Speaker: 00:00:01

Welcome to Jersey Justice, a civil law podcast that shares

Speaker: 00:00:04

practical tips and stories about personal and workplace injuries.

Speaker: 00:00:08

Joined two of the brightest New Jersey injury attorneys, Gerald Clark

Speaker: 00:00:12

and Mark Morris of Clark Law Firm.

Speaker: 00:00:14

As they take you behind the scenes of.

Speaker: 00:00:16

Justice and civil law.

Speaker: 00:00:18

But first, a quick disclaimer.

Speaker: 00:00:21

The information shared on this podcast is for general information purposes only.

Speaker: 00:00:26

Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any

Speaker: 00:00:29

individual case or situation.

Speaker: 00:00:32

This information is not intended to create and does not constitute

Speaker: 00:00:36

an attorney-client relationship.

Speaker: 00:00:41

Welcome back to Jersey Justice, and today we are gonna be talking about slip and

Speaker: 00:00:46

fall injuries, and we're gonna be talking about how you can be more safe and what

Speaker: 00:00:50

you need to know about negligence on part of establishments and business owners.

Speaker: 00:00:56

And we're gonna get into what you really need to understand about slip

Speaker: 00:01:00

and fall injuries in New Jersey.

Speaker: 00:01:02

And today we are with Stephanie Tok because she is gonna be talking to

Speaker: 00:01:07

us about slip and fall injuries.

Speaker: 00:01:09

We wanna welcome Stephanie.

Speaker: 00:01:10

So Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Speaker: 00:01:12

Thank you.

Speaker: 00:01:13

Glad to be here.

Speaker: 00:01:14

Stephanie, we're so excited to have you here today.

Speaker: 00:01:17

So for our audience, I'd love for you to share a little bit more about yourself.

Speaker: 00:01:21

It can be anything.

Speaker: 00:01:22

It can be about why you decided to become a lawyer or maybe you know,

Speaker: 00:01:26

what you like to do when you're not working in the field of law, and you

Speaker: 00:01:31

know, just any fun fact, anything you'd like to share with the audience.

Speaker: 00:01:35

Well, thank you.

Speaker: 00:01:36

I'm glad to be here today.

Speaker: 00:01:37

I have always wanted to be an attorney, even when I was younger.

Speaker: 00:01:41

I'm not sure of the exact reason why, but I, I always like the presenting

Speaker: 00:01:48

your case, arguing your opinion.

Speaker: 00:01:51

I used to do defense for a little bit, you know, 20 years ago.

Speaker: 00:01:55

And I didn't enjoy that as much because I didn't feel the one-on-one connection with

Speaker: 00:02:00

the client that I definitely feel now.

Speaker: 00:02:04

It's almost like a story, cuz I love to read too, and I feel

Speaker: 00:02:06

like a case is like a story.

Speaker: 00:02:08

It starts in the beginning how the incident happened, how the crash or the

Speaker: 00:02:12

slip and fall or whatever it is, and how it has impacted that person's life.

Speaker: 00:02:17

And then the ending is, If I'm successful or our attorneys at our firm

Speaker: 00:02:23

are successful, which we frequently are, and most likely are, then they

Speaker: 00:02:27

have a good ending to their story.

Speaker: 00:02:29

So the connection that we get with our clients is amazing.

Speaker: 00:02:33

Our firm, I've had many clients after I'm done representing them,

Speaker: 00:02:37

say I've never had that connection before, and that they appreciated

Speaker: 00:02:41

it and they get immediate responses.

Speaker: 00:02:43

And that's something I feel that I pride myself in.

Speaker: 00:02:47

And I feel like that it benefits the clients.

Speaker: 00:02:50

Things I love to do.

Speaker: 00:02:51

I love to travel.

Speaker: 00:02:52

I travel with my family.

Speaker: 00:02:53

I travel with my two kids who are older and we go everywhere

Speaker: 00:02:57

from Europe to Colorado to, so that, that's one thing I enjoy.

Speaker: 00:03:03

Awesome.

Speaker: 00:03:04

Awesome.

Speaker: 00:03:04

Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

Speaker: 00:03:06

I love that you love to travel.

Speaker: 00:03:07

That's so much fun.

Speaker: 00:03:09

And yes, that personal connection is so important and when we're

Speaker: 00:03:12

dealing with people, we're dealing with their lives and livelihood.

