If you call TheLawyerJames of the attorneys at the Lawyer James office of Attorney if you would be able to speak to a New York slip and fall Attorney. It is great to have an attorney to handle and available to speak with you because things happen and sometimes people slip and fall and they need recovery or to at least find the person and hold the person who is responsible for injuring them to the extent the law allows one to hold them responsible, and that means that in the context of a lawsuit, the person who is responsible may have to pay the person who is injured. And injuries can come up in a number of different ways. Those ways include slipping and falling because of weather, because of uneven sidewalk or pavement, because of wet floors, or because of any other way that would cause somebody to slip and fall.
A New York slip and fall attorney should know all of the aspects of the procedures of New York law. This law includes when to file a lawsuit. When to answer a lawsuit. When to serve discovery. When to do motion practice. When to not do motion practice. When to discuss things with a judge or with the other side or went not to. OK, let’s take this piece by piece. In taking this piece by piece the first piece of a lawsuit is called what’s called a complaint. And in fact, if you want to go for the very first piece of the lawsuit, it’s getting the record together in the file together and the paper together to understand what exactly happened that would give rise to a potential claim in a slip and fall context in New York. That file includes documents, photographs, affidavit, letters, and basically anything that would help create the record or give the background for an understanding about how the claim is to arise and what has to happen next.
When there is a slip and fall accident in New York and the record is together, it could make sense to send out a demand letter. And when that demand letter goes out, it puts the person on notice that there was a situation or a scenario or a circumstance, located at their promises or around their premises or a place that there are otherwise responsible for taking care of, that something happened to somebody else that they slip and fell and sustained an injury. And the extent of that injury should also be explained in the context of that letter, and in addition to the extent of the injury, the author of the letter should also include what the circumstances were that led to the injury. Period. In addition to the circumstances that led to the injury, the question that should also be answered, and then delivered to the other side is the demand, meaning the dollar demand that the injured person is looking for from the potentially responsible party.
Finding out who the potential responsible party is, could be an exercise in and up itself that your New York slip and fall Attorney will need to undertake and could take a considerable amount of time. This is because not everything is as it seems all the time. And even if the attorney looks up the information and finds out who the owner of the property is, there may be somebody else who is responsible for slip and fall accidents in the property, and the attorney is going to have to find out who that is. That could be a building management company, it could be a tenant, it could be a landlord, or it could be any number of different people. There are a lot of agreements that could lend itself to exploring and identifying more information and more parties in connection with a New York slip and fall accident.
A New York slip and fall Attorney also knows that insurance companies may be involved. And sometimes working with those insurance companies and their lawyers that represent insurance companies can be quite difficult. That is because these insurance companies are businesses, and insurance companies that operate as businesses like any other business focus on the bottom line. And the bottom line means that they want to make the most money. And the way that they can make the most money and have a strong bottom line is by paying out less claims. And the less claims that they pay out, it means that more money that they have for their shareholders. However, this also means that if they get a reputation for not paying out claims, it could impact their ability to get policyholders.
There are different levels of insurance that may apply to New York slip and fall accidents that your New York slip and fall Attorney may or may not have experience in addressing or dealing with. Those levels of insurance include excess insurance, and reinsurance. Access insurance is that type of insurance that goes above the policy limits. For instance, the first policy that applies could let’s say have a limit of $500,000. And anything above the $500,000 limit would not be part of any recovery under that particular for us policy. What could happen next is that the responsible party could have insurance as above the $500,000 that does not kick in unless and until there is a claim for damages that exceeds or a potential liability that I see $500,000.
Any New York slip and fall Attorney will tell you that dealing with insurance policies and insurance companies rather than deal with or issue those policies can be quite interesting. As aforementioned, some insurance company is taking a no pay position and when that happens, it can be very difficult and can drive a cost, particularly in the context of the amount of time that it requires to pull the case through and take all of the materials and put all of those materials in a light that would most favorably represent or reflect the ability of the injured party to recover funds in a quick and meaningful way. This would also mean getting all of your documents together, including photographs, as well as potential witnesses and the time of day and all the other important information to make your case. We can assist you with this process at The Lawyer James just call us at 212-500-1891.