New York City Trip and Fall Lawyer

Sometimes a sudden trip and fall is more than just embarrassing, but leaves you with painful injuries, significant medical bills, a long recovery period, or permanent disability. It’s even more distressing to know that the fall could have been prevented if a property owner had taken reasonable measures.

If you or a close family member suffered injuries from a preventable trip-and-fall accident in New York City, you have legal options available to you so you aren’t left responsible for the financial consequences of your injury.

Contact a The Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel to learn how an experienced New York City slip and fall lawyer can help you.

Call (212) 564-2800.

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Trip & Fall Accident?

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Why Choose The Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel for Your NYC Trip-and-Fall Case?

For over 50 years, our firm has been a tireless ally for injury victims against powerful defendants and their large insurance companies. With our law firm on your side, you have the following advantages in your trip-and-fall injury claim:

Decades of combined knowledge, experience, and resources on your side
A personalized legal strategy based on the unique circumstances of your case, with the goal of obtaining the maximum compensation available to you
A renowned legal voice behind you with the highest peer rating standard of AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell and other respected publications
Access to experienced investigators and medical experts to support your case

We do not charge upfront fees to injury victims. The Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel uses a contingency-based payment model, so you only pay for our legal representation after we’ve first recovered your compensation.

What Causes Trip-and-Fall Accidents In New York City?

When an obstruction interferes with a person’s normal gait, it may cause them to trip. Sometimes, the fall victim overextends muscles and tendons as they’re thrown wildly off-balance—and then they fall, suffering blunt-force trauma from the ground, floor, or obstacles. The most common causes of trip-and-fall accidents in New York City include the following:

Broken or cracked sidewalks
Uneven or cracked pavement in parking lots and walkways
Exposed power cords, cables, or hoses
Cluttered floors
Torn carpets
Curled carpets or floor mats
Unmarked floor level changes, such as step-ups or step-downs
Loose debris
Uneven flooring
Insufficient lighting
Hidden obstructions
Curbs
Raised thresholds
Broken steps or stair risers
Sidewalk cellar doors that aren’t flush with the sidewalk
Fallen limbs or branches
Abandoned work equipment
E-scooters left in doorways or blocking sidewalks

Similarly, a wet floor or slippery surface that causes a foot to lose traction can lead to a slip-and-fall in New York City, resulting in serious injuries. Both trip-and-fall and slip-and-fall accident claims are categories of premises liability cases in New York.

What Types of Injuries Occur In New York City Trip-and-Fall Accidents?

During a slip-and-fall, most individuals fall backward when their foot slides out from under them. In a trip-and-fall accident, it’s more common to fall forward onto the knees, hands, and face. Common trip-and-fall injuries in New York include the following:

Torn ligaments, such as ACL or MCL, in the knees
Soft-tissue injuries like sprains and strains in the wrists, ankles, and knees
Fractures
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), ranging from mild concussions to hematomas
External head, facial, and dental trauma
Back injuries
Neck injuries
Contusions and abrasions
Spinal cord injuries

Depending on the severity of the injury, damages range from an emergency room bill and a few days of lost wages to substantial economic damages from a serious injury that requires medical procedures, lengthy recovery time, physical therapy, and temporary or permanent disability.

Where Do Actionable NYC Trip-and-Fall Injuries Occur?

If you trip and fall inside your home because your child left a toy on the floor, you have no legal recourse other than your own medical insurance to cover injury costs; however, property owners who invite others onto their property for commercial purposes have an enhanced duty of care to “invitees” such as customers, patrons, and tenants. In addition, New York’s sidewalk laws require property owners to maintain the sections of sidewalk that abut their property, and to adhere to sidewalk cellar door requirements to prevent trip-and-fall accidents. The most common sites for NYC trip and falls include the following:

Sidewalks
Walkways and steps
Parking lots
Grocery and big box stores
Construction sites and other workplaces
Restaurants and cafes
Parks
City bus stops, train platforms, and subway stations
Amusement parks
Hospitals
Nursing homes
Schools and playgrounds

When a property owner is aware of a trip-and-fall hazard, or should reasonably have known about it, it’s a violation of their legal duty of care if they fail to repair the problem or place warning signs until such time as repairs are completed.

Proving Liability In New York City Trip-and-Fall Accidents

Even private property owners and homeowners must keep their property reasonably safe for delivery workers and visitors, but commercial property owners have a legal responsibility to regularly inspect their property to identify safety risks and make prompt repairs to prevent injuries. Proving liability for a trip-and-fall accident requires evidence demonstrating the following:

The injury victim accessed the property legally and not while trespassing or committing a crime
The property owner owed a duty of care to the injury victim
They violated this duty of care through negligence
The violation caused the trip-and-fall injury
The injury victim suffered damages from the injury

Damages in trip-and-fall injury claims come in two categories: tangible economic damages and non-tangible non-economic damages, like pain and suffering.

What Can I Get From a Trip-and-Fall Claim In New York City?

A sudden injury can make you feel like your life has been thrown as off-balance as you were during the fall. While a successful trip-and-fall injury claim doesn’t erase the injury, it recovers compensation for common damages such as:

Reimbursement for medical expenses
Future medical expenses, such as for scheduled procedures or physical therapy
Out-of-pocket costs
Lost earnings
Future income loss or reduced earning ability due to disability
Compensation for pain and suffering

If the injury caused permanent scarring, disfigurement, loss of one of the senses, or disability, additional compensation may be available for catastrophic injury.

An experienced New York premises liability attorney carefully calculates your damages and seeks the full compensation available to you.

Contact the Trip-and-Fall Accident Lawyers at The Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel

Compensation in trip-and-fall accident claims typically comes from a claim against the property owner’s liability insurance. Unfortunately, insurance companies are not on your side. In fact, an insurer’s goal to protect the company’s profit margin is in direct conflict with your goal to obtain fair compensation.

Instead of leaving your claim in the insurance adjuster’s hands, reach out to The Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel for experienced legal representation that maximizes your chances of a favorable outcome in your case.