If you fall and hurt yourself after tripping or slipping on something that should not have been there, you may be the victim of a trip or slip and fall injury. If so, you could be eligible for personal injury compensation under Maryland premise liability laws. Knowing who to make your claim against, and how to get that compensation, is far more complicated and may require the help of an experienced attorney. If you were hurt in such an accident, this article can get you started by helping you understand:
- What to do if an insurance company denies your slip and fall claim in Maryland.
- The responsibilities of business owners and private owners in Maryland.
- How long Maryland premise liability claims like slip and fall injuries usually take to resolve.
What Should I Do If An Insurance Company In Maryland Denies My Slip And Fall Claim?
If an insurance company denies your slip and fall claim, you will have to take them to court if you want to recover damages. Sometimes, just the threat of taking the insurance company to court can make a difference. In order to do this, however, you will need to contact an experienced personal injury attorney to discuss your case.
When you present a claim to an insurance company, their adjuster is the fact finder. That adjuster determines on behalf of the company whether your claim is compensable, whether they are going to resolve that claim, and approximately what value they are going to resolve it for if they do so.
That’s just the insurance companies making their initial factual decision, and you can bet it will always be in their self-interest. You do not have to accept it. You always have the option of presenting your claim to a judge or a jury. To do so, you can file a lawsuit to try to prove your case to a judge or a jury and let them be the ultimate fact finder, and their opinion will be binding.
An attorney can help guide you in that decision as to whether it’s worth pursuing from an economic and potential recovery point of view. The insurance company is just one stop on the way, though its opinion may certainly be weighed when making your decision.
Are There Any Specific Considerations Or Legal Requirements For Slip And Falls Involving Businesses Or Commercial Properties In Maryland?
Businesses and commercial property owners or occupiers are not responsible for ensuring the safety at all times of everyone on their premises. They do have a duty to use reasonable and ordinary care to keep the premises safe for an invitee. They must protect you, as an invitee, from injury caused by an unreasonable risk that you could not discover when taking ordinary and reasonable precautions of your own.
That means that when you go to someone else’s business, you have a duty or responsibility to watch where you’re walking, to not jump off of a four-foot drop, and to generally take responsibility for your safety. On the other hand, the premise owner has an obligation to protect you from injury from unreasonable risks.
If the property owner knows that there are loose bricks, either through actual or constructive notice, and chooses not to fix them, any injury sustained as a result of you stepping on one is due to their negligence. You would have a claim that can be made against them in this scenario, as long as the bricks being loose wasn’t readily detectable by you at the time you fell.
Each slip and fall case must be examined individually, preferably by an experienced personal injury and premise liability lawyer, to know whether or not there has been a breach of responsibility on behalf of a business owner. Similar logic applies to private property and homeowners in Maryland.
Can A Slip And Fall Be Pursued Against A Private Owner In Maryland? What If I Was Injured On Their Property?
Private homeowners have similar obligations to protect invitees or guests and warn them or notify them of any hazards on their property. A homeowner will also likely have homeowners insurance to protect them when they fail to do so. It will not always be immediately obvious who is negligent and who should be sued.
For example, a plumber went into someone’s home to do some work and the homeowner asked them to look in a particular bathroom. Unbeknownst to the plumber, the homeowner had hired a mound remediation company. Unbeknownst to the homeowner, the mound remediation company had just taken out the floor in the bathroom and laid down plastic. The plumber walked into the bathroom, stepped through the plastic where the floor should have been, and fractured their wrist.
In that particular case, a court found against the mound remediation company because they didn’t put up warning signs in the homeowner’s house. The homeowner wasn’t found liable because the responsibility was found to be against the mound remediation company. The plumber was not responsible because there was no reasonable way to know that there was no floor under the plastic.
If the homeowner had been doing the work themselves, however, they would’ve had to have warned the plumber that there was no floor there or been considered negligent. You always have to be careful.
How Long Does The Process Of Resolving Each Stage Of A Slip And Fall Personal Injury Claim Typically Take In Maryland?
Initially, when you are injured in a fall, you would start by determining who the responsible party or parties would be. This can take some time, even with the help of an attorney. You would then establish a claim against them, often waiting until any treatment for the injuries is done so you know how much to claim for.
Once you are ready, you would typically present that claim to the responsible party or parties and attempt to resolve the matter. Waiting for responses from their insurance companies, and negotiating with them if necessary, can also take time.
If you can’t resolve the matter, it may end up in litigation. A lawsuit would need to be filed, and the deadline for doing so is within three years of the date of injury.
The exact timeframe for any case will be dependent upon the injuries, how long it takes to treat them, the obviousness of fault or negligence, and the negotiation or litigation of the insurance companies involved.
It is always important to conduct an investigation as close to the incident as possible with slip and fall cases. You want to identify witnesses, secure video, and preserve evidence. The longer it takes, the higher the chance that those things may disappear.
That is why it is crucial to contact an experienced premise liability and personal injury attorney as quickly as possible after your slip and fall injury to have the best chance of recovering full compensation.
For more information on Denial Of A Maryland Slip & Fall Injury Claim, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (301) 670-0443 today.
