Milwaukee Slip and Fall Attorney

Slip and fall accidents can and very often do lead to severe injuries including head and brain injury, broken bones, and ligament damage. Often, falls like these are the result of a dangerous condition on a property, such as broken or loose handrails, slippery flooring, inadequate lighting, or uneven staircases.

If an irresponsible or negligent property owner is responsible for your slip and fall injuries, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses. At Mingo & Yankala, S.C., our Milwaukee personal injury lawyer can help. Call today for a free and confidential case evaluation. We can conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and help you recover the financial compensation you need and deserve.

Why You Need a Slip and Fall Accident Lawyer in Milwaukee

Hiring the right attorney does make a difference to your slip and fall case. Representing yourself puts you at risk of making a mistake that significantly hurts your ability to move forward, such as accepting an inadequate settlement offer from an insurance company or missing your deadline to file altogether. With a lawyer by your side, it’s easy to correctly handle the claims process.

Your Milwaukee slip and fall lawyer will take care of the legal legwork of your case for you while you concentrate on healing, including:

Answering all of your legal questions and providing advice that you can trust.
Conducting a comprehensive slip and fall accident investigation.
Preserving and collecting key evidence to support your injury claim.
Obtaining important records and documents, such as a police report and medical records.
Interviewing eyewitnesses and hiring qualified expert witnesses to testify on your behalf.
Taking over settlement negotiations with an insurance claims adjuster.
Bringing your case to trial in Milwaukee, if necessary.

A Milwaukee injury lawyer will know exactly how to build and present your slip and fall accident case for optimal results. Furthermore, your slip and fall lawyer won’t be afraid of taking o insurance companies and other powerful adversaries, including a business, corporation or government entity. If you are curious about all the benefits that can come with hiring a slip and fall accident lawyer, request a free consultation at Mingo & Yankala, S.C. We are always honest about whether someone needs an attorney, as we won’t waste our time accepting a case that doesn’t need us.

Who is Liable in Slip and Fall Accidents in Milwaukee?

Every slip and fall accident claim is different. However, when a person slips, trips, and falls as a result of a dangerous condition, the property owner is often found to share fault for the victim’s injuries. In Wisconsin, property owners are required by law to keep their properties reasonably safe for visitors under the “Safe Place Statute”. The safe place statute imposes a heightened duty on owners of public buildings to construct, repair, and maintain their buildings safely. The statute does not address negligent acts; instead, it addresses unsafe property conditions.

Who is Liable For Your Slip & Fall Injury

There are a number of different unsafe property conditions that can lead to a serious injury as a result of a slip, trip and fall, including

Wet flooring
A lack of warning signs posted
Spilled food or drinks
Uneven curbs
Uneven or loose flooring
Loose handrails
Missing floor tiles
Broken lights or a complete lack of lighting
Loose rugs or carpeting
Exposed cords
Cluttered aisles or walkways
Obstacles that create trip hazards

Depending upon the circumstances of the incident, you may have a claim. It is important to remember that the business or property owner could have reasonably known about the issue and failed to fix it. To establish liability, your attorney will need to prove that:

you were a welcome visitor to the property
a dangerous condition existed on the property
the owner of the property was aware of the condition and had an opportunity to fix or remedy the condition
the dangerous condition led to your injuries.

If it can be proven that a building owner is liable for your injuries, they may be responsible for compensating you for your losses.

Common Injuries in Slip and Fall Cases

Despite having a reputation as minor incidents, slips and falls can result in severe injuries. Some victims never fully recover from slip, trip and fall accidents – especially vulnerable elderly victims. A senior citizen is at risk of a hip fracture in a fall, which is an injury with a high likelihood of serious complications, such as deadly infections and blood clots. However, victims of any age can suffer significant, lasting injury in a slip and fall incident, such as:

Torn ligaments
Sprains or strains
Bone fractures
Dislocations
Cuts, scrapes and lacerations
Knee injuries
Contusions
Head or brain injuries
Neck or spinal cord injuries
Herniated or ruptured disks
Nerve damage
Paralysis
Internal injuries
Death

If a victim tries to catch himself or herself on the way down, this can cause serious injuries to the hands, wrists, elbows and arms. If the victim doesn’t manage to catch himself or herself, however, a fall accident can lead to other major injuries, such as a skull fracture and traumatic brain injury. Either way, the victim can suffer life-changing injuries. If you or a loved one was diagnosed with any type of injury after a slip and fall accident in Milwaukee, our lawyers can help you pursue justice.