Speaker: 00:03:15

That's really commendable.

Speaker: 00:03:16

So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker: 00:03:17

So, you know, today, Stephanie, we're we're talking about

Speaker: 00:03:20

slip and fall injuries.

Speaker: 00:03:21

I know that you've handled a lot of slip and fall cases at the firm, and first

Speaker: 00:03:27

of all, maybe for our audience, you can share with us when it comes to slip and

Speaker: 00:03:31

fall, like, you know, What's defined as a slip and fall or slip and trip or, you

Speaker: 00:03:35

know, are there any slang, terminology, words that, that are used in New Jersey as

Speaker: 00:03:40

well to describe these type of injuries?

Speaker: 00:03:42

Well, I mean, there's numerous examples of slip and fall.

Speaker: 00:03:46

You could have, it could be on ice, it could be outside of a big box

Speaker: 00:03:51

store that perhaps, you know where the loading zone is and somebody drops

Speaker: 00:03:55

something off the back of the truck.

Speaker: 00:03:57

It could be some sort of material that, that the person doesn't even know.

Speaker: 00:04:01

It could be at a restaurant with spilled something.

Speaker: 00:04:04

It could be you're walking on a sidewalk on your way to the bus and there's a

Speaker: 00:04:08

differential in the sidewalk or a pot, you know, a pothole in the street.

Speaker: 00:04:14

And you happen to step on that.

Speaker: 00:04:16

So there's many instances of what a slip and fall could be.

Speaker: 00:04:20

It's interesting you say that about whether it's a slip and fall or a

Speaker: 00:04:23

trip and fall, and there's times where you do need to be very careful of

Speaker: 00:04:26

how you phrase it, because sometimes if you say trip and fall, it makes,

Speaker: 00:04:31

it seems like it was the customer or the client's fault for tripping on

Speaker: 00:04:35

something, when in fact it was, you know, something was left out in the walkway

Speaker: 00:04:40

or something was left out in the area.

Speaker: 00:04:42

So, That's one thing to keep in mind.

Speaker: 00:04:45

Thank you so much for sharing that because I'm just getting this vision

Speaker: 00:04:48

of someone at a grocery store and there could be a box or something sticking

Speaker: 00:04:52

out of the aisle and they don't see that and they trip over it and they fall.

Speaker: 00:04:55

I mean, obviously that's not really their fault because they didn't see it and there

Speaker: 00:04:59

were no safety cones like preventing that.

Speaker: 00:05:01

So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker: 00:05:02

So Jerry, I wanna get your perspective on this.

Speaker: 00:05:05

When it comes to slip and fall injuries in New Jersey, what's one

Speaker: 00:05:08

of the most important things that the public needs to know about?

Speaker: 00:05:13

Slip and fall injuries specifically in the state of New Jersey?

Speaker: 00:05:17

Well, the first thing I would say, you know, you say, oh, slip and fall injuries.

Speaker: 00:05:21

The first thing that comes to mind to me is like ambulance chasing

Speaker: 00:05:25

lawyer, and, oh, he slipped on a banana peel and let's sue someone.

Speaker: 00:05:29

So I actually don't like, To refer to them as slip and fall injuries, just cuz

Speaker: 00:05:34

there's like a bad connotation about that.

Speaker: 00:05:36

I like to refer them more as like fall down injuries, that kind of thing.

Speaker: 00:05:40

So the big picture, like kind of the big picture about that is that

Speaker: 00:05:45

there are all kinds of building codes and construction codes.

Speaker: 00:05:50

In essence, they are basic safety rules that are designed to keep everyone safe.

Speaker: 00:05:56

So if you walk.

Speaker: 00:05:57

Upstairs, like the height of the stairs has to be the same.

Speaker: 00:06:01

You can't have one stair riser being, you know, a certain amount of inches.

Speaker: 00:06:06

And then the next double and then the platform, the step that you step

Speaker: 00:06:10

on has to be a certain width and it has to be uniform and there has to be

Speaker: 00:06:17

handrails and all that thing, and the handrails have to go to a certain way

Speaker: 00:06:20

that's natural with the way you walk.

Speaker: 00:06:22

So that where you would naturally put your hand down.

Speaker: 00:06:25

You wouldn't miss the stairwell and fall.

Speaker: 00:06:27

So there's all kinds of building codes and basic safety rules that are in place

Speaker: 00:06:33

to prevent disaster happening to people.

