Imagine you park your car in a parking garage at night and then use the stairs to walk to the lower level so you can leave. The only available stairwell has a burned-out bulb, which prevents you from seeing that one of the stairs is damaged. When you step on the broken stair, you trip and fall and are seriously injured. What happens next? If this is a privately owned parking garage, you can file a lawsuit against the owner for compensation for your injuries. But what if this is a publicly owned parking garage? Can you file a lawsuit against the local government?
You could search for “what to know about filing a trip and fall claim against a city” or contact Wapner Newman and discuss your case with experienced lawyers. We recommend the latter.
Why Filing a Trip and Fall Claim Against a City Is Complicated
Most premises liability attorneys would consider a situation like the one described above a pretty simple case as long as the defendant was a private business. The owner of the business has an obligation to its customers to ensure the structure is safe to traverse. By allowing a burned-out bulb to go unreplaced and broken stairs to be unrepaired in the only available stairwell, the owner negligently created an unsafe environment. Your injury is a direct result of that negligence. You can get compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and suffering resulting from the injury. Most likely, the insurance company would agree to a fair settlement without your having to file a lawsuit against the defendant.
Unfortunately, the same scenario is much more complicated when the owner of the parking garage is a government entity. By default, state and local governments are immune to lawsuits. They have legal immunity from all liability. However, all state governments in the U.S. have given up at least part of this immunity. Pennsylvania laws waive some immunity for the state government in the Pennsylvania Sovereign Immunity Act and local governments in the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act. Unfortunately, there are limits to this generosity. Pennsylvania limits the types of claims injured parties can file against a city, the amount of money injured parties can receive, and the amount of time injured parties have to act.
Technically, the state and local governments of Pennsylvania are immune to lawsuits. However, the state has passed laws that allow injured parties to file lawsuits, with some restrictions.
The good news is that most slip and fall accidents are covered by these laws if they occur because of dangerous conditions on government property. However, that is the only easy part. Before you can file a lawsuit against the state, these laws require you to notify the state of your intention within six months of the incident. This notification law overrides the standard two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits. While it overrides that limit, it also doesn’t negate it. Even if you give notice within the required six months, you still have to file the lawsuit no more than two years after getting injured. Many would-be claimants get caught by one deadline or the other and lose their chance to file a lawsuit.
Finally, even if you win your case against the city government, the law limits you to obtaining $500,000, at most, in compensation, and you can’t gain anything for pain and suffering unless your medical bills cost more than $1,500 and you were permanently disabled.
You were seriously injured after tripping on city government property. What do you need to know about filing a trip and fall claim against the city? Contact our legal team at (800) 529-6600 to have all your questions answered.
What to Do After Tripping and Falling at Government Property
Even if you know everything about filing a trip and fall claim against the city of Philadelphia, that doesn’t mean it will be easy to get the compensation you need for recovery. The city is represented by some of the best lawyers in the state. They are paid to limit the liability of the city against all types of lawsuits. If you want to successfully file a trip and fall claim against the city, you need to act quickly and with an understanding of the law.
Contact Wapner Newman Right Away
As soon as possible, contact our legal team. We have experience filing a trip and fall claim against the city and can guide you through the legal process every step of the way. The legal process has many hazards, and even a small mistake could cost you the only opportunity you will ever get to receive compensation.
We also need as much time as possible to investigate, gather evidence, and file paperwork. Six months is very little time to decide whether it is worth filing a lawsuit. Typically, we get two years. In complicated cases, we might use all of that time and still cut it close. With only six months available, every day you delay contacting our law firm makes it that much harder for us to properly protect your rights.
Get Treated by the Right Doctors
Because the rules for filing a trip and fall claim against a city are so strict, you need any evidence that supports your claim to be as airtight as possible. While there may be plenty of doctors who can treat your injuries, only a select few understand the tort process well enough to provide the type of medical records you need to support your claim. Our legal team will help you connect with the doctors who have the most experience handling tort claims. These are doctors who provide exceptional care and have a history of working with our law firm. They care for their patients and will do what they can to help you get the compensation you need to fully recover from your injuries.
Preserve Records
Probably the most important thing you need to do before filing a trip and fall claim against the city of Philadelphia is to carefully preserve all records that are pertinent to your case. You should keep physical and digital copies of every bill, medical record, and related receipt you receive. Our legal team will help you preserve these records and keep backup copies of everything you provide us. Preserving records may seem easy, but it can be challenging when you are receiving countless bills and still trying to recover from a serious injury. If you need any assistance with this, don’t hesitate to contact Wapner Newman and ask for help. Our personal injury lawyers understand how difficult it can be to get stuff done when you are recovering from a serious injury. We want your lawsuit to succeed and will do what we can to support that success.
Contact the Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyers at Wapner Newman
Technically, injured parties are allowed to file a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia when it is responsible for those injuries. In practice, there are so many roadblocks that it can seem impossible.
At Wapner Newman, we don’t consider anything to be impossible. If you were hurt in a fall while on government property, contact our law firm at (800) 529-6600 to discuss your claim with experienced personal injury lawyers.