Slip-and-Fall Settlement Amounts: What To Expect

Slip-and-fall injuries occur in a wide range of accidents. You can suffer a slip and fall in a poorly maintained stairwell or at a construction site with improperly installed safety railings. Slip-and-fall claims may involve serious traumas like spinal cord injuries or traumatic brain injury.

Victims may want to know what their slip-and-fall claims are worth, but there’s no easy answer. A personal injury lawyer negotiates trip-and-fall settlements with the property owner or their insurance company. Because so many factors affect a settlement, there is no average slip-and-fall settlement.

Several key factors go into each slip-and-fall settlement. These are the principal elements of all personal injury claims. This article reviews each factor and provides a calculator that shows how each one influences your final settlement amount. If you’re considering a slip-and-fall lawsuit, consider meeting with a personal injury attorney.

Key Factors That Influence Your Settlement Amount

Certain factors work together to determine your settlement amount. No factor is more important than another, although some may more directly affect the dollar value of your claim. In a personal injury case, you may claim economic and non-economic damages.

These factors are what determine the value of those damages.

1. The Severity of Your Injuries

One of the most significant factors is how severe your injuries were. Severity is assessed through your documented medical expenses, any need for future medical treatment, and doctors’ reports and opinions.

To establish severity, you must have medical proof, such as medical records, doctor bills and invoices, police incident reports, and rehabilitation or physical therapy records. Higher settlement values come from more significant injuries that require extensive or long-term treatment.

2. The Amount of Your Lost Wages

Lost wages include time you missed from work due to the injury, treatment, and recovery. If you can’t return to the same employment as before the accident, then part of your “lost wages” includes any reduction in income between jobs. If the accident permanently disables you, you may claim lost income due to the injury.

To prove lost wages, you must show your prior income, usually through pay stubs or bank direct deposit statements. Proving permanent disability may require a doctor’s statement and possibly expert testimony, depending on state laws. A personal injury attorney can explain how to do this. Compensation for lost wages can cover both past and future wages.

3. The Strength of Your Premises Liability Case

To prove a slip-and-fall case, you must show the property owner was negligent in causing your accident. Negligence has four elements:

• A duty of care between the property owner and the victim
• A breach of that duty, such as hazardous conditions that caused the accident
• A link (causation) between the breach of duty and the victim’s injuries
• Actual injury to the victim

The stronger your case, the better your settlement is likely to be. Proof of dangerous conditions causing a slip can include:

• Photos of wet floors, broken steps, and dark hallways are all conditions making it more likely someone could slip and fall
• State premises liability laws may require property owners to maintain their property in certain ways depending on the nature of the property (whether it is a business or a residential property)
• The foreseeability of an injury resulting from the dangerous condition, such as a spill that wasn’t quickly cleaned up and led to your accident

The stronger your case, the greater the likelihood of being awarded damages.

4. Your Percentage of Fault (Comparative Negligence)

Comparative negligence is your degree of responsibility in causing your injuries compared to the property owner’s negligence in creating the conditions that led to your slip and fall. Most states use either a “pure comparative negligence” or a “modified comparative negligence” rule. In either case, if you are partially responsible for your accident, you can still recover damages up to a certain percentage of fault.

Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if the award in your case was $100,000 and you were found to be 20% at fault, you could still recover $80,000.

Four states (Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Alabama) and the District of Columbia use a much stricter contributory negligence rule. If you’re even 1% at fault in your accident, you can’t recover anything.

5. The Available Insurance Policy Limits

A settlement offer may be limited by the actual policy limits. Your slip-and-fall lawyer will negotiate with the insurance companies for a fair settlement, but if the insurance policy can’t cover your full damages, your settlement is limited to the available amount.

How Is “Pain and Suffering” Calculated in a Slip-and-Fall Accident?

Non-economic damages are another term for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and other mental impacts of the accident and injury on your life. Although these effects are difficult to calculate, courts have found ways to monetize these emotional injuries when determining your settlement amount. Some states set limits, or “caps,” on non-economic damages in personal injury cases, mostly to avoid runaway jury awards. Most caps apply to medical malpractice claims, but some states may cap slip-and-fall lawsuits.

Courts and insurance companies evaluate your non-economic damages in two primary ways. Let’s look at each one.

The Multiplier Method

The most common method is the “multiplier” method. As the name suggests, the insurer tallies your total economic losses (medical costs, lost wages, and other bills) and then multiplies them by a number from one through five, depending on the severity of your injuries. Minor injuries like sprains or simple broken bones might get a multiplier of 1.5. Major injuries like serious burns or traumatic head injuries might be multiplied by four.

The Per Diem Method

This system is rarely used. The court sets a dollar value on the victim’s pain and suffering for one day, either a flat rate or the victim’s daily pay. The daily rate is multiplied by the number of days the victim needed to recover or the total time of “suffering.” The per diem method is more often seen in court because it helps a jury understand “pain and suffering” in a cost-based manner when making an award.

The Settlement Negotiation Process

A settlement offer comes at the end of a long settlement negotiation process between you, your attorney, and the insurance company and its legal department. Insurance companies want to hand you a check as soon as an accident happens and be done, but negotiations shouldn’t begin until you reach “maximum medical improvement,” the point at which your condition no longer needs medical treatment. The negotiation process can be extensive. Expect the following process:

• Sending a Demand Letter: This alerts the insurance company that you intend to seek damages. A demand letter outlines the facts of the case, your total losses, and the amount you expect in damages.
• Negotiation and Counteroffers: The insurance company will probably dispute your original demand and make a counteroffer. They may perform their own investigation and come to their own conclusions. Negotiations may last for some time. If the insurer does not respond in a reasonable time or seems to be stalling, they may be negotiating in bad faith. This is a signal to file a lawsuit.
• Signing a Settlement and Release Agreement: Once you and the insurance company agree on a settlement amount, you’ll sign the settlement agreement and release. This binding contract requires you to drop your legal claim in exchange for payment of the agreed-upon sum.

If the insurance company negotiates in good faith, a slip-and-fall settlement claim can be resolved in a few months.

Why Having an Attorney Is Crucial for Maximizing Your Settlement

Insurance companies want to pay as little as possible. They may contact you within days of receiving a claim and offer a quick payment to close the case. If you accidentally make a comment admitting fault, the agent will seize on it and use it to reduce their payout.

An attorney can improve your chances of a settlement offer that accurately reflects your injuries and fully compensates you for lost income and other damages. Your attorney will help you by:

• Determining all your past, present, and future losses due to the accident: Missing future complications from catastrophic injuries isn’t what you want. An attorney can help you find expert witnesses to explain how your injury may affect you or require additional medical treatment.
• Understanding state laws regarding premises liability: Premises owners have different duties depending on whether you are a business visitor, a social guest, or a trespasser. Presenting your evidence will differ depending on the nature of the property and why you were there
• Handling all communication with the insurance company and their attorneys: Once you have a lawyer, the insurance company must contact them instead of you. This protects you from fact-finding phone calls and emails, giving you time to focus on your recovery
• Filing documents on time: Each state has its own statute of limitations for personal injury claims. These limits can be as short as one year or as long as seven years. Your attorney will help ensure you don’t miss any critical deadlines for filing
• Knowing what a “fair settlement amount” is and protecting you from being lowballed in your claim: Your attorney won’t begin negotiations until you reach maximum medical improvement (MMI). They can also help with medical liens and other ways of offsetting costs.

An experienced slip-and-fall attorney puts you on the same legal ground as the insurance company and its legal department. They can negotiate with the other attorneys and insurers using their language. Your lawyer will review your claim, explain your options, and negotiate the best settlement possible while protecting your rights.