Speaker: 00:06:36

I've had fall down cases where there's like skull fractures.

Speaker: 00:06:39

A person's gone blind.

Speaker: 00:06:41

We've had, we have had many fall down cases where there are serious broken

Speaker: 00:06:47

bones, which required surgery and.

Speaker: 00:06:49

Rods and screws put in and in almost every case that I've had in that

Speaker: 00:06:54

regard, there was a decision made by like a property owner or a business

Speaker: 00:07:00

to just disregard basic safety rules.

Speaker: 00:07:03

Whether it is a stairwell that is not up to code or a restaurant or a big chain

Speaker: 00:07:10

supermarket where there's a spilled something on the floor, which is a hazard.

Speaker: 00:07:16

And it's funny because like when you're younger, You know, oh,

Speaker: 00:07:19

you fall down, it's no big deal.

Speaker: 00:07:20

You look at the nfl, the guys are jumping and falling all over the place,

Speaker: 00:07:24

but those are young, young people.

Speaker: 00:07:26

But when you get older, A simple fall down can wreck the rest of your life.

Speaker: 00:07:30

We've seen it many, many times, and again, it's ordinarily because there's

Speaker: 00:07:34

a basic set of safety rules that have been ignored, and often we find they're

Speaker: 00:07:39

ignored because a business may wanna like maximize profits and not spend the

Speaker: 00:07:44

money or the effort that it takes to clean up a mess or to make an area safe.

Speaker: 00:07:50

You know, for example, like you said, something's sticking in

Speaker: 00:07:53

an aisle and it's funny because.

Speaker: 00:07:56

Like I've been to other countries where either they don't have

Speaker: 00:07:59

building codes or, or they don't have like a personal injury system.

Speaker: 00:08:04

Like for example, I've been to Mexico and it's very, very hard to bring a personal

Speaker: 00:08:09

injury case in Mexico as I understand it.

Speaker: 00:08:11

I mean, I don't practice in Mexico.

Speaker: 00:08:13

I don't know for sure.

Speaker: 00:08:14

But from speaking with attorneys in Mexico and everything, they don't,

Speaker: 00:08:18

they don't really enforce building codes in many, in many instances.

Speaker: 00:08:22

So when you walk in another country, You're used to walking in the United

Speaker: 00:08:26

States and you're, you're used to just the stairs being even, and the handrail being

Speaker: 00:08:30

where it should be, and you know, they're not being big craters in the sidewalk.

Speaker: 00:08:36

So when you go to another country, you gotta be very careful because

Speaker: 00:08:39

they don't have these building codes and they don't have.

Speaker: 00:08:43

Law where if you get hurt, you can actually go to an attorney

Speaker: 00:08:46

on a contingency basis where you can bring a case and, and

Speaker: 00:08:51

don't have to pay an attorney fee unless, unless there's a recovery.

Speaker: 00:08:54

So I think the biggest thing for kind of the public to know about fall down

Speaker: 00:08:59

cases, Is that there's basic set of safety rules that have to be followed, and if

Speaker: 00:09:05

they're not followed, disaster can happen.

Speaker: 00:09:07

And if that happens and you go to a law firm or an attorney that's

Speaker: 00:09:11

experienced in that can help you out.

Speaker: 00:09:13

You know, because we've had people that can't feed their families, they can't

Speaker: 00:09:16

work because they, they get hurt falling down spinal injuries and the like.

Speaker: 00:09:22

Yeah, I mean a lot of those injuries can be quite serious and it can

Speaker: 00:09:25

take, you know, months and months of recovering and physical therapy

Speaker: 00:09:28

and a lot of things are involved.

Speaker: 00:09:29

So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker: 00:09:31

I wanna go back over to Stephanie.

Speaker: 00:09:33

And Stephanie.

Speaker: 00:09:34

I wanted to know from you, can you think of a case that you've handled at the firm

Speaker: 00:09:37

that had to do with the slip and fall?

Speaker: 00:09:39

Maybe give us a little bit of details, some background history of why the

Speaker: 00:09:43

person fell, what caused the fall, what their injuries were, and, and

Speaker: 00:09:47

how the, that case was handled.

Speaker: 00:09:50

Sure I had a recent case and it involved woman, she was probably in

Speaker: 00:09:55

her seventies, and it kind of goes along with Jerry's point of, you know,

Speaker: 00:10:00

when you're younger and you fracture something, you can recover a lot easier.