Three Types of Property Visitors

The first element of a slip and fall claim is that you were a welcome visitor to the property. This means that you weren’t trespassing at the time of your accident. Being a trespasser means that you do not have a property owner’s permission or the lawful right to enter or remain on a premises. Property owners in Wisconsin don’t owe any duties of care to trespassers other than a duty not to intentionally cause them harm. The only exception is if a trespasser is under the age of 18.

The two legal types of property visitors are invitees and licensees. Invitees are visitors who have an express or implied invitation to enter a property for the owner’s own purposes or benefit, such as customers at a store. Invitees are given the highest duties of care under premises liability law – a property owner must inspect his or her property for hidden or new hazards, promptly repair any known property defects, and post warning signs of any potential injury risks before allowing an invitee to enter the property.

Licensees are also lawfully allowed to enter a property, but they do so for their own purposes, such as a friend making a social call or a door-to-door salesperson. Property owners in Wisconsin also owe licensees a duty of care to fix known defects and warn of hazards, but they do not have a duty to inspect a property beforehand for potential injury risks. If you need help determining what type of visitor you were at the time of your slip and fall accident in Milwaukee, our lawyers can investigate for you.

What if You Fell on Public Property?

If you suffered an injury after falling on public property in Milwaukee, you may still have grounds to file a slip and fall claim. Wisconsin’s Tort Claims Act states that as long as an action is brought within 120 days of the event that caused the injury, a civil action may be filed against a government entity for negligence that arose in the course of the party’s official duties.

You may be able to file a slip and fall claim against a federal, state or local government entity for a preventable slip and fall that takes place on a public street, park, building or sidewalk if your fall reasonably could have been prevented with an ordinary level of care by the owner of the premises.

Damages Available in a Slip and Fall Claim

At Mingo & Yankala, S.C., we are aware that no amount of money is enough to make up for an injury suffered because of a property owner’s negligence – especially if you have a life-changing injury. However, we also know how helpful it can be to get the money that you need to pay for your related present and future bills, such as medical costs. A successful slip and fall accident claim in Milwaukee could result in compensation for many of your losses, including:

Pain and suffering
Emotional distress
Past and future medical expenses
Physical therapy or rehabilitation
Permanent disability
Lost wages
Reduced earning capacity
Lost quality of life
Loss of consortium
Out-of-pocket costs
Attorney’s fees
Punitive damages, in some cases

The value of your slip and fall case will depend on your specific circumstances, such as the gravity of your injuries, your prognosis for recovery, and the insurance coverage available. Our slip and fall attorneys can estimate how much your case is worth only after a careful analysis of all the facts and details. You can trust our slip and fall injury lawyers to give you an accurate idea of how much your case is worth, as we want to maximize your financial recovery – unlike an insurance company that will want to minimize your payout.

What Is the Comparative Negligence Defense?

A common challenge encountered in slip and fall accident cases is the comparative negligence defense. Comparative negligence accuses a plaintiff of causing or contributing to his or her own injuries, for the purpose of diminishing the defendant’s liability. In Wisconsin, Section 895.045 of the law states that a victim’s own contribution to his or her injuries will not bar him or her from financial recovery from the person against whom a claim is brought, as long as the victim’s percentage of fault is below 51 percent. In other words, if a victim has less than the majority share of fault for a slip and fall accident, he or she can still recover financial compensation.

The other half of Wisconsin’s comparative negligence rule, however, reduces the plaintiff’s financial award by an amount equivalent to his or her fault. If you are found to be 10 percent at fault for your slip and fall accident for texting and walking, for example, but the defendant is 90 percent responsible for failing to fix a known property defect, your compensatory award would be reduced by 10 percent. If you wish to maximize your financial outcome, it is important to hire an attorney to help you reduce your amount of liability for a slip and fall accident in Milwaukee.

