With three major shopping centers, more than 31,000 residential dwellings, and a number of restaurants, hotels, and other commercial businesses in West Covina, residents and visitors have plenty of places to see and stay in West Covina. One thing that all of the properties in West Covina have in common is the liability faced by the individual or entity who controls the property if a visitor is injured as the result of a property hazard.
If you’ve been injured in a slip-and-fall accident that occurred on private, commercial, or public property, you can seek compensation for the financial and emotional impacts of your injury through California’s personal injury claims process. An experienced West Covina slip-and-fall lawyer can provide more information about this process, answer the questions you have about your case, and provide services to assist you as you seek the maximum amount of compensation available for your claim.
Slip-and-fall accidents are the most common type of premises liability matter to result in a personal injury claim. Premises liability refers to the responsibility that property owners have to take reasonable actions in order to prevent their guests from becoming injured due to a property hazard. There are many hazards that can cause a guest to slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall, including:
Property owners must either rectify any of these issues in a reasonable amount of time or place clear warnings to indicate danger to visitors.
In order to obtain compensation for injuries incurred in a West Covina slip-and-fall accident, you must be able to prove liability. Liability in slip-and-fall claims is satisfied by showing:
A personal injury claim is generally filed first against the at-fault party’s relevant insurance policy, such as a homeowner’s, renter’s, or business policy. If the insurer who holds that policy fails to pay the claim, it can be filed as a personal injury lawsuit within California’s two-year statutory deadline for such claims. It is extremely important to adhere to this deadline, as letting the statute of limitations expire on your claim generally will result in the loss of your right to use the court process when seeking compensation. Contact our West Covina slip and fall accident lawyer for legal representation.
An experienced West Covina slip-and-fall lawyer can provide a number of services to help you with the personal injury claims process:
They often start out by conducting a thorough investigation of the claim in order to determine the liable party and associated insurance resources, as well as to begin gathering the evidence that will be needed to prove the claim.
The attorney will also establish a value to your claim, often waiting to do so until you’ve reached maximum medical treatment, which is the point in which your doctor determines that you are unlikely to make any more significant progress in your recovery, even if treatment continues. This is a good time to value the claim, as there is a better picture of the types of expenses and impacts you have incurred or will likely incur in the future due to the injury.
Once the value of your claim has been determined, the attorney will demand payment of this amount from the at-fault party’s insurer. The insurer can choose to either pay the claim, deny the claim, or offer to settle it out-of-court for less than its established value. Settlement is the most common resolution to personal injury claims and a settlement agreement can be entered into at any time during the process as long as a court has not yet decided on the matter.
If the at-fault party’s insurance provider fails to compensate the claim, the civil court process will provide claimants with the ability to have their case presented for a judge or jury in order to have them determine who was liable for the injury and the compensation that is owed to the claimant.
Many slip-and-fall accident claimants attempt to navigate the personal injury claims process on their own, only to be overwhelmed by the legal requirements for their claim, the difficulty in procuring evidence that will prove the claim, and the interest of the at-fault party’s insurance provider in keeping the payout on the claim as low as possible, if not completely eliminating it.
A West Covina slip and fall attorney provides their client with legal knowledge and a deep understanding of the type of compensation necessary, as well as familiarity with the claims process. It is important to note that, while the important decisions that need to be made in the case are yours alone to make, a personal injury attorney can provide the guidance you need about how your claim is valued to understand what fair compensation for your injury is, so that you can make decisions that reflect your best interest.
Slip-and-fall accident claims have a reputation of being frivolous. Unfortunately, most of these cases are quite real and the injuries they cause can be extremely serious. The team at Kash Legal wants to partner with you in order to assist you with obtaining the amount of compensation you need to cover the expenses and impacts you face as a result of the accident.
Let our West Covina slip-and-fall lawyer tell you more about the personal injury claims process and the convenient contingent fee billing method we use that will allow you to wait to pay for our services until after your claim is resolved. For your free case evaluation, contact us by calling (888) 527-4128 or through our contact form.
We will be in touch within 24 hours.
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