Indiana Slip and Fall Attorney

Yet before you can proceed with a slip and fall case, it’s important to determine if you actually have one.

Any kind of personal injury claim must demonstrate both negligence – the failure to exercise sufficient care to avoid harming others – and damages – the detrimental effects of that negligence. Essentially, if you sustain physical damages because of a plaintiff’s negligence, you can go after that defendant for financial damages.

In a slip and fall case, a plaintiff will generally argue that a negligent property owner brought about a fall that injured the plaintiff. For this argument to pass muster, it has to be proven that:

The owner owed a duty of care to the plaintiff to maintain safe conditions on a property;
The owner breached that duty by not ensuring that the property was safe; and
This breach made the plaintiff fall with resultant injuries.

However, showing that a breach of duty caused harm can be tougher in a slip and fall claim than in a case arising from an incident with a more obvious connection between a defendant’s behavior and a plaintiff’s injuries, like a car accident. In light of this difficulty, you may want to partner with an Indiana slip and fall attorney who’s adept at uncovering actionable breaches of duty, assuming that a duty is owed at all.

The reality is that not everybody who is on a property in Indiana is owed a duty of care, and the nature of that duty can depend upon the reasons for being on that property.

Indiana law groups visitors to premises into three broad categories, each of whom is owed different duties of care:

• Invitees, who are invited to premises for the economic benefit of the owner, such as store customers, are owed the highest duty of care. Specifically, a property owner has to make an effort to keep the property safe for them by searching for hazards and either fixing them or warning about them.
• Licensees, who are allowed to enter a property but don’t directly benefit the owner, like family members visiting a home, are owed a lesser duty of care. As such, property owners can’t willfully harm them or neglect to warn them about known hazards, but they don’t have to inspect their properties for a licensee’s sake.
• Trespassers, who are on a property without permission, either with good or ill intent, are owed the least duty of care, though some duties may still exist (especially with regard to child trespassers and “attractive” nuisances as explained in Section 34-31-11-3 of the Indiana Code). For instance, an owner can’t intentionally harm trespassers but has no obligation to alert them about hazards.

As you can see, what you were doing on a property when you fell could potentially make or break your case, so don’t wait too long to discuss the facts of the accident with a knowledgeable Indiana slip and fall lawyer.

A slip and fall can turn your world upside down, but you can rely on the Indiana slip and fall attorneys at Hensley Legal Group to help.

If you hire Hensley, a tenacious lawyer will launch a thorough investigation to identify the root causes of your accident and the defendants who contributed to it, then establish valid claims and/or file suit against them within the time allotted by law.

Next, your attorney will amass the evidence required to support your allegations, interceding legally to prohibit relevant defects from being repaired before they can be documented when necessary.

Once an airtight case has been assembled, your Indiana slip and fall lawyer will enter into exhaustive negotiations with the defendants’ insurance companies for a settlement that reflects the totality of your losses, including your:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering
• Mental and emotional trauma
• Mobility restrictions
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Diminished quality of living
• Loss of consortium (if applicable)

And if an offer is not received that is worthy of your claim, Hensley isn’t afraid to go to trial for a verdict that is, unlike many of the firm’s competitors, who rarely, if ever, venture into a courtroom.

No two Indiana slip and fall cases are exactly alike, but we will always strive to maximize the value of yours.

After a slip and fall, you should be focused on getting back on your feet (literally and figuratively), nor worrying about paying for an expensive attorney while your medical bills are piling up and you’re taking days, weeks, or even months off from work.

That’s why our firm operates on a contingency basis, a no-risk guarantee that you won’t owe us a single penny if we don’t recover compensation for you. It’s that simple.

At Hensley, we only take on clients when we believe in them, and we are willing to take on every burden involved in making them whole again, giving them the attention they need and treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve throughout the entire process.

Hensley Legal Group has been fiercely advocating for the hardworking people of Indiana for over a quarter century. If you’ve been badly injured in a fall in the Hoosier State, reach out to our Indiana slip and fall lawyers to explore your legal options.

You can schedule a no-cost consultation with an accomplished Indiana slip and fall attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form now.