Get Help From a Milwaukee Slip and Fall Lawyer

If you have been injured after a fall on public property, it is in your best interests to speak with a premises liability attorney in Milwaukee. At Mingo & Yankala, S.C., our Milwaukee slip and fall accident attorneys can help. Call us today at 414-273-7400 for a free and confidential case evaluation when you are ready to move forward with your case.

HOW WE WON $1.1 MILLION FOR OUR CLIENT IN A MILWAUKEE PREMISES LIABILITY (SLIP/TRIP AND FALL) CASE

This is a true account of how we won $1.1 million for our Milwaukee client in a premises liability case, commonly referred to as a slip/trip and fall case.

This is a real case, with a real client and a real trial. This client’s five-star review can be found on our website along with many other five-star reviews. It is not our intent to disparage the defendants in this case and we will not name the business establishment sued or the insurance company that was forced to pay our client over $1 million. We can say that the business establishment we sued will be known by most of our readers and the insurance company is a big-name insurance company.

This case started when I received a phone call from a potential client who told me his case had been turned down by other law firms. In this first phone call, the potential client told how he was walking down a set of steps in a business establishment. The next thing he knew he fell to the ground and immediately had excruciating pain in his right leg. All of our client’s attention was focused on the pain in his leg and on trying to get someone to call an ambulance. He did not think about taking pictures or even trying to figure out what caused him to fall. All our client could tell us was that it was dark inside the business when he fell and he was able to describe for us where in the business establishment he fell.

We immediately investigated to see what caused our client to fall. The business establishment was open to the public so we had no difficulty entering. When we inspected the area where our client fell, we were immediately able to figure out what happened. Where our client fell there was a series of three steps down to another level. On the top two steps there was string lighting or theater lighting on the edge of the step. However, the last step down had no lighting. It was easy to figure out what happened. Our client saw the theater lighting on the edge of the top two steps. Because there was no lighting on the bottom step, our client did not realize there was another step down. When he walked forward, thinking he had reached the bottom of the stairs, he immediately fell when taking a step forward.

We notified the insurance company of our client’s fall and the fact that there was no lighting on the lower step. The insurance company immediately took the position that no one else fell at that location and that the accident was our client’s fault. The insurance company refused to make any offer to our client.

Our only option was to sue the business and its insurance company.

Once we started suit we were able to subpoena the building plans. The plans contained the name of the architect and we conducted the architect’s deposition. We learned that the building plans for the business called for all three steps to have theater lighting. The insurance company still refused to pay. The insurance company argued that the local building inspector had inspected the business before our client fell and the building passed inspection.

When we started the lawsuit, we sued the business establishment and the insurance company under Wisconsin’s Safe Place Statute. Without getting too technical, when a lawsuit is brought under the Safe Place Statute the jury is asked to decide whether the premises were in a condition “as safe as the nature of the premises reasonably permit.” The focus is on the condition of the business establishment itself, not on whether the business passed inspection by the local building inspector. Under the Safe Place Statute, the jury focuses on the condition of the premises and not upon alleged negligent acts of the business. The Safe Place Statute can be a powerful tool in a Milwaukee premises liability, slip/trip and fall case.

We tried the case before a 12-person jury, presided over by a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge, for one week. The insurance company still refused to make any offer to our client. They were counting on our client being 51 percent or more at fault for the accident in which case the defendants would owe our client nothing.

After we tried the case for a week, the jury returned its verdict and found the business establishment 100% at fault. That meant our client was entitled to collect 100% of the damages the jury awarded. The jury awarded our client compensation totaling $1,071,051.78. Here’s the jury award in the foreperson’s own handwriting:

Our client could not believe the amount of money we recovered for him. For over a year the insurance company offered him absolutely nothing. At the end of our one-week trial, our client had a jury award of $1,071,051.78.

Hire The Right Milwaukee Premises Liability (Slip/Tril and Fall) Attorney

Many lawyers do not like to take premises liability cases or what is commonly referred to as a slip/trip and fall case. That is because the insurance company often denies the claim just as they did with our client. That means many times the lawyer will have to try the case which many lawyers do not want to do or don’t know how to do.

If you have been injured in a slip and fall or trip and fall case in Milwaukee, or anywhere in Wisconsin, make sure you hire a law firm with a proven track record of winning premises liability cases for their clients. We know how to hire the right expert witnesses for your slip/trip and fall case and we know how to use the Wisconsin Safe Place Statute to help win your premises liability case.