Speaker: 00:10:05

But when these, a lot of our older clients.

Speaker: 00:10:07

Suffer an injury, it, it's hard for them.

Speaker: 00:10:10

And then what happens is in this situation, the woman was going

Speaker: 00:10:14

with her family to a restaurant to have something to eat.

Speaker: 00:10:17

And it was dark.

Speaker: 00:10:18

It was in November, end of November, and the facility had a big Christmas tree out

Speaker: 00:10:23

in front of the door and it wasn't lit.

Speaker: 00:10:26

And they decided, and this is ignoring the, a basic safety rule, they decided

Speaker: 00:10:32

the restaurant as well as the Christmas tree company that put the tree up.

Speaker: 00:10:36

To remove a paver from the walkway, and they thought that it would be a

Speaker: 00:10:41

good idea to stake the missing paver with a wire to cross it across the

Speaker: 00:10:46

walkway and attach it to the tree.

Speaker: 00:10:48

So my client comes walking up, it's dark.

Speaker: 00:10:52

The tree's not lit.

Speaker: 00:10:53

It was dark outside the restaurant too, and her foot not only gets

Speaker: 00:10:56

stuck in the missing paver, but then she trips over the wire.

Speaker: 00:11:00

So in that case, she had a broken femur, which is right above her

Speaker: 00:11:04

kneecap, and she had to have surgery.

Speaker: 00:11:07

And actually then maybe about five to six months later, she had to have

Speaker: 00:11:11

surgery to have the hardware removed because she had some plates and screws

Speaker: 00:11:15

in there and they were really bothering when she was trying to do her pt.

Speaker: 00:11:18

So then she had another surgery.

Speaker: 00:11:20

She had to have that all removed.

Speaker: 00:11:22

So that was a situation where, you know, we got an expert report to say that

Speaker: 00:11:27

clearly that both the restaurant and the.

Speaker: 00:11:31

Christmas Tree Company violated basic safety rules and then, you know, we were

Speaker: 00:11:36

able to get very good recovery for her.

Speaker: 00:11:39

I think I kind of remember that case.

Speaker: 00:11:41

And what was the wire like?

Speaker: 00:11:42

Could you see it?

Speaker: 00:11:43

I mean, it almost sounds like a trip wire unlike, you know,

Speaker: 00:11:46

like, almost like a trip wire.

Speaker: 00:11:48

Like what was that wire like?

Speaker: 00:11:49

Do you remember?

Speaker: 00:11:50

That's exactly what it was.

Speaker: 00:11:51

Like.

Speaker: 00:11:51

It was a, it was, it was gray, so, and it was a hard stiff wire.

Speaker: 00:11:56

And the problem was that they, they staked it from the missing

Speaker: 00:11:59

paver all the way across the wall.

Speaker: 00:12:01

Not a huge cross the walkway, but a good distance where, and she couldn't see it,

Speaker: 00:12:06

so that's why she tripped right over it.

Speaker: 00:12:08

They didn't put any flags or anything hanging down on the wire.

Speaker: 00:12:11

No.

Speaker: 00:12:12

There were no flags.

Speaker: 00:12:13

And what's interesting is after the incident, after she was tripped on

Speaker: 00:12:17

it and was severely injured, then they decided to put the stations,

Speaker: 00:12:21

you know, like you see at a movie theater with the that around it.

Speaker: 00:12:25

Then they decided to put that around it.

Speaker: 00:12:28

So then the patrons, no, no one else would be hurt.

Speaker: 00:12:32

But that was a little too late for this particular, you know,

Speaker: 00:12:35

individual who did get injured.

Speaker: 00:12:36

So that's clearly they were negligent.

Speaker: 00:12:40

Do you know if they put that up to protect other people?

Speaker: 00:12:43

Did they do it right after she fell or after our law firm got

Speaker: 00:12:47

involved and sent a letter?

Speaker: 00:12:49

No, they did it after she fell.

Speaker: 00:12:51

They did it after she fell.

Speaker: 00:12:52

And actually there were emails between the restaurant and the.

Speaker: 00:12:57

And the Christmas tree company the next morning and the restaurant

Speaker: 00:13:00

said, Hey, why did you put the Christmas tree up like this?

Speaker: 00:13:04

It's a danger to our patrons.

