AboutDoctor Settlement Expertise 27 years of front line plaintiff`s trial lawyer experience in PERSONAL INJURY INSURANCE CLAIMS. Along with other attorneys and insurance adjusters, we have created a website to help injured people settle their own personal injury claims. With the help from feedback from hundreds of satisfied members, www.settlementcentral.com has become THE AUTHORITY for Internet personal injury insurance claim settlements. I am humbled and honored if people can benefit from my experience and current volunteer work in helping injured people. I hope I can explain things in a manner that is useful for the questioner. If not, do not hesitate to e-mail me and I will take a second shot at it! Best Wishes for your physical and financial recovery.
Experience
Life Experience: 27 years of front line plaintiff's trial lawyer experience
Organizations: American Trial Lawyers Association (AAJ)
Washington State Trial Lawyers Association
Awards and Honors:
I am humbled and honored everytime I am selected to help injured people. And when people give feedback that they have benefited from my experience and current volunteer efforts, then that is a double honor and award for me.
Question My husband moved our family into his parents house and we have been here for about one year(against my will). I have been home (quite work yeasrs ago)with our four year old daughter due to her having a blood disorder. Upon hearing that her blood was getting better, I began looking for a job. I even traveled out-of-state to interviews. My in-laws are ani8mal neglectors and dirty house keepers. One night I slipped and fell in their dogs urine on the tile floor. I ended up rupturing a disk in my back that hit the nerve root. First doctor took x-rays and miss diagnosed it for some reason; althouh it was easy to see. I also tore ankle liagments that are not healing. I cannot stand up four months later and have constant pain and cannot in anyway work. This has been going on for months and I was wondering if my in-laws are responsible for anythng? Should they have filed a claim with their homeowners insurance?
Answer Hi Jenny,
I am sorry to hear of your extensive injuries. This was a tough fall, and the consequences are devastating. I want you to find an attorney, rather than trying to do this on your own. Yes, it is true that Doctor Settlement teaches slip and fall accident victims how to settle their own insurance injury claims via legal forms and self help information at my website, www.SettlementCentral.Com. But I am NOT going to recommend that you go any further on a liability claim on your own. Why?
There are two reasons why I would not want you to buy a membership at my website and try this on your own. The first is that you will have a disputed liability situation and the second is that the injuries are too complex for you to handle alone.
Do you have a claim versus the homeowners? In getting some limited help with medical bills, then, yes, most homeowners' insurance policies DO have a no-fault medical payments provision. But that is limited to around $5,000 at most. It sounds like you have exceeded that amount, and perhaps someone else is paying for your medical care.
As for any claim versus your in-laws, it does not sound like you have much of a claim from what you have written. Here is the essence of a premises liability claim:
#1. the property owners are not insurers of the safety of any guests to their property;
#2. the victim must show negligence on the part of the property owners; this is a breach of the duty of care they owe to keep the property safe.
#3. the victim's own negligence will reduce the value of her claim.
So, there is no automatic liability against a homeowner or a business; one has to show negligence on their part. Premises Liability Slip Or Trip And Fall Accidents http://www.settlementcentral.com/page3006.htm is an excellent review of premises liability or slip and fall accident liability. There are three good examples on that page to show you the difference between liable property owners and those whom one cannot sue.
I do not think you can contend that their sloppy housekeeping is at fault, unless they always left urine on the floor. In that case, a GUEST might have a claim. But you were living there, so you would be put on notice to be on the lookout for such puddles.
Next, you could say that they knew the puddle was there, but ignored it. I do not suspect that there could ever be any evidence on that proof. So I am coming up short with any theory of liability upon which you could make a claim for damages.
But I also believe that your damages are SO SERIOUS that it would be a shame to let a claim go without first at least getting a legal opinion on liability. Hence, I want you to go to the phonebook or Internet and to find a beginning attorney who might be hungry for work. See if she can gather more facts from you and your husband as to liability. It is worth a shot, since you do have a lot of value in your claim once liability is proven.
I trust that my time here has produced some information that has been of value to you, and thus I would respectfully request that you take the time to locate the FEEDBACK FORM on this site and leave some feedback for me.
