I pride myself on speaking in plain English, but I don’t always succeed. In fact I failed just the other day. A caller who fell down the stairs at work wanted to know if he had a case. I let him know that we had to show that there was a defect in the stairs to win. That was a poor word choice as he quickly said, “That’s too bad, I don’t think there was a defect, I just slipped on some water on the stairs.”
And this shows that I wasn’t speaking in plain English. I should have said that to win the case we need to show that something made you fall other than tripping over your own two feet. A defect (which is how lawyers refer to it) can include the stairs being wet, something sticking out from the stairs or wall or even a poorly lit stairway.
The bottom line is that you need an explanation as to why you fell. Running to a meeting you were late to and you fall? That’s a winner. Carrying materials for work that make you lose your balance? That’s a winner too. No idea what happened? That’s a loser.
So the bad news is that I did a terrible job at first communicating with this caller. The good news is that they do have case and we should be able to help them.
If you fall down the stairs at work and are physically able to do so, please try to figure out ASAP why you fell. Get medical attention first of course, but when you come back to work, take a photo if you can. Above all else, don’t give a recorded statement to the insurance company. A lot of times people fall and they don’t know why, but they slipped on something. I’ve seen insurance companies only focus on the “I don’t know why I fell” part and use that to deny a case. If you slip on the stairs and break your leg or wrench your back or whatever, you don’t have to crawl up the stairs to look at the liquid or item that caused you to slip. If you know that something made you slip, that’s usually enough to win the case and we don’t want the insurance company to twist your words to deny you your benefits.
We are workers’ compensation attorneys who help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys. Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.