- October 9, 2024
- Tucker Law
- Slip and Fall Accident
Slip-and-fall accidents are common occurrences in retail and commercial businesses. Business owners often must pay up when customers and clients are harmed. But what about slip-and-fall accidents in residences? Who pays? Many victims and homeowners wonder: “Are slip-and-fall injuries covered by homeowners insurance?” The answer is that it depends.
If you have been injured in a slip-and-fall accident, the personal injury lawyers at Tucker Lawyers are ready to help you get justice. Contact our office for a free consultation and learn how our slip-and-fall lawyers can help. Call (516) 399-2364 today!
What Are Slip-and-Fall Accidents?
The standard slip-and-fall accident involves a slippery surface or object that causes a person to fall. However, the term is also often used to refer to trip-and-fall accidents as well.
Trip-and-fall accidents are caused by any item or characteristic that causes you to trip and fall. For example, an uneven or broken stair step may cause you to trip and fall.
Regardless of whether the victim slips or trips on an obstacle, accidents such as these are often very harmful. They can cause all manner of injuries, including:
- Broken and fractured bones
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Sprains and tears
- Spinal cord injuries
- Facial injuries
- Lacerations and contusions.
In some cases, death can result. More often, victims are saddled with serious injuries that cause them to miss work and miss out on life as they had once known it.
Are Slip-and-Fall Injuries Covered by Homeowners Insurance in NYC?
Let’s say you attend a small dinner gathering at a friend’s house. As you arrive, you head through the yard and up the patio steps, where you slip and fall on an icy step. The homeowner comes out and apologizes for not clearing the ice that has been there for at least a week. Your injuries knock you out of work for three long months, and you need significant medical care and rehab.
Will homeowners insurance cover this accident? Probably. Homeowners insurance covers many of the negligent acts of a homeowner, including acts that lead to slips and falls. The key word is negligent. If there is no negligence, the policy will not cover the losses stemming from a victim’s injuries.
Negligent acts that commonly lead to slip-and-fall injuries and that are covered by homeowners insurance include:
- Failing to clear ice or snow from walking areas
- Failure to provide code-compliant handrails and guardrails
- Failure to provide adequate lighting
- Failure to warn guests of slipping and tripping hazards
- Blocking entrances and egresses.
As you can see, many of these acts are actually omissions to act. They qualify as negligence and are typically covered by homeowners insurance.
What Damages Does Homeowners Insurance Cover?
Homeowners insurance provides damages compensation for standard personal injury damages, including:
- Medical and hospital care, including prescription medication and rehab
- Income loss, present and future
- Modifications to home and house to accommodate the injury
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life.
Various calculations factor into determining the amount of these damages. Medical records and medical bills prove invaluable when determining medical treatment compensation, and a person’s work schedule and salary or wage information help calculate lost income.
As you can see, homeowner’s insurance covers non-monetary losses as well, like pain and suffering. These losses have no intrinsic monetary value, so attorneys must use acceptable formulas to come up with damages awards. One method used frequently by attorneys and insurers is the multiplier method, which assigns an injury a number of between 1.5 and 5. This number is then multiplied by the monetary damages.
The importance of having a slip-and-fall attorney at this stage cannot be overstated. The damages you receive depend heavily on whether you have an experienced attorney fighting for you. Insurance companies will always seek the path that allows them to pay the lowest compensation award possible.
Homeowners Insurance Coverage Limits
If you slip and fall at someone’s house due to the homeowner’s negligence, you can collect damages to cover your injuries and losses. However, if you are seriously injured, the sum total of your damages may exceed the amount of homeowners insurance available. When this happens, you may be left with outstanding, unpaid damages.
Coverage Limits
A typical coverage limit for liability in homeowners insurance policies is $100,000. However, a serious injury could easily eclipse that amount. For example, if surgery is required, the bill for the operation alone could reach the high five figures and even six figures.
Add that to the other medical costs incurred, such as emergency transportation, ER visits, prescription medication, and rehab, and you’re looking at an astronomical figure before even calculating other damages.
Homeowners can always opt for additional liability coverage to protect themselves. However, many do not. If ever faced with high damages, they may be on the hook for damages left after insurance coverage runs out.
