Having an accident because of poor lighting can be extremely frustrating — knowing that if the property owner had provided adequate lighting in their facilities that you would have avoided any injuries and would not need to deal with the consequences. These accidents are most common (but not limited to) stairwells, parking garages, and walkways. Fortunately, after an accident caused by any sort of failure on behalf of the property owner to provide you with a safe visit, including inappropriate lighting for the area you were hurt, opens the door for a personal injury lawsuit to recover compensation for your damages.
Establishing liability for your accident is the first step towards recovering fair compensation and something that a slip and fall attorney can help you make sense of. However, you will need to find an attorney in your area who is ready to take your case, which can feel like a hurdle that many personal injury victims simply do not have the energy to do after suffering from a serious accident. Fortunately, 1-800-Injured can help you.
Contact 1-800-Injured For a Free Consultation Today
1-800-Injured is an attorney and medical referral service. The sooner you contact us, the sooner we will be able to connect you with an experienced premises liability attorney near you who is available to take your case today. Once you are partnered with a lawyer, you will be able to go through the process of reviewing evidence and establishing liability, at which point, they will be able to begin calculating the damages you are rightfully entitled to.
Read more below about how a personal injury attorney can help you make sense of the compensation you are owed in a personal injury accident.
Establishing Liability and Fault After a Poor Lighting Accident
An accident caused by insufficient lighting on someone else’s property is what is known as a “premises liability” accident, and places liability on the property owner if the accident was the result of an avoidable hazard or maintenance issue. When you are injured in a poor-lighting accident — whether it occurs at a grocery store, a pharmacy or a retailer — you need to file an incident report with the establishment where it occurred. This will provide crucial documentation for the lawsuit. In this case, you and your attorney will need to set out to prove that the owner knew there was a problem with the lighting and failed to make the appropriate improvements to keep their visitors safe. Having an incident report will help to achieve this aim.
Inadequate lighting may be the result of burned-out bulbs, but it may also be simply because the property owner failed to install lighting in high-risk areas such as stairwells or parking areas for any number of reasons. Regardless of the why, your attorney will set out to prove that the owner had a reasonable expectation to realize that it was dangerous.
Calculating Damages After a Poor Lighting Accident
Once your attorney has clearly established fault and liability for the accident, they will need to lay out a clear case for the damages you are entitled to. Compensatory damages are comprised of economic and non-economic damages, each of which is equally important, but focus on distinctly different impacts of an accident and the resulting injuries.
Economic damages are the primary damages in a personal injury case and include anything that has a measurable or real dollar value associated with it. These damages include things like your medical bills and recovery costs, as well as all of your earnings-based damages like lost wages or disability. There are many other economic damages that your attorney will help you identify and will include in their negotiations with the insurance company.
Non-economic damages are trickier to calculate, simply because they seek to quantify damages that do not have actual dollar values associated with them. These types of damages include things like the pain and suffering of your injuries, the trauma you endured from the accident, and the other “intangible” impacts that this type of accident is likely to have on a victim. The insurance company is likely to push back more aggressively on these types of damages, but an experienced attorney will know the way to calculate them and defend their calculations for a fair settlement.