Slip and Fall Accidents on Vacation
Nobody ever plans to get a serious injury on vacation, but unfortunately, it happens all too often. While you are far from home, it can be complicated and overwhelming to deal with unfamiliar hospitals and doctors, stay in a hotel or cruise ship cabin, and try to make sense of your situation without getting panicked or overwhelmed. We encourage you to call the team at Fasig | Brooks as soon as possible so that we can discuss your situation over the phone and give you a better understanding of 1) your situation, and 2) how we can help you move forward with your upcoming legal needs.
Your injuries can feel even worse when you are far from anything familiar, and if you are vacationing through a company such as a cruise liner or a resort, you can expect the management to present you with various waivers or statements to sign that will invariably reduce their liability through legal machinations no matter how clear it may be that they are at fault for your injuries due to negligent maintenance of their property.
Contact Fasig | Brooks For a Free Phone Consultation After a Vacation Slip and Fall Accident
The most important thing to do after a slip and fall is to get medical attention, but arguably the second most important thing to do is to connect with a personal injury attorney who can help you understand your situation and begin putting things into motion that will ultimately help you work towards fair compensation for your avoidable injuries. You should not have to take on the emotional stress of your legal needs at any point, especially in the early days as you are trying to make sense of your injuries, plan your trip home, and try to stay calm throughout these tumultuous early days.
Fasig | Brooks offers a free consultation for slip and fall victims, including those who have been injured while vacationing. Even though you may be a thousand miles from home, we are only a phone call away and will be able to provide you with advice on how to handle these days or weeks that you are still away from home to ensure that you do not get overwhelmed about the financial impact of these injuries, and are not taken advantage of by the responsible party as they thrust legal documents at you in an attempt to limit their liability.
What To Do After a Slip and Fall While Vacationing
In many ways, a slip and fall on vacation is the same as a slip and fall accident in your daily life – you need medical care above all, and you must prioritize your recovery by staying off the injuries and keeping your stress levels low enough that you do not become overwhelmed. The following steps are meant to give you a general idea of the most important steps to take as soon as possible.
Call 911
Do not attempt to handle your injuries on your own. Call 911 so that you have police, fire, and EMT services dispatched to the scene of your slip and fall so that you can get comprehensive care on-site, and a police officer can write an accident report that will be an important source of information throughout your upcoming injury claim. The police officer will take statements from witnesses, write down your statement and the property owner’s, document relevant information about the accident such as the hazard that caused your slip and fall, and more. Some property owners may try to convince you not to call 911, but this can only lead to legal problems for you down the road. Without a police report, the defendant’s story may suddenly change once it comes time to file your claim.
See a Doctor
Getting on-site care from an EMT is an important first step for your medical needs, but it is not enough. You should schedule an appointment with a doctor as soon as possible, either in the area where you are vacationing or back home if you are able to return home within the next 48 hours. Seeing a doctor will serve you in multiple ways: the most obvious benefit is getting specific and comprehensive medical attention for your injuries, but the second benefit is that you are adding to the documentation that will support your claims once you start working with an insurance company. Without documentation for each of your injuries, the insurance company will push back as aggressively as possible to pay you as little as they can while still settling your claim.
Call a Lawyer
You may think that the next step is to file an insurance claim, but we encourage you to contact our firm before doing so. Insurance companies focus on one goal for any claim: to settle it for as little as possible while avoiding any legal complications. Many of their methods to achieve this goal are amoral, and are instead entirely focused on their financial targets – this is true no matter how pleasant the adjuster assigned to your case may be, and every conversation that you have with a representative of the insurance company without legal representation – whether with the adjuster or with a doctor contracted by the insurance company – is a chance for them to twist your words and limit your settlement.
