Lawyer / Attorney - Las Vegas Region

When you trip and fall, serious and potentially permanent injuries can occur. Sometimes it takes treatment and medical tests (e.g., CT scans, x-rays and MRI's) to determine whether a injury occurred due to a trip and fall. Prior injuries or medical conditions can be aggravated when tripping and falling. Defendants are infamous for getting medical experts (i.e., hired guns) to review medical records dating back 5-10 years in an attept to blame your injuries on prior injuries or medical conditions even if you were in perfect health before falling. They will also use these medical experts to examine you and try to blame the fall on you or your injuries on other things. It is critical to take photographs of the item or thing that caused you to trip and some background photographs of lighting conditions, things that could have added to the concealment and general layout photographs of the surroundings. If you have brusing or visible injuries, take photographs of them. Make sure the photographs are time and date stamped and they should be taken as soon after the fall as possible (the same day or night is always best). Always fill out an incident report. If the fall occurs in a strip mall or other public place, and you do not know who the owner or landlord is, contact some nearby stores and try to find the name of the property management company or landlord. If there are witnesses, try to get a written statement from them and their contact information. If cones, barricades or caution tape are placed around the item or thing that caused you to trip, take photographs of them. Also, it is always best to be checked out by the hospital or your doctor at least 1-2 days within the fall (the day or night of the fall is always best). If you are experiencing pain or discomfort, make sure you tell someone and especially any doctor or medical professional treating you. Everything you say to a doctor, nurse or medical professional should make its way into medical records or notes. Your reporting of pain and injuries in medical records is essential and will help settle or prove your claim. It is usually best to have tests (e.g., e-rays, CT scan or MRI's) just to be safe and make sure you're not serious injured. Even if the test results do not show any fractured or broken bones, you may have serious soft-tissue injuries and sometimes MRI's can document those. If you have prior injuries or pre-existing medical conditions, having a copy of those test results or films can be important to distinguishing your new injuries and pain from old ones. For example, if you had a prior automobile accident and injured your spine, that would show in an MRI. If you had a surgery, try to get another MRI to show the surgery was successful. When you have another trip and fall, a different part of your spine may be injured and that will show on another MRI. This is key evidence to show your injury is new and related to the trip and fall. If the same part of your back is injured, it is most likely an aggravation of your old injury, for which you can still seek a recovery. Many injured people make the mistake of seeing doctors or nurses and thinking they will see their pain and document it in medical records. They are not mind readers and if you do not tell them verbally about your pain and injuries and how you did not have them before they will not write them down in medical records and notes. If you decide to retain this firm, we have doctors and specialists in every medical field and specialty (e.g., orthopedic surgeons, nurological surgeons, pain management, plastic surgery and oral surgery) that can see you on a lien basis (you do not need to pay out of pocket or use your insurance, if you have it). Some defendants have no fault medpay insurance that can pay some of your bills immediately. Also, we can retain medical experts to review your records and examine you to show that your new injuries and pain are caused by the accident and not a pre-existing medical condition or injury. If you have lost wages, we can retain vocational rehabilitation and economist experts to support your lost wage/earning claim. If the accident has caused you to suffer mental or emotional stress, we can have you seen by a psychologist. Unlike many T.V. lawyers who will not even take a case if they think liability will be contested and the case will be difficult and costly to prosecute, we take such cases and are not afraid of court. In fact, we are a full service litigation law firm and will take your case to court (and appeal) if necessary. We will vigorously pursue the maximum recovery possible for you. Our representation will be on a contingent fee basis, meaning you pay nothing for attorney's fees or costs unless there is a recovery. All of our consultations are free of charge and we will come to see you if necesssary.