Chicago Personal Injury Attorney
Chicago Personal Injury Attorney
Slip and fall accidents are among the most common accidents in the United States. Yet people often don’t report them if they think the accident was their fault because they were clumsy or not paying attention or they didn’t really hurt themselves.
However, another party is often liable for the conditions that cause a slip and fall accident. If you slip and fall and don’t report it, the hazard that caused the accident remains, and other people may fall victim to it. Also, never assume you didn’t really hurt yourself in a slip and fall. Minor accidents can have lingering consequences. Often, the injuries sustained in a slip and fall accident don’t manifest themselves for hours or days after the fall. It’s important to seek medical attention as soon as possible after you slip and fall.
According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) numbers on work injuries in Illinois, falls, slips and trips were the second most frequent fatal work injury in 2022, accounting for 13% of fatal work injuries in the state.
In 2022, 23 fatal falls, slips and trips occurred, a decrease from 33 in 2021. To break down where these accidents occurred, 18 incidents out of the 23 came from a fall to a lower level, and one came from a fall caused by a collapsing structure or equipment. Of the 18 falls to a lower level, three were falls to a lower level of 21 to 25 feet, and three were falls to a lower level of more than 30 feet.
Some statistics from the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) about slip and fall accidents include:
As you can see, slip and fall accidents need to be taken seriously, especially by older Americans.
If you slip and fall, you can injure any one of several parts of your body. And some of these injuries will not be detectable immediately. For example, a sore leg or minor sprain can be a fracture or torn ligament. After you suffer a slip and fall, it’s critical you seek medical attention immediately.
Some of the more common kinds of injuries suffered in slips and falls include:
The bruises and cuts you suffer when you slip and fall can appear severe but may be less serious than other injuries listed below. While bruises and cuts on your arms, legs, head or hips may be minor, some instances may indicate more serious injuries underneath cuts and bruises. It’s always worth getting them checked out. It’s also a good idea to take pictures of your injuries. This documentation will help enormously if you decide to sue.
Often when we slip and fall, our muscles tense to protect us. We may twist our bodies or stretch out our hands to catch ourselves. Unfortunately, our attempts to protect ourselves may actually end up causing some damage. Twisting may lead to pulled muscles, torn ligaments or stretched tendons. The same is true when we reach out our hands to catch ourselves.
While these injuries can seem minor and perhaps not painful at first, they can ultimately be quite debilitating. A badly pulled muscle may require weeks of rest to recover. Stretched tendons and torn ligaments also have long recovery periods because they don’t tend to receive a lot of blood flow and thus heal slowly. Don’t assume that just because you have one of these injuries, you’ll be fine.
As mentioned above, when we fall, our impulse is to throw out our hands to try to protect ourselves or prevent ourselves from falling too hard. Or we try to catch ourselves from falling. This often puts far too much pressure on our wrists or ankles. In these cases, a sprained wrist or ankle is a common result, but it’s also not unusual for a wrist or ankle to break.
When you break an arm or a leg, it’s also possible for the tissue surrounding the break to be damaged. This may result in the need for long-term therapy to deal with chronic pain and dysfunctions with the neuromuscular system.
Sometimes, people think that if they can move their arm or joint, there is no break. However, you always need an X-ray to determine whether you’ve broken a bone. If you had a bad slip and fall, and you feel intense pain in a joint or in a bone, go to an emergency room immediately.
If you fall forward and your shoulder strikes the ground first, you could break your collarbone. While collarbones heal relatively quickly, it can be an incredibly painful and inconvenient injury.
When you fall and hit the shoulder first, even if you don’t fracture your clavicle, you may dislocate your shoulder. While a dislocated shoulder is easier to treat than a broken collarbone, it still can be excruciating and result in weeks of rest and rehabilitation.
When you fall forward, your knees often strike the ground first. Depending upon how hard you fall and the type of surface on which you fall, you may injure one of the ligaments in your knee or, even worse, dislocate or fracture your patella. Knee damage can also result in the need for reconstructive surgery.
If you have ever fallen backward onto your buttocks, you know how painful it can be. If the force of the fall is great enough, however, you can bruise or even fracture your tailbone. While this may seem like an almost humorous injury, it is far from funny for the person who suffers a bruised or broken tailbone. It is difficult to sit, stand, use the bathroom, even sleep. In many cases, it is necessary to carry a soft pillow with you everywhere you go, whether to a restaurant or to your workplace, to sit comfortably. A bruised or fractured tailbone is no laughing matter.
This is the most common form of injury for those aged 65 years and older. The CDC reports that nearly all hip fractures are the result of slips and falls. Almost all these injuries will result in hospitalization or the need for older adults to live in a nursing home because of the need for constant care. Hip fractures can also be the most deadly form of injury for those aged 65 and older.
An injured spinal cord is one of the most severe injuries you can suffer during a slip and fall. If you fall onto your back, the impact of this force is usually borne by your spine. The result can be a chipped vertebra, a slipped disc, nerve damage or even permanent damage to your spinal cord, which can result in total or partial paralysis. If you land hard on your back when you slip and fall, even if it does not seem serious, it’s always a good idea to seek medical attention.