If you like what you have read here, we invite you to contact us using our confidential Contact Form or give us a call at 414-273-7400. You will find us friendly and easy to talk to. Our experience handling slip/trip and fall cases allows us to settle most premises liability cases without our clients having to go to Court. If we do have to go to Court we have a proven record of knowing how to win slip/trip and fall cases.

Remember, you will never pay us a fee of any kind until we obtain a recovery for you. We want to make working with our law firm a truly no-risk proposition for our clients. We invite you to read our many five-star reviews all of which come from actual clients. If you choose to hire us we will do our best to make you one of our many satisfied clients.

ANOTHER BIG WIN FOR ONE OF OUR PREMISES LIABILITY CLIENTS

This is a true account of how we won a jury verdict of$589,858.44 for our client when the insurance company’s top offer was $5,000. The accident happened in Eagle River, Wisconsin.

This case started out with a phone call from another lawyer. The lawyer told me he had a client who fell down an open stairway in Eagle River. The lawyer attempted to settle this case with the insurance company. The insurance company told him their top offer was $5,000. The lawyer then contacted our law firm and asked if we would take over the case.

When I first met with our client I learned that she and some family members had dinner reservations at a well-known restaurant in Eagle River. When they arrived, the hostess informed our client that there would be a short wait before their table was ready. Our client took a few steps back from the hostess podium and fell down an open stairway that led to the restaurant basement. Our client suffered a non-displaced fracture to her wrist which did not require surgery.

As with all cases placed in suit, at the end of the discovery period the parties were required to participate in Court-ordered mediation in an effort to settle the case. Many cases settle at mediation and thereby free up the Courts from time consuming jury trials. At mediation the insurance company lawyer stated that the insurance company would never offer more than $5,000 to settle the case. The insurance company took the position that no one else ever fell at this restaurant and therefore the accident must have been our client’s fault. The insurance company also took the position that there was no reasonable way to block off the stairway as it was frequently used by waiters and waitresses getting food items from the basement.

We tried the case before a 12-person jury. The jury returned an astonishing damage verdict of $589,858.44 to compensate our client for her fractured wrist. This included $50,000 for her husband for the loss of society and companionship of his wife due to her injury. Unfortunately, the jury found our client 70 percent at-fault and therefore, under the comparative negligence laws of Wisconsin, our client could not collect any of her damages.

We immediately filed an appeal with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. We pointed out to the Court of Appeals that the trial court Judge made errors during the course of the trial which impacted the jury’s verdict. The Court of Appeals agreed and ordered a new trial on liability. The damage award of $589,858,44 remained, subject to the plaintiff winning on liability at the time of the second trial.

After the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial, we again attempted to reach a settlement with the insurance company in light of the large damage award we received in the first trial. The insurance company refused to discuss settlement. It was the position of the insurance company that they won the first trial and they would win the second trial as well. We informed the insurance company lawyer that the only reason the defendants won the first trial is because the trial Judge committed errors in the way he instructed the jury and that those errors had now been corrected by the Court of Appeals. The insurance company refused to discuss settlement.

Because the insurance company refused to discuss settlement, we had a second jury trial on liability only. This time the trial court Judge did not give improper jury instructions to the jury as did the trial court Judge in the first trial. The result was that we won the second jury trial. The jury found that the restaurant was primarily at fault for our client’s accident. The damage award of $589,858,44 from the firs trial remained in effect. After the second trial, the lawyer for the insurance company asked us to accept less than the jury awarded or else they threatened to appeal the jury verdict from the second trial. We insisted that the insurance company pay the full amount of the jury verdict. The insurance company eventually backed down and paid our client the full amount our client was entitled to as a result of the second jury trial.

In addition to a great monetary win for our client, the jury’s verdict had another positive result. As we mentioned above, one of the insurance company’s defenses was that there was no reasonable way to block the open stairway because it was frequently used by restaurant employees. After we won the second trial, and the insurance company was forced to pay our clients a significant amount of compensation, the restaurant blocked the stairway with a gait that employees were able to easily open and close when the stairway was being used. This was a great result. Not only did we obtain maximum compensation for our client, we forced the restaurant to take steps to insure that an accident like this never happened again at its restaurant.

