West Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer Guides The U.S. These things even precipitated 15 p.c with the accident recorded previous yr generating slip, trip, and fall accidents 2nd to automobile accidents. It really is also noted that twenty five p.c of the reported damage led to own injury statements which amounted to tens of millions in damages. The percentage is indeed alarming but there are ways to avoid these accidents from going on during the office. Here are measures to prevent slips, trips, and falls.
In general, slip occurs when there is little traction or friction between the shoe and the walking surface. For example if the floor has water or oils spills, a person walking on that surface will probably slip because of the absence of traction. Similarly, if the floor is made up of smooth materials like marble, terrazzo, and ceramic tiles, the ground is judged hazardous considering the fact that it might cause personnel to slip. To prevent employees from injuring themselves through slips, the owner must ensure that the adequate warnings are placed to warn everyone in the workplace. Cleaning the spills on the floor should follow right away because failure to do so may constitute negligence. For highly polished floor, it is important that tiles are changed with tiles that have more traction. The management can also correct it by putting anti-skid adhesive tapes relating to the floor.
Subsequently, trips occur when the person?s foot contacts an object causing him to lose his balance and leading to fall. For example, if the floor is uneven due to cracks or the passageway is covered with obstacles, the person may trip over these things and lose his balance due to the uneven and cluttered floor. To prevent trips and falls in the workplace, it is essential that the place is properly maintained while obstacles such as boxes, cords, hoses, and machines are kept away from walkways. In addition, the management should also make sure that the area is well lit so employees vision is not ruined. Meanwhile, employee education would also help workers avoid accidents in the workplace.
These are some of the measures that employers must carry out to prevent slips, trips, and falls in the workplace. It is essential to prevent these accidents because these can be damaging to the employee and to the overall operations. West Virginia Personal Injury Attorney Articles And Reviews
When injured due to an accident, a victim's only remedy is to seek compensation so that he can cover the expenses like medical bill and economic loss. If the accident happened in the workplace, the employee can request compensation from the management if the injury was due to the negligence of the latter. In addition, a person can also ask coverage from his insurance provider if the accident is within the contract. However, not all personal injury claims are smooth. Insurance companies and management have rights to contest the claim if they believe that the injury is outside their scope. For this reason, employees and policy holders have no choice but to settle the dispute in court.
If the claim turns into a dispute; the claimant must seek legal advice from a competent lawyer. If the lawyer finds the case very strong, he can demand negotiation or he can also initiate lawsuit to acquire the victim's claim. At this point, the lawyer will decide what actions to make because both have advantages and disadvantages.
Most lawyers would suggest to negotiate rather than initiate a lawsuit because the latter can be quite costly and tedious. It is because negotiating it outside costs lesser than settling the dispute in court. A victim won't have to pay additional cost like expert witness fees and other costs involved later on. To add, settling the dispute would usually allow the claimant to get a fair compensation especially if the company or insurance provider is willing to negotiate. Finally, the resolution is immediate and the injured individual won't have to go through the burden of lawsuit. However, lawyers would only suggest entering a lawsuit if the company or insurance provider is uncooperative during the process of negotiation. It is also beneficial if the amount involved is quite big. So an attorney would quite often recommend filing a lawsuit if your scenario is effective along with the number is significant as a result of a choose or maybe a jury would almost always award the claimant extra payment. Lawsuit is also good if the insurance provider was malicious in handling the claim.