Slip and fall accidents can take place at any time and anywhere. In some cases, a slip and fall accident may be caused by a person's own clumsiness or negligence. In other cases, the owner or manager of a property may be responsible for an accident.
If a person injures themselves due to the negligence of a business or homeowner, they will file an insurance claim with the owner’s insurance company. The amount of time it takes to receive a settlement will depend on when the insurance claim is filed, the amount of time it will take for an insurance company to get back to you with an offer, and whether or not you find that offer acceptable.
What You Should do Before You Contact the Owner’s Insurance Company
If you fall at a business or residence, you should look around and see what caused you to take a tumble. Was there anything lying in your path that you could not reasonably be expected to see? Were they performing maintenance and did they put up signs around the area to alert you to this fact? Was there a slippery substance on the floor, that they could have cleaned up in a reasonable amount of time?
- It is a good idea to take pictures if you can and to get the names and phone numbers of any witnesses who may have seen the accident.
- If you were injured at a business and you think that the owner of the business or the owner of the building caused that accident, you will want to fill out an accident report with a manager and get the name and number of their insurance company.
- If you are injured on a person's property, you must get the name and number of their homeowner’s insurance.
You should go to the doctor as soon as you can even if you feel fine. There are some injuries that may take a long time to become apparent. You should save copies of every medical bill you can get, including any physical therapy or massages that you may need. You should also save the receipts for any prescription or non-prescription medicine that you may have taken. You will also need to get a letter from your employer stating the number of hours you have missed from work.
How long will it take the insurance company to make a settlement offer?
An insurance company in Kansas will have ten days to acknowledge your claim. This will include getting you any necessary paperwork. You should complete the forms as soon as you can because they will have 15 days after receiving those forms to accept or deny your claim.
If they deny your claim, you will want to talk to a personal injury attorney to discuss the possibility of a lawsuit. If they accept your claim, you should speak to an legal expert to find out if the amount of money they have offered you is high enough to accept. If the settlement amount is not high enough, you will want to hire an attorney to negotiate on your behalf. This may take anywhere from days to months.
If you need to file a personal injury lawsuit, you will have two years from the time of the injury to do so in Kansas. Once you file the suit, it can take anywhere from months or years to settle the case. Your attorney and the insurance company will continue to try and come to a fair settlement before going to court. It is only when they cannot come to a fair settlement that your case will go to trial, although this is very rare.
Collecting plenty of evidence and filling out paperwork in a timely fashion will always make your case go more smoothly and more swiftly.
