Whenever a person gets hurt through no fault of their own, their initial reaction may be to see who they can sue and for how much. However, when cooler heads prevail, most often the injured victim can receive fair and just compensation for their injuries and other losses without the animosity of a court trial. When an injured victim makes unreasonable demands, the responsible party is going to fight back and try to reach a fair and equitable settlement.
In the state of Washington, a Washington personal injury attorney will usually try to help injury victims keep everything in perspective. There are some injuries that may be partially the fault of the injured and unless they are willing to accept their portion of the blame, the Seattle personal injury attorney may not be willing to represent them in any negotiating process.
For instance, on a cold. rainy day a person is wearing hard sole shoes with no tread on them and is running through a wet parking lot to enter a store. They see many people in front of them as well as a orange cone warning people that the floor is probably wet and an employee with a dry mop attempting to keep the floor dry from all the water being carried in by other people. This person, with the flat sole shoes is walking rapidly and when they attempt to make a sharp turn, slips on the wet floor and falls, breaking an arm in the process.
Although the accident happened in a public place, a Seattle personal injury attorney will know that the victim must share in a large percentage of the cause of the accident. First, the shoe type they had on was not suited for the weather conditions. Second, knowing the floor was wet, based on the warnings given when they entered the facility and knowing their shows had no tread on them, they should not have been walking or running so quickly. The facility was also making every attempt to mitigate the danger by constantly attempting to dry the floor.
Upon first hitting the floor and feeling their arm snap, they may instantly determine they are entitled to compensation not only for their medical bills from the broken arm but also from the pain and suffering. However, the Seattle personal injury attorney will likely point out that they were the major contributor to their own accident any may not be entitled to any compensation.
On the other hand, if the person was wearing the right footwear for the season, walking slowly sue to the wet surface and the facility's employees were taking no action to mitigate a circumstance to which they were aware, the Seattle personal injury attorney will probably take the case and win an award for pain and suffering in addition to medical costs and lost wages.
Whenever an accident occurs on public property it is important to speak to the person in charge of the facility at the time of the accident. The injured should also make sure that any pictures that could benefit their claim be made available to them as well as to the defense of the facility.
