Oakland Personal Injury Attorney Blog
Sometimes, success in your premises liability lawsuit isn’t about taking a case to trial and obtaining a jury verdict in your favor. While that is certainly one way to achieve success, a winning outcome may also come via settlement. With a sufficiently large settlement payment, you can benefit in two ways. You get the money that you require to pay your bills and get back on your feet. Additionally, you obtain that money in a quicker, more efficient way, avoiding the stress and time that often go with taking a case all the way to trial and through to a verdict. Determining whether you should settle your injury case or continue litigating is just one of the ways that knowledgeable advice from a skilled California premises liability attorney can benefit you.As an example of a successful settlement, look at the case of H.B., as reported by the Los Angeles Times. H.B. was a woman out enjoying the festivities of New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles in 2014. In the course of H.B. and her friends’ revelry, she accepted a “piggyback” ride from a male companion as they traveled to a dance club just before midnight. As the man transported H.B. down North Cherokee Avenue in Los Angeles, he tripped. This sent H.B. crashing down. She hit her head and suffered serious injuries.
If you find yourself in a situation like the situation that H.B. encountered, you might have an impulse not to take legal action and seek compensation for the harm you suffered. After all, you weren’t exactly walking methodically down the sidewalk when the accident happened. You and your friend were two adults, one of whom was riding atop the other piggyback-style. Doesn’t this prevent you from winning your case?
The answer is no, it does not, as H.B.’s outcome illustrates. The city, by the way, did advance such an argument. According to the Times, it contended that H.B. got hurt as a result of her own negligence. In your premises liability case, if your opponent can prove that you did something improper (or failed to do something that you reasonably should have done), that property owner may be entitled to a judgment that you were at fault for your accident and injuries. If a defendant successfully makes that argument in a motion for summary judgment, that ends your case before you even get to trial.
But that argument by the city did not succeed, and the court concluded that H.B. was entitled to continue going forward with her lawsuit. The court’s decision essentially decided that there was a validly disputed “issue of fact” regarding whether the accident occurred due to the behavior of H.B., as the city argued, or was a result of a sidewalk that contained a “pattern of defects” (including ridges, jagged edges, and erosion) and lacked proper warnings about its dangerous condition, as H.B. contended.
In H.B.’s circumstance, her successful outcome was via settlement. According to the Times report, the Los Angeles City Council voted 11-0 to approve a settlement payment to H.B. Under the terms of the settlement, H.B. could receive up to $3 million for her injuries.
Whether you’ve been hurt in a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident, you need skilled premises liability counsel on your side. The Oakland premises liability attorneys at the Law Offices of Stephen M. Fuerch have been working hard for many years to help those injured in slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall accidents. To learn more about how we can help you, contact us through our website or call our office at (925) 463-2575 to schedule your confidential initial consultation today.
More Blog Posts:
Patron at a Riverside Eatery Entitled to Pursue Her California Premises Liability Case After Receiving a Bite from a Venomous Spider, Oakland Personal Injury Attorney Blog, June 26, 2018
Southern California Mother and Child Allowed to Pursue City of Pasadena in Premises Liability Claim, Oakland Personal Injury Attorney Blog, June 16, 2017