The Importance of Reporting Accidents

You are walking out of a restaurant on a rainy day.  Suddenly, you slip and fall inside the restaurant, right by the door.  You pick yourself up and keep going out to your car, thinking you are fine.  The next morning you wake up and your knee is throbbing.  You head to the emergency room and find out there is a tear in your knee.  A few weeks later you contact an attorney and they ask you if you reported your accident and you say no, you didn’t think you were hurt.  

Slip and fall cases can present a lot of challenges.  Those challenges are magnified if the defendant-property owner can claim they had no notice of the fall.  

If you are injured in a slip and fall accident at a commercial property a restaurant, a retail store or an apartment building, it is very important to report your fall to the manager of the business; even if you don’t believe that you are hurt.  Often, businesses will record the information you provide in an incident report.  Without getting into too much detail you should explain the defect that caused you to be injured; for example, a hole, a pool or puddle of water, a slippery substance, bad steps, etc.  Be concise – less is more.  Ask for a copy of what they write down.  Get the name of the person to whom you reported the incident.    Ask if the property has video surveillance and if your accident was captured on video.  These simple steps will have a big impact on the success of any claim you may need to pursue in the future.  

If you have been involved in an accident and are injured, it is important to contact an attorney right away to preserve evidence related to your fall.  Surveillance video is often written over (effectively deleting any recordings) every 30 days, so the window for preserving that evidence is small.  

Take these steps to protect yourself and your ability to pursue a recovery if what seemed like a bump turns out to be a big deal.  

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