Spinal cord injuries require expensive treatment, frequently resulting in bills of over $1 million or more in the first year. In most cases, the higher up your spinal cord injury, the more damage will result.
11. Head Injuries
Many times when people slip and fall and hit their heads, they may only feel a mild headache at first. However, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may not appear for hours or sometimes even a day or two. Critical symptoms to look for include:
12. Soft Tissue Damage
This can often be the most difficult kind of damage to diagnose successfully. They can also be among the most painful injuries. These injuries are not usually visible, but your body is sore after a fall. They may not manifest themselves until days or weeks after you suffer an injury. Untreated, these injuries can lead to chronic pain and often are a leading cause of other injuries as you compensate for the pain by overusing then damaging another part of your body.
Any of these slip and fall injuries can result in expensive medical bills, loss of income and long-term recovery. If you experience a slip and fall injury, contact an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible.
Slip and fall injuries can be caused by several different hazards:
This is particularly a concern if you live in an apartment with poor lighting and dim hallways and stairwells. If you have repeatedly told your landlord or property manager that the hallways and stairwells are dark and dangerous, and they do not fix them before you or someone else slips and falls and hurts themselves, they can be sued for their negligence.
Most states don’t require property owners to remove snow or ice that builds up outside their properties. If conditions on the property, however, lead to an unnatural accumulation of snow or ice, the property owner may be held responsible. Also, if they decide to remove snow and ice, they need to do so responsibly.
The design of the building may lead to slips or falls, especially if there are sudden changes in flooring levels, which can be made worse by poor lighting or narrow stairs.
This can be a particular problem at a construction or a worksite. Loose debris in a neighbor’s yard or in their homes can also be a hazard.
Torn carpeting can be a problem in a neighbor’s home, in one’s workplace, at a store or at a worksite. Again, torn carpeting slip and fall accidents are more likely to happen in poorly lit locations such as hallways or stairwells or in darker areas of a home or a business.
It’s not unusual to hear of slip and fall accidents in grocery stores or in the lobbies of business offices. Most property owners do what they can to notify people if floors are wet, but not always. If someone has notified the property owner that their floor is slippery and potentially dangerous, and they don’t do anything to fix the situation, their negligence could lead to a lawsuit.
Municipalities are responsible for public sidewalks and maintaining them in reasonable condition. Local, state and federal government entities are often protected by the law and are granted immunity in some cases, so there is a much shorter window for filing a claim against any form of government entity. If you suffer a slip or fall accident because you trip on a crack in a public sidewalk, contact a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer as soon as possible so you may file a claim if necessary.
When sustaining an injury or falling on someone else’s property, there are some steps you may follow to safeguard your well-being and potentially receive fair compensation, depending on your unique situation.
Still have more questions? Here are some commonly asked questions by others who have sustained injuries from falling or slipping.
Minor injuries with little pain and soreness after a fall should typically subside within a week or less, as long as you rest, receive the appropriate anti-inflammatory and pain medications, stretch, and use ice or heat, depending on the injury. In some cases, minor injuries may have lingering consequences that cause soreness to last longer than one week, indicating that you may be experiencing a more serious injury that could require medical attention.
In most cases, it’s best to see a doctor as soon as possible after a slip and fall. This may allow you to trace back the injury to the fall and create documented proof of the injury. It is also critical to see a doctor again if you realize your pain lasts longer than the estimated time of recovery because this may mean you are experiencing a more serious injury than initially concluded.
Be sure to follow your doctor’s treatment plan, especially when it includes X-rays, diagnostic scans and follow-up visits to assess the extent of the damage.
If an accident occurred due to someone else’s negligence, reckless actions or carelessness, you may be able to seek financial compensation for damages, such as ambulance transportation, medical expenses and physical therapy. An example might include if a property owner did not exercise proper care of their property, such as clearing snow from the sidewalk, which caused you to slip and fall.
If you or a member of your family were injured because of a slip and fall accident on someone else’s property, you may be entitled to compensation for these injuries. Slip and fall injuries can sometimes be difficult to prove, but working with an experienced lawyer can help you win your case.
The team of Chicago personal injury attorneys at Argionis and Associates have experience and knowledge in dealing with slip and fall injuries, and we can help you recover the damages to which you are entitled. As one of the leading law practices in the Chicago area, we have recovered millions of dollars in damages and awards for our clients.
If you have suffered a slip and fall injury and would like to talk to a Chicago slip and fall accident lawyer, you can call us at 312-626-6294 or visit our contact us page to schedule a free consultation. You can leave us your contact details and some information or questions about your accident. A member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
George Argionis has over 20 years of experience in handling cases involving auto collisions, premises injuries, medical malpractice, product liability, construction-related and work-related injuries. He has dedicated his career to helping restore lives both emotionally and economically.
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