Parent Stress

Skokie, IL, November 14, 2003 ? People who suffer injuries as the result of a fall are commonly entitled to compensation regardless of their citizenship or social status. Sometimes compensation can run as high as hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. But who pays? How much? To whom? And why? Victims are compensated when their injury is the fault of someone else. The more serious the injury and the less the fault of the victim, the greater the amount of the recovery. The persons who are responsible for the fall caused injury (or their insurance companies) are the ones that have to pay.

The following examples of recoverable damages were provided by Boris Parad, Attorney-at-Law:

An elderly woman is walking down a sidewalk that is made from concrete blocks. One of the blocks was sticking out above the rest. The woman doesn?t notice it, trips on it, falls, and breaks her arm. Who is at fault? The owner of the sidewalk, the municipal government, refuses to pay because, in its opinion, pedestrians must watch where they?re going, and that it is impossible to ensure that it?s every sidewalk is not in disrepair. The victim was compensated, because the difference between the two concrete slabs was more than two inches, the city had a constructive knowledge of the disrepair, and pedestrians are generally not required to concentrate on the condition of the sidewalk all the time.

A painter who just finished painting at a hotel construction job is going down the stairs. However, the lights are out ? and have been out for several hours ? in all of the hotel?s stairwells. The painter doesn?t see a cable that extends across one of the steps, trips on it, and injures his knee. The owner of the hotel and other responsible persons paid several hundred thousand dollars.

A customer slips on a banana peel that was left on the floor of a grocery store in the household cleaner?s aisle. He falls on his back and hits his head, suffering a heavy concussion and memory loss. The grocery store?s attorneys argued that the victim does not remember what caused the fall, that the store was not notified about the banana peel, and that the customer should have watched where he was going. But witnesses verified that the customer indeed slipped on the banana peel, that the memory loss was the result of the fall and not a preexisting illness, and that the aisle wasn?t cleaned within a reasonable period of time. The grocery store paid a large sum of money.

Leaving a friend?s house, a man slips on the ice just outside the house, and breaks a hip and two ribs. His friend, the homeowner, argues that the ice was caused by a natural accumulation and that the homeowner has no duty to constantly keep his sidewalks free of snow or ice. But the man was compensated nonetheless, because evidence showed that the ice on the sidewalk had been created by the snow mound thawing and re-freezing, and that snow mound was made by the landowner?s janitor who cleaned the sidewalk. Thus, the landowner is ultimately responsible for that unnatural accumulation of snow and ice.

To preserve the right to recover in fall-down cases and other accidents, photographs of the place of the accident and visible injuries, witnesses? contact information and notice to manager or owner of the premises should be retained.

Boris Parad has litigated cases in both federal and state courts in Illinois, Colorado, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He has argued cases in the Illinois appellate courts. The Parad firm offers free initial consultation and accepts cases on a contingency fee basis in serious bodily injury cases. His background and firm?s services are described at www.ParadFirm.com