Hire A Milwaukee Premises Liability Attorney Who Never Stops Fighting For You

Just like we never stopped fighting for this client, we will never stop fighting for you in your Milwaukee slip and fall/trip and fall case. If you have been injured in a premises liability case in Milwaukee or anywhere in Wisconsin, whether it is a slip and fall case, trip and fall case or fall down a stairway like the client we discussed above, make sure you hire an experienced attorney who knows how to win premises liability cases.

If you have been injured in a slip and fall/trip and fall case, or a premises liability case of any kind, in Milwaukee or anywhere in Wisconsin and you like what you have read here, we invite you to contact us. You can contact us byusing our confidential Contact Form or by giving us a call at 414-273-7400. You will always find us friendly and easy to talk to. We will let you know right away if we think you have a case and you will never pay a fee of any kind until we recover compensation for your injuries. That makes working with us a no-risk proposition for you.

$30,000 FOR CLIENT WHO SLIPPED ON STAIRS IN ALTOONA, WISCONSIN IN EAU CLAIRE COUNTY

This is a real account of a real settlement we obtained for a client in a premises liability case or what is more commonly referred to as a slip and fall case. Even though our client’s injuries were not serious, we knew getting a good result for our client was important to her. We treated her case with the same level of care and attention that we treat clients with much more serious injuries. Here is what happened.

Our client was renting a room from a landlord in Altoona, Wisconsin. Our client was going down the stairs when her foot slipped off the edge of the step causing our client to injure her Achillies tendon.

Our investigation revealed that the steps did not meet the requirements of the Wisconsin Building Code. We knew the insurance company was not going to take our word for that. The insurance company of course claimed the accident was our client’s fault for “not paying attention.”

We were able to convince the insurance company for the owner of the property to let the local building inspector inspect the stairs. We had already been in touch with the local building inspector and had a good idea what his inspection was going to reveal.

After the local building inspector completed his inspection, both sides met with the building inspector. The building inspector informed us that all stair treads must extend a minimum of 9 inches. On the stairs where our client fell, all of the treads violated the building code because they ranged from 8 ¼ inches minimum to 8 ¾ inches maximum. It was the building inspector’s conclusion that the stair treads “clearly failed to meet the minimum forward travel required by code.”

Once we had an opinion from the local building inspector that the stairs violated the Wisconsin Building Code, we knew the insurance company for the owner of the property would want to settle the case. If you can establish a code violation, and the code violation caused the accident, insurance companies will usually change their position and agree to settle. That is exactly what happened here.

We were able to settle our client’s case for $30,000. Our client did not have a serious injury but she was very happy with the settlement we were able to obtain. In fact, our client gave us one of our many five-star reviews that you can find on our website. Our client’s actual review reads as follows:

“Mr. Mingo represented me in a slip and fall case. He was very professional and

wonderful to work with. He did everything in his power to get the best outcome for

He always took time to talk with me about any questions that I had. I couldn’t

have asked for a better attorney!

-Lynette S.

Hire an Experienced Milwaukee Premises Liability Attorney if You Have Been Injured In a Slip and Fall Case Anywhere in Wisconsin

Premises liability cases, or what is commonly referred to as a slip and fall case, are often aggressively defended by the insurance company. The insurance company will always blame the slip and fall victim for his/her accident.

When it comes to personal injury litigation, including premises liability and slip and fall claims, there is no substitute for experience. At Mingo & Yankala we have a proven track record of obtaining great results for our slip and fall clients both in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin. Our experience allows us to obtain great settlements for most of our clients without our clients ever having to go to Court. When the insurance company refuses to make what we believe to be a fair settlement offer for our client, we have the skill and experience to win in Court just as we have done for past clients.

We invite you to read our many five-star reviews. All of our reviews are from actual clients in their own words. If you were injured in a slip and fall case or any premises liability case, in Milwaukee or anywhere in Wisconsin, we invite you to contact us. You can use our confidential Contact Form and we will promptly reply. You can also reach us by giving us a call at 414-273-7400. You will always find us friendly and easy to talk to. If you choose to hire us, you will receive the same level of legal representation that you can read about in our many five-star reviews.