Legal Advice (Personal Injury)

#1
SergeantVol

SergeantVol

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Oct 26, 2010
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#1
My wife had a bad slip and fall at Wal-Mart. No signs were up or anything and we think she may have tore some ligaments in her knee. We have a MRI scheduled. Just wanted to know so dos and donts before we speak with their insurance company.
 
#2
#2
SergeantVol said:
My wife had a bad slip and fall at Wal-Mart. No signs were up or anything and we think she may have tore some ligaments in her knee. We have a MRI scheduled. Just wanted to know so dos and donts before we speak with their insurance company.
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Don't speak to them. If you'd like to talk to me, I'll be glad to give you some free advice. That's my line of work, in case you didn't know.
 
#3
#3
What Clearwater said. I'm also an attorney, licenses in TN and FL, and you should never speak with the insurance company without legal representation. It's almost a universal practice for personal injury lawyers to give free consults, so take advantage of that.
 
#4
#4
UTVolinExile said:
What Clearwater said. I'm also an attorney, licenses in TN and FL, and you should never speak with the insurance company without legal representation. It's almost a universal practice for personal injury lawyers to give free consults, so take advantage of that.
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In my personal injury practice, I cannot imagine charging for a consult. Even in my business litigation practice, I give a free half hour consult.
 
#6
#6
Grand Vol said:
With a four hour minimum? :)
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Hell no. I turn down way more cases than I take. I don't feel right charging people on losers. I hate it when they want to hire me and fight "on principle." In my experience, peoples' principles tend to decline more with each monthly bill.

BTW, Sarg - You still live in Hattiesburg? I have a bunch of relatives around those parts.
 
#7
#7
Sorry to hear about your wife's injury. Sounds painful. Hope she makes a full recovery with minimal pain. Jacked up knees are the worst.
 
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#8
#8
ClearwaterVol said:
Hell no. I turn down way more cases than I take. I don't feel right charging people on losers. I hate it when they want to hire me and fight "on principle." In my experience, peoples' principles tend to decline more with each monthly bill.

BTW, Sarg - You still live in Hattiesburg? I have a bunch of relatives around those parts.
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Still in Hattiesburg. Please email me at Sergeantvol@gmail.com. I want to make sure that we don't stick our collective foot in our mouth. I never trust large corporations to ensure the welfare of their patrons.
 
#13
#13
Best wishes. Tough cases if you don't have a smoking gun to establish notice of a dangerous condition on the part of the business, at least in Tennessee. Walmart probably gets claims for this type of event more than anyone so I'm going to guess that they're a pretty aggressive defendant. I'm going to be honest and say that when I did this kind of work I probably would not take this kind of case unless it was either tied into something where I knew I'd make money (like a solid workers' comp claim where the injured person was making a delivery or something and got hurt on a third party's premises) or if we had photographic/video evidence of an undeniably dangerous condition that unquestionably caused the injury coupled with solid evidence of notice such as (1) an admission from a current management level employee that the business knew about the dangerous condition before the injury or (2) other injuries that were caused by the same condition and reported to the business before the current event happened. Even with that kind of evidence, we'd probably be looking at years before the thing gets resolved.
 
#16
#16
It's good to see so many VN Lawyers and Doctors. Any successful member of VN really. It's a testament to the hard work and dedication of all the VN faithful.
 
#17
#17
I'm not a doctor or lawyer but if you need someone blacklisted or to have an "accident", well that may be up my alley. They have to be a foreign national. I swore to never to harm to a US citizen.
 
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#18
#18
Curious, how liable would a store be if for instance someone's kid breaks a jar of pickles on the floor, grandma comes around the corner immediately afterward and blows out a hip slipping on the mess?

No warning / wet floor signs up, was not the fault of an employee, but someone gets hurt on their property. I imagine lawyers would be leery of cases such as this but who knows...
 
#19
#19
This is the classic notice issue. Maybe you argue that the pickles should not stored on a low shelf where kids will grab and break the jars and the store was aware of that because it's happened before. Maybe you argue the sound of the pickle jar crashing if it was really loud and a moment passed between the jar breaking and the accident. Generally, if the case does not settle after discovery depositions are taken, the defendant is going to file a motion for summary judgment alleging that they had no notice of the dangerous condition and a judge will decide as a matter of law whether there is an issue of material fact that a jury needs to decide. It's very common for Defendants to prevail at this point. If you get past summary judgment, there will be a big push to settle and you'll probably be ordered to some sort of mediation where you're subject to acting in good faith to resolve the case. If that doesn't work, tee it up and let a dozen of your fellow citizens decide how it should go.

edited to fit the hypothetical
 
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#20
#20
vollygirl said:
Sorry to hear about your wife's injury. Sounds painful. Hope she makes a full recovery with minimal pain. Jacked up knees are the worst.
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True! Mine hurts every day. Hope she feels better.
 
#21
#21
VolunteerHillbilly said:
This is the classic notice issue. Maybe you argue that the pickles should not stored on a low shelf where kids will grab and break the jars and the store was aware of that because it's happened before. Maybe you argue the sound of the pickle jar crashing if it was really loud and a moment passed between the jar breaking and the accident. Generally, if the case does not settle after discovery depositions are taken, the defendant is going to file a motion for summary judgment alleging that they had no notice of the dangerous condition and a judge will decide as a matter of law whether there is an issue of material fact that a jury needs to decide. It's very common for Defendants to prevail at this point. If you get past summary judgment, there will be a big push to settle and you'll probably be ordered to some sort of mediation where you're subject to acting in good faith to resolve the case. If that doesn't work, tee it up and let a dozen of your fellow citizens decide how it should go.

edited to fit the hypothetical
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Thanks! Your job sounds fun (for the most part). I imagine you are eerily good at reading people after doing this for while.
 
#22
#22
SergeantVol said:
My wife had a bad slip and fall at Wal-Mart. No signs were up or anything and we think she may have tore some ligaments in her knee. We have a MRI scheduled. Just wanted to know so dos and donts before we speak with their insurance company.
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I'm not a lawyer, but I worked in retail forever ago and saw what happened when both a customer slipped and fell (she tore ligaments) and when an employee slipped (he also tore ligaments). Did you notify Walmart when it happened or later on? The company worked more quickly with the employee than it did with the customer. I think the thought process was they figured if they paid for the employee's surgery and rehab that he wouldn't pursue a lawsuit (which he didn't). With the customer, they documented it (they had video as well as witnesses) and then went into "no one talk about it" mode. They will do everything to fight it even when they have video evidence that they are responsible. Best of luck.
 
#24
#24
SergeantVol said:
My wife had a bad slip and fall at Wal-Mart. No signs were up or anything and we think she may have tore some ligaments in her knee. We have a MRI scheduled. Just wanted to know so dos and donts before we speak with their insurance company.
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Write them a preservation of evidence letter and tell them to save any surveillance video as it is evidence. If they later destroy it, you can get a spoliation of evidence jury instruction
 
#25
#25
ClearwaterVol said:
Don't speak to them. If you'd like to talk to me, I'll be glad to give you some free advice. That's my line of work, in case you didn't know.
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I do PI in California and am also licensed in TN. We should exchange info to cross refer cases
 
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