too little information can break a case.

The time between your injury and meeting with a fall injury lawyer can make all the difference. The owner of the premises could repair the conditions or they could completely change. That’s why it’s important to document as much of the conditions as possible.

If you’re able to take pictures at the time, then you should. If not, consider asking a friend to go get documentation while you seek medical attention or go back as soon as you are up to it.

As mentioned above, it’s better to have too many photos than not enough. Pictures from different angles and distances will help show whether the premises are liable for your injury. Make sure the location is identifiable by including pictures of adjacent properties, the building itself, and any addresses and location names that you can find.

It’s important to establish that the property owner or its employees knew about the defective condition and did nothing to protect you (or anybody else) from injury. Write down everything you know about this property and the defective condition:

• Do you remember the condition from before? How long has it been broken?
• Did anybody around you mention the defective conditions or their similar injury with it? Do you remember anybody else harmed by the location?
• Have you tried to get the defective condition fixed? Have you complained, written a letter, or pointed it out to an employee beforehand?

Remember and document as much information as possible, including names and positions of people you speak with.

You won’t always have witnesses around when you slip and fall. However, if you do, make sure to get their name and contact information. This should include anybody who saw you immediately after the fall or helped you after. If you (understandably) forget to do this in the moment, try to remember as many details as possible of people who were around, such as if they were an employee of a nearby location or if they called 911 for you.

The Dearie Law Firm, P.C. has decades of experience in personal injury law, from slip and fall and construction site injuries to automobile and bicycle accidents. It’s important to do this as soon as you’re up to it because premises liability is an incredibly complicated field and we want you to pursue the proper claims. Contact The Dearie Law Firm, P.C. or call (212) 970-6500 for a consultation.