Articles Posted in Slip and Fall

Slip and Fall cases are incredibly nuanced, fact dependent and more complicated than you would think.

Slip and Fall cases would appear to be very basic when compared to the complicated legislation which we have in Ontario for car accident cases. In an Ontario Car Accident case, the client needs to be educated on the concept of a no fault accident benefit claim and all of the forms and regulations which come with that. And to add to the complexity of the case, there’s a tort claim which would seem basic and straight forward, but it’s not with the application of Ontario’s deductible for non-pecuniary damage claims, medico legal threshold for general damage claims; along with the set offs allocated to the tort defendant for any benefits which are coming in. These concepts appear unfair to accident victims. More importantly, they are hard to grasp for accident victims; and catch accident victims by surprise because it appears that the system has been rigged in order to protect insurance companies instead of compensating innocent accident victims who have done nothing wrong except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In a day and age where fairness, equal opportunity and equity is really important; the world of car accident law in Ontario didn’t get the memo.

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When my children were you, I would read them all sorts of bedtimes stories, as an parent would. One of my children’s favourites stories was “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”.

If you’re not familiar with “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”; it’s what you would call a cumulative tale.

A cumulative tale is a story where each new event or character is introduced alongside a repetition of all the previous ones in an expanding sequence. Cumulative tales have a rhythmic patterned build up which drives the narrative. They rely more on patterns and less so on plots.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly goes a little something like this:

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow;
I don’t know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she’ll die!

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Slip and Fall season in Ontario continues. Most of the slip and fall cases we see have to deal with winter conditions, like snow, sleet, slush and ice. They are common occurrences in cold weather climates, especially when temperatures have been consistently below the freezing mark for extended periods of time.

So what do you do after a slip and fall?

This edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog will attempt to give you a checklist of things to do after a slip and fall. While no such list can be completely exhaustive because each case is different, we’ve attempted to narrow down the most important things to do when after a slip and fall case happens.

As with all personal injury cases, the first and most important thing to do is to get the medical attention and care you need. Your safety and health are top priority, and should not be sacrificed. This means getting medical care following your accident and not refusing treatment which has been offered. Why do we mention this? Too often we see people following accidents think that everything is “ok“, only to find out down the road that things are not “ok“. Insurers take advantage of this by suggesting that your injury was not directly as a result of your slip and fall. Rather, your injury is related to something completely different. They try to create the narrative that had your injury been very serious, legitimate, or directly caused by the slip and fall; that you would have sought out medical attention right away, or not refused treatment. Therefore, your injuries must be related to something else not tied to the subject accident. See how that works!

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Winter time slip and fall cases caused by snow, ice or other slippery cold weather conditions are common occurrences in Ontario. But, just because they are common doesn’t mean that we all know what to do after a slip and fall takes place.

It’s common knowledge that when you’re involved in a serious car accident to contact the police. The great thing about police investigations in personal injury cases is that you have a third party making findings at the accident scene itself, and they will record contemporaneous notes. In fact, the police can go one step further and conduct a forensic investigation and event reconstruct the accident as well. But, it’s not so common knowledge to know what to do after a slip and fall accident. The police department does not examine slip and fall cases. There are no police officer’s notes, or reconstruction reports generated by the police after a slip and fall accident.

So, what do you do after a slop and fall accident; particularly in the winter time? Good question! The more you know, the greater chance that evidence will be collected and preserved to better advance and present a personal injury case.

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