Speaker: 00:13:07

And you know, you never did it like this before.

Speaker: 00:13:10

So one would think that, oh, it's just a Christmas tree company that is on

Speaker: 00:13:14

the hook because they didn't do the correct implementation of, of the tree.

Speaker: 00:13:18

But the thing with that is it's the restaurant that hired

Speaker: 00:13:22

the Christmas tree company.

Speaker: 00:13:23

So that restaurant has a duty of care to its business invitees,

Speaker: 00:13:26

which is what it somebody that's coming to the restaurant is called.

Speaker: 00:13:31

They have a duty of care to them.

Speaker: 00:13:32

So they both violated their safety rules.

Speaker: 00:13:36

Wow.

Speaker: 00:13:37

I mean, of course, but that's why we have, we need lawyers because

Speaker: 00:13:40

things like that happen all the time.

Speaker: 00:13:42

So when it comes to slip and fall injuries and you're thinking about.

Speaker: 00:13:46

Everywhere, like establishments, like in New Jersey, I mean, people are just

Speaker: 00:13:50

going out, you know, for a nice meal.

Speaker: 00:13:52

They're going to a restaurant, they're going to a concert or a

Speaker: 00:13:56

show, they're going to all these different places and venues.

Speaker: 00:13:59

They may not even be aware of the dangers.

Speaker: 00:14:02

The sidewalk might not be even at these places.

Speaker: 00:14:04

There might be, you know, objects that are on the floor that were not.

Speaker: 00:14:08

Noticed and, and cleaned up, there might be spilled beverages

Speaker: 00:14:12

that make the floor slippery.

Speaker: 00:14:14

Right.

Speaker: 00:14:15

So can we talk a little bit about the responsibility of these establishments to

Speaker: 00:14:21

make sure that they have an environment that is safe for the patrons that, you

Speaker: 00:14:27

know, frequent these establishments?

Speaker: 00:14:30

I can respond to something and, and, and it was one of the things that I wanted to

Speaker: 00:14:33

point out earlier that sometimes I think.

Speaker: 00:14:37

Somebody that, that isn't familiar with the law may think, well, I fell in, I'm

Speaker: 00:14:42

not gonna say a store, but you know, the big stores, the stores that we go

Speaker: 00:14:45

to, I fell something was on the floor.

Speaker: 00:14:48

That store is automatically responsible.

Speaker: 00:14:50

But the, the way the law is, the defendants have to have notice

Speaker: 00:14:54

and knowledge of that condition.

Speaker: 00:14:57

Meaning notice the knowledge that.

Speaker: 00:14:59

There was a lemonade in the middle of the, the store that you were

Speaker: 00:15:03

shopping in to get your, your tissues.

Speaker: 00:15:05

Now there's sometimes where you can get around that notice of knowledge,

Speaker: 00:15:09

which one of the situations is if the.

Speaker: 00:15:12

Defendant, the store or the business owner created that condition.

Speaker: 00:15:17

So for instance, you had given an example before if there was a box in the aisle.

Speaker: 00:15:21

So if the store actually put a box in the store, employees actually put a box in the

Speaker: 00:15:26

aisle, or the store employees were packing something up and they left it all in the

Speaker: 00:15:31

middle of the floor, then we wouldn't have to prove notice of knowledge because

Speaker: 00:15:35

that defendant created that condition.

Speaker: 00:15:38

And it's the same thing with what's called like a mode of operation.

Speaker: 00:15:41

So if you have a, you know, the self-serve big box stores where you're

Speaker: 00:15:45

loading all your stuff up in the front, or you have some of the grocery stores

Speaker: 00:15:49

where you know it, perhaps it's not in the bag at that point, and they're

Speaker: 00:15:52

bagging it, and so something happens there, then you all, then you don't

Speaker: 00:15:57

have to show that the defendant had noticed a knowledge of that condition.

Speaker: 00:16:02

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: 00:16:03

Thank you so much for sharing about notice and knowledge.

Speaker: 00:16:05

So I think that's a concept that our audience needs to know about.

Speaker: 00:16:09

So, Jerry, what else does the audience need to know about slip and fall injuries?

Speaker: 00:16:12

And, and maybe you can talk a little bit about like the investigation process.

Speaker: 00:16:16

So if someone does come to our firm, what are some of the steps involved

Speaker: 00:16:21

in really, you know, investigating their injury and proving that there

Speaker: 00:16:25

was negligence, because that's a whole process that we have to take them through.

