South Florida Personal Injury Blog

Fort Lauderdale injury lawyer Andrew Alitowski represents clients who are injured in slip and fall (or trip and fall) accidents. These occur when a person or a business create or allow an unsafe condition that causes another person to fall and sustain injuries. A common example is a grocery store whose employees neglect to promptly clean spills, so that when an elderly lady pushes her cart through the freezer aisle in her local grocery store, she slips on a melted popsicle. The hard fall breaks her hip. A broken hip is no laughing matter. Of course, while these types of injuries can be the most devastating to the elderly because of the severity of injuries they are likely to incur by falling, they can happen to people of every age, healthy and otherwise. Broward slip and fall lawyer Alitowski encourages businesses, in particular, to be mindful of the state in which they keep their floors. Unfortunately, even just one bad slip and fall or trip and fall accident can cause serious, painful injuries and can result in thousands of dollars of medical expenses.

Elderly individuals are at higher risk for serious injuries caused by falls. These may occur, for example, when the flooring is uneven or wet. The Center for Disease Control, a federal agency, has released sobering estimates concerning fall-related injuries during the year 2005. The CDC says that 1,800,000 people who were 65 years of age or older received emergency room treatment for injuries sustained during falls and over 400,000 were actually admitted to the hospital to recover from their injuries. In fact, nearly 16,000 people died in 2005 as a result of the injuries they received during falls. For elderly people, this can often be the consequence of a broken hip, an injury that is very difficult to recover from and can cause permanent mobility issues.

According the Palm Beach accident attorney Alitowski, a head injury is another serious consequence of a trip and fall or slip and fall accident. If the lady in the example above hit her head on a freezer case before she fell to the floor, her injuries could be even more severe. For example, a blow to the head can cause concussions and painful bruising. On a more serious note, it can also cause bleeding on the brain or surrounding tissues. For instance, subarachnoid hemorrhage is the medical term for bleeding between the membrane tissues surrounding the brain and the brain itself. Surgery may be necessary to remove the blood in the subarachnoid space and the patient could suffer from additional issues such as an aneurysm. A related head injury problem is the subdural hematoma, which is specifically blood that is “on” the brain. Elderly people are especially prone to developing subdural hematomas, even when the head injury appeared relatively minor. Surgery is usually necessary to quickly drain the blood. Both are life-threatening injuries and anyone who has suffered a head injury should receive prompt and thorough medical treatment.

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Slip and fall cases, sometimes known as trip and fall depending on the circumstances, are some of the most common personal injury lawsuits, according to Broward injury attorney Andrew Alitowski. Slip and fall cases are some of the most unfortunate because they not only cause severe and often lasting injuries, but they are frequently highly preventable. When businesses and other locations negligently fail to properly maintain their premises, customers can fall. Because Florida is home to large numbers of retirees, Broward businesses should be careful: if a business’s maintenance was insufficient such that it caused a person to slip and fall, it will be liable to that person for her injuries. This is usually true even if the plaintiff suffered more extensive injuries due to special problems with their own bodies, a rule that legal scholars call the Eggshell Skull Doctrine. If a Fort Lauderdale resident Fanny slips and falls on an unmarked wet floor in a local grocery store, causing her to crack her skull open, the store would still be liable to her for the damages – even if the owners and employees had no way of knowing about the delicate nature of Fanny’s skull or the degree of harm she would suffer from a fall.

Fort Lauderdale accident lawyers Alitowski & Moore believe that people who have been injured from falling due to unsafe circumstances should be compensated. If a wet floor is unmarked or there are dangerous obstacles, compensation for damages such medical expenses and time off of work is reasonable and fair.

The Eggshell Skull Doctrine developed in the courts over many years. In 1961, a factory worker was slashed with a heated substance that burned pre-cancerous tissue on his face. The worker developed cancer, apparently as a result of the burn, and died. The court concluded that the company was liable for all of the man’s damages – even though only the burn itself could have been foreseen.

In an even more famous case, which most lawyers studied in law school, came out of Wisconsin in 1891. A fourteen-year-old boy was recovering from serious leg problems when he was kicked in the shin by an eleven-year-old at their school. The younger child was unaware of the problem at the time he kicked the older boy. The fourteen-year-old’s leg was rendered permanently unusable after the kick. The Wisconsin Supreme Court determined that the younger boy was responsible for the entirety of the injuries.

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