Ankle Sprain

[Michelangelo]

I sprained my ankle one evening while walking on the sidewalk within the property where i was renting at the moment. The sidewalk was in bad condition and i have proof of that. I also reported it at the leasing office and was contacted by their insurance company. I was at the emergency room and followed up with my doctor a few other times. Due to that injury i missed a few days from work and ended up loosing my job. After loosing my job I ended up being evicted from my apartment for faliure to pay the rent. After that injury i was jobless and without a home being a single mother of a 2yr old. I have been offered an amount of $1,700. I dont beleive it is fair and would like to know if it is fair or not. If it is not, i would lile to know what is a fair amount... If I could get an answer from someone i would appreciate it. Thank you.

[Boone]

Silvina,

I am sorry to hear about your injury and the ordeal that it has caused you. You have certainly been through a lot. You tripped, fell and hurt yourself on some defective pavement. You are looking to settle a potential case against your landlord for causing your fall and injuries. You do not say where you live or when this incident occurred, I will assume that it happened recently enough that the statute of limitations has not expired. I practice law in New York, so I will apply New York law to your situation.

Your ability to achieve a settlement depends upon the value of the case that you can prove in court. The property owner’s insurance company will settle only to avoid a potential court case and the cost of both going to trial and paying a trial award. If you went to court, you would need to prove that the landlord’s negligence caused your accident and that you suffered injuries due to the landlord’s negligence. To prove that the landlord’s negligence caused your fault you would need to prove that the defective pavement caused your fall and the landlord was responsible because he failed to repair the pavement.  A reality of a case like this is that the landlord would argue that you bear some responsibility for not avoiding the fall. Most trip and fall cases result in a determination of shared liability where a jury would find that the plaintiff – that would be you – bears some responsibility for not avoiding the fall. For example, a jury might find the landlord 75 percent responsible for this incident and you 25 percent responsible. You would also need to prove that he landlord’s negligence caused you damages. The most obvious damages are your injuries. You would need to demonstrate the severity of your injury and the course of treatment that you needed to follow to recover. I cannot determine the value of your ankle injury without examining your medical records and consulting with your doctors. I can tell you that a sprained ankle from which you fully recover would have a minimal value in court.

You also say that this injury resulted in you losing your job and then losing your apartment. You would need to prove that your ankle injury kept you from work and that missing work because of your injury was the sole cause of you losing your job. Again, I cannot assess your case without knowing all the facts of the situation. How badly did you sprain your ankle? What was the nature of your job that a sprained ankle made it impossible to go to work? Were the missed days of work due to the ankle injury the sole cause of your dismissal or did other issues play a role? Proving that you lost your job because of a sprained ankle would be a challenge, though not impossible.

You would then need to prove that the sole reason you lost your apartment was that you lost your job and could not find another and that your unemployment resulted solely because of your sprained ankle. This too would be a challenge to prove, though not impossible.

All this information provides a framework to answer your question about the value of your case. The insurance company has offered $1,700 to settle your case. In some areas, that offer for a simple sprained ankle would be fair and reasonable. However, if you could prove your claims about the loss of your job and the loss of your apartment, then the case could be worth more. The issue comes down to whether you could prove those claims.

You may want to consult with a local personal injury attorney. If an attorney had more facts about your case, the attorney could offer better guidance on how to proceed. I hope you fully recover from your injury and that you are able to recover from the loss of your job and apartment. Carol L. Schlitt

New York Personal Injury Attorney

www.schlittlaw.comhttp://nylawthoughts.com 1-800-660-1466

[email protected]

This material is intended for informational uses only. It is not meant as legal advice. To receive legal advice, you should consult an attorney.