How much you can sue for a slip and fall will depend on your losses—both economic and non-economic. For example, if you lost $15,000 because of your slip and fall accident, you might be able to recover the full amount.
On top of that, you might be able to claim much more if the slip and fall accident caused severe injuries and impacted your life negatively. These are called non-economic damages. However, some states might place damages caps on how much you can claim in non-economic damages.
What You Can Sue For
In slip and fall cases, you can try to sue for the total amount of your losses, which might include:
- Medical bills: These can include emergency room visits, hospitalizations, medical devices, prescription medication, in-home care, surgery costs, and more.
- Lost wages: If you suffered injuries in the slip and fall accident, you might have needed to miss work in order to focus on your recovery. You could be entitled to lost wages, lost savings, missed promotions and bonuses, loss of future earning capacity, and more.
- Property damage: You might have dropped your cell phone, laptop, or another device, or broken an expensive or sentimental item in your fall. You might be able to recover the costs of these items to repair or replace them.
- Pain and suffering: Your non-economic damages will likely be greater if you suffered more extensive injuries because these awards pertain to how the accident has affected your livelihood. For example, if you now have a disability and cannot enjoy activities you once did, you could be compensated for this loss.
- Attorney’s fees: You will generally need to compensate your legal representation if you hired an attorney, and you should be able to recover these costs in your settlement as well.
This is not an exhaustive list of what you can sue for in a slip and fall accident, and a lawyer can better evaluate your losses and tell you what you are entitled to from an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit.
Damage Caps
Some states place a limit on how much you can recover in civil lawsuits. They generally pertain to non-economic damages as these are harder to quantify and are significantly more subjective than economic damages.
These “damage caps” vary by state, but according to the Center for Justice & Democracy at New York Law School, nine states place caps on non-economic damages in personal injury cases (like slip and fall cases). The following states have non-economic damage caps:
- Alaska
- Colorado
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Tennessee
However, if you do not live in any of these states, you might be able to recover a significant amount of money for your pain and suffering. It might help to document the ways in which your life has changed since your accident, like what you can no longer do and enjoy.
Your Liability Could Affect Your Award Amount
As affirmed by the American Bar Association, most states have comparative fault laws that allow you to recover compensation, even if you are partly at fault in your accident. For example, if you slipped and fell on a wet floor, but you were texting on your phone and otherwise would have noticed the hazard, you might be somewhat at fault for the accident.
However, your damages will be reduced by your percentage of fault. So, if you were found to be 25% at fault for the slip and fall accident, and you suffered $15,000 in damages, you would be entitled to recover 75% of that amount, or $11,250.
Some states require you to stay at or below 51% liability in order to recover compensation. A lawyer can evaluate your level of fault and tell you whether you have the right to pursue compensation.
Get a Slip and Fall Lawyer’s Help
If you or a loved one slipped and fell due to a hazard on someone else’s property that they neglected to fix, a slip and fall lawyer from Ben Crump Law, PLLC might be able to help you recover compensation. We can tell you how much you can sue for after a slip and fall accident.
A lawyer on our team can investigate your case, evaluate your total losses, negotiate with the property owner’s insurance company to attempt to win you a settlement, and, if needed, argue for a judgment in your favor at trial.
You do not have to go through the process of recovering compensation alone. Ben Crump Law, PLLC helps personal injury victims across the country get the justice they deserve when someone else hurts them.
We work on a contingency-fee-basis, so you do not owe us anything upfront. We want to make sure you do not suffer more, so we front all of the costs and only take our cut when we win you a settlement.
Speak with a member of our team for a free consultation today when you call Ben Crump Law, PLLC at 800-959-1444.
