You can be walking through a grocery store, apartment building, parking lot, or office, and suddenly find yourself on the ground. What comes afterward may be less straightforward. Your hip and back hurt, your phone is broken, someone is asking you to fill out an accident report, and you’re not even sure whether you should go to the emergency room.
A slip-and-fall accident lawyer in Newark can help determine whether unsafe property conditions contributed to your fall and what options you have for pursuing compensation. At Grungo Law, we represent people injured because property owners and others failed to address dangerous conditions.
Our Newark personal injury lawyers understand that a fall that sounds simple can lead to a complicated premises liability claim. Our firm has more than 100 years of combined experience, and we will use that experience to investigate what caused the accident instead of assuming the property owner will accept responsibility without a fight.
Where Slip-And-Fall Accidents Happen
A slip-and-fall doesn’t have to happen somewhere unusual to cause a serious injury. These accidents often occur in places people visit every day. Stores, restaurants, sidewalks, apartment complexes, parking areas, offices, and other properties can all have hazards that put visitors at risk.
The condition that caused the fall matters. A wet floor is one possibility, but it isn’t the only one. Uneven flooring, broken stairs, loose carpeting, ice, poor lighting, debris, and damaged walking surfaces may also contribute to an accident.
What matters in a premises liability case isn’t simply that you fell. We need to understand why.
For a free legal consultation with a slip and fall accident lawyer serving Newark, call (856) 528-4494
Property Owners Aren’t Automatically Responsible For Every Fall
This is an important distinction. Getting hurt on someone else’s property does not automatically mean the property owner owes you compensation. A slip-and-fall claim generally requires a closer look at the dangerous condition and the responsibilities of the person or business controlling the property.
Maybe employees knew about a spill and didn’t clean it up. Maybe a dangerous condition had been there long enough that it should have been discovered. In some cases, the property owner or an employee could have caused or created the hazard in the first place. The facts can look very different from one accident to another.
Your slip-and-fall attorney serving Newark can investigate those circumstances, determine who may be responsible, and handle liability disputes with the insurance company.
Newark Slip And Fall Accident Lawyer Near Me (856) 528-4494
The First Few Days Can Matter More Than You Think
After a fall, the scene can change quickly. A spill gets mopped up. Ice melts. A broken step gets repaired. Security footage may eventually be recorded over. If you’re physically able to do so, taking a few practical steps can help preserve information about what happened.
Useful evidence may include:
- Photos and video: Take pictures of the hazard, surrounding area, your injuries, and anything else that helps show the scene as it existed when you fell.
- Witness information: Get contact information from anyone who saw the fall or noticed the dangerous condition beforehand.
- Accident report: Report the incident to the property owner, manager, or business and ask how you can obtain a copy of the report.
- Medical records: Keep records of emergency care, follow-up appointments, imaging, physical therapy, and other medical treatment.
- Damaged belongings: Save shoes, clothing, or personal property that may be relevant to how the accident occurred.
You don’t need to build the entire case yourself. The goal is simply to preserve what you can while it’s still available.
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What If the Property Owner Says You Were At Fault?
Property owners and insurance adjusters may argue that you should have noticed the hazard or been more careful. Maybe they claim the spill was obvious, you weren’t watching where you were walking, or your footwear contributed to the fall. Those arguments don’t necessarily end an injury claim.
New Jersey follows a modified comparative negligence rule. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.2, an injured person may still recover damages when their own negligence was not greater than the negligence of the person or parties they are seeking recovery from. Any award is reduced based on the injured person’s percentage of fault.
When fault is disputed, what happened before and after the fall can become especially important. We may use photos, surveillance footage, witness statements, or maintenance records to get a clearer picture of the conditions at the time.
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Don’t Wait Too Long To Ask About Your Options
People sometimes wait after a slip-and-fall because they expect the injury to heal quickly. Others assume the property owner’s insurance carrier will take care of everything. By the time it becomes clear that neither situation is working out as expected, valuable time may already have passed.
In most New Jersey personal injury cases, you generally have two years from the date the claim arises to file a lawsuit under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. However, that deadline isn’t the same in every situation. Certain exceptions may apply; for example, cases involving a public entity can come with separate notice rules and shorter time limits.
There is another practical reason not to wait. A claim can become harder to investigate as witnesses become difficult to locate and physical evidence changes. Speaking with our slip-and-fall accident attorneys serving Newark early gives us more opportunity to understand the legal circumstances before important evidence is lost.
Call Our Newark Slip-and-Fall Accident Lawyers Today
You may not know whether the property owner was negligent. You may not know what the insurance adjuster is going to do, what your injury claim could involve, or whether you even have a viable case. You don’t need those answers before contacting us. Finding the answers is part of our work.
At Grungo Law, Richard Grungo Jr., Esq. and José Hernandez are Certified Civil Trial Attorneys by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. That trial-focused experience matters when an insurance company disputes liability or refuses to offer appropriate compensation.
If you were injured in a slip-and-fall in Newark or elsewhere in Essex County, contact our slip-and-fall law firm serving Newark for a free case evaluation and tell us what happened.
Call or text (856) 528-4494 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form