When Homeowners Insurance Does Not Cover All of the Damages
If a homeowner’s policy does not cover all of a victim’s slip and fall damages, the victim can file a lawsuit against the homeowner for what remains. Whether or not this course of action is fruitful depends on various factors, including the amount of damages remaining and the financial situation of the homeowner.
For example, if an injury victim has $500,000 in damages, $100,000 of which are covered by homeowners insurance, the victim may have a tough time recovering the outstanding $400,000. If the damages left over are below $50,000, they will typically have an easier time collecting. But, again, the financial health of the homeowner is also a factor in the equation.
A homeowner with significant assets may have no problem paying leftover damages, but one with lots of debt and few assets likely will have troubles.
Compelling Payment of Slip-and-Fall Damages Not Covered by Homeowners Insurance
With damages outstanding, the story is not necessarily over. You can sue a homeowner for what’s left. However, expect them to fight, which means having a lawyer fighting for you is always the recommended course of action.
Your attorney will have numerous tools and avenues to compel payment should you decide to take this path. First, a lawsuit will be in order. In the filing, your attorney will demand payment of the remaining damages as well as state the claim that justifies the damages — namely a slip-and-fall personal injury accident.
After much litigation, it may come to pass that the defendant decides to settle instead of risking a large verdict in court. Mediation is also a possibility, which can work well to get two parties to arrive at an agreement.
If the case does go to court and your attorney wins a judgment, the defendant must pay up. The question is “Can they?” or “Will they?” With a court order, your lawyer can compel payment through wage garnishment, income tax refund intercept, and the sale of assets.
Keep in mind, however, that some money and assets may be exempt from money judgments. If your outstanding damages total below the exemption amount in a particular case, you cannot collect the outstanding balance.
Although this and other aspects of slip-and-fall cases involving homeowners insurance or the lack thereof are complicated, you will not have to worry about completely understanding everything that is transpiring when you have an attorney fighting for you.
Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Injuries Suffered by the Homeowner and Residents?
Homeowners insurance does not cover on-premises accidents suffered by the homeowner and others residing at the home. Homeowners insurance is meant to provide liability protection for the homeowner for acts of negligence. As such, it would not make sense to provide coverage for the homeowners’ negligence since a person cannot sue themselves for negligence.
In other words, a homeowner or resident injured on their own property typically seeks coverage for their injuries from their health insurance or other policies. If compensation comes from health insurance, non-monetary damages will be unavailable.
Homeowners insurance also typically comes with other standard exclusions, such as exclusions for criminal acts. For example, if you intentionally cause someone to slip and fall, your homeowners insurance policy may not cover the damages. Only negligent acts fall under the umbrella of homeowners insurance when it comes to injuries.
The slip-and-fall attorneys at Tucker Lawyers have decades of combined experience.
What About Renters and Renter’s Insurance?
With homeownership rates slowing and even dropping in some areas, more people and families are renting. Does a landlord’s homeowners insurance policy cover slip-and-fall accidents suffered by renters’ guests? The answer is maybe. A landlord may be liable for a trip and fall caused by a broken set of stairs. However, they may not be held liable for a renters’ failure to clean snow off their back porch step. In a case such as that, the renter would be liable.
Ultimately, slipping and falling at a renter’s residence and slipping and falling at an owner’s residence both allow the victim to pursue compensation when negligence is the accident’s cause.
Tucker Lawyers: Always Ready to Fight for You
Slip-and-fall accidents are nasty incidents that can seriously injure. If you’ve been injured in a slip-and-fall accident at a residence, Tucker Lawyers believes that you deserve to know your options for compensation and deserve an advocate for the damages you have incurred.
For a free consultation and answers, contact Tucker Lawyers today. We’re here to fight for your future and well-being. Call (516) 399-2364 to speak with a slip-and-fall lawyer who cares.
Managing Attorney John. J. Tucker, Esq.
John has personally handled thousands of clients who were victims of another’s negligence and fights relentlessly for their rights. John enjoys bringing closure to a client’s matter so that the injured party can move forward with their life. His background enables him to evaluate complex liability related claims and bring resolution to claims in a record time frame. [ Attorney Bio ]