Expert: Doctor Settlement - 1/14/2009

Question
I AM A 34 year old mom of 6 oldest 15 youngers 8mo old twins.i was walking out of my kitchen to my car the door leads outside to the car port . i stepped down and slipped hit my head and broke my tibia and fib. was taken to hospital by ems had surgery in 3 hours had rods and pins put in to repair the larger bone the fib is still broken this happened on DEC 19th 2008.i am now total care with a walker ,bedside commode,and a shower chair. i have a lawyer but he said he have to talk about what would make me whole what is the max that i can get for such an injury? If you can help me with some similar case and the outcome or a web site that would help. I cant start rehab for 3 months my surgeon sad this was a bad brake.
                                     Thank You,
                                   Wanda Miller

Answer
Hi Wanda,

It sounds like you suffered some pretty severe injuries, and I hope that you are restored to health soon.  As for the claim, my major issue would be to tie down a good case for liability, and to avoid the tortfeasor from tagging you with too much comparative negligence.  Given the little information you presented on the nature of the defect, it is impossible to make a guess on these topics.  

Valuing a personal injury claim is impossible without a good idea of liability and of course the medical records.  Hence, there is nowhere near the information one would require to make any guess at valuation.

But because of your severe injuries, it does sound like you have a case with a lot of settlement value, even after they deduct any comparative negligence on your part.  

I am sorry, but I have no idea what strength of liability your attorney is processing since usually one would not be able to claim a dangerous condition having fallen on one's own house.  I suppose that if you rented the house and there were some defect, then you could have a claim.  But it is going to be hard to avoid suffering a reduction in the value of your claim will be made for your own negligence in not being aware of the danger.  

If you want me to take another stab at this, then what we will want to discuss is:
1.   Who owns or maintains the property?
2.   What is the defect that caused you to fall?
3.   Why were you not cognizant of the defect? OR,
4.   If you were aware of the defects, why were you not able to avoid them?
5.   What complaints were made to the landlord about this defect?
6.   When were the complaints made?
7.   Were YOU aware of the fact that complaints had been made to the landlord?
8.   In what respect was the landlord negligent for failure to fix the defect?

I think that you can see the general direction of the questions I would ask.  Maybe you should visit about with your attorney about these topics.

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.

Best Wishes,


Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
Http://www.SettlementCentral.Com