Speaker: 00:16:31

Yeah, I think if someone comes to us for, say, a fall down injury,

Speaker: 00:16:36

uh, let's say it's at a restaurant.

Speaker: 00:16:38

And to answer your question very simply, the idea is that because these

Speaker: 00:16:42

businesses are inviting people to the business to make money, that they have a

Speaker: 00:16:48

duty to make the place safe for people.

Speaker: 00:16:50

You can't invite people in into a trap.

Speaker: 00:16:53

So if someone comes to us and, and they have fallen, every case is

Speaker: 00:16:57

different and the steps that are taken in each case is different.

Speaker: 00:17:01

But generally speaking, we're gonna try to contact the establishment as

Speaker: 00:17:06

soon as possible and see if there's any surveillance videos of the incident.

Speaker: 00:17:11

That's always really important.

Speaker: 00:17:13

Today, many places are covered by surveillance videos,

Speaker: 00:17:16

so we'll try to get that.

Speaker: 00:17:17

A lot of times we'll get pictures, we'll try to get pictures, and

Speaker: 00:17:20

we'll go to the scene and do like an inspection or investigation.

Speaker: 00:17:24

Sometimes we'll go there with an engineer, so like if someone fell down steps,

Speaker: 00:17:28

we don't necessarily know if there's anything wrong with the steps until.

Speaker: 00:17:32

We have an engineer look at it or get some good pictures of the situation.

Speaker: 00:17:36

So, so that's it.

Speaker: 00:17:37

So Stephanie told about a case, so I, I gotta do a little bit of a, a war story.

Speaker: 00:17:42

We call 'em war stories sometimes.

Speaker: 00:17:43

Like, ah, this is what happened, you know, so we had a case and

Speaker: 00:17:46

to share a little video here.

Speaker: 00:17:49

And so this nice woman was walking out of a restaurant and this

Speaker: 00:17:56

video is about 30 seconds long.

Speaker: 00:17:59

And she's there with her friend and this restaurant did serve alcohol and

Speaker: 00:18:03

no, she was not under the influence of alcohol walking out of there.

Speaker: 00:18:08

And she goes to step and falls down.

Speaker: 00:18:13

It's, it's always hard looking at that video because it's like kind of traumatic.

Speaker: 00:18:18

So, so when you go here and look, it's like, it's like what happened?

Speaker: 00:18:24

So we did investigation.

Speaker: 00:18:26

We went there and we got a picture of the steps, and it was really wacky and dimple.

Speaker: 00:18:34

I have a question for you.

Speaker: 00:18:36

You see this picture all right now, where do you think the top platform

Speaker: 00:18:45

ends and the first step starts?

Speaker: 00:18:47

Can you tell.

Speaker: 00:18:49

I'm gonna be honest with you.

Speaker: 00:18:50

It's really hard to tell.

Speaker: 00:18:51

It almost looks like an optical illusion, in my opinion.

Speaker: 00:18:55

All right.

Speaker: 00:18:55

That's funny you say that.

Speaker: 00:18:57

So when we looked at this, it looks like the first yellow strip here is

Speaker: 00:19:05

on the platform at the top platform.

Speaker: 00:19:07

Do you see that?

Speaker: 00:19:08

Do you, do you see the first yellow strip here?

Speaker: 00:19:10

Oh wow.

Speaker: 00:19:11

You know what?

Speaker: 00:19:11

You're right.

Speaker: 00:19:12

It does.

Speaker: 00:19:12

That's exactly what it looks like.

Speaker: 00:19:14

Doesn't it look like it's on the top of the platform?

Speaker: 00:19:16

That's very deceptive.

Speaker: 00:19:18

Yes, and that's exactly what happened here.

Speaker: 00:19:21

So as she's walking out, it looks like this.

Speaker: 00:19:25

Now, where that yellow strip is, there's actually a, it's a step down,

Speaker: 00:19:30

but from what you called it an optical illusion, which is what our expert

Speaker: 00:19:34

called it in the case, it looks like she's still walking on the same step,

Speaker: 00:19:38

and that's why she mistepped and fell.

Speaker: 00:19:42

So, That's one of the most common causes of falling is when you miss a

Speaker: 00:19:47

step because you don't see the step.

Speaker: 00:19:49

And in this video clearly it's very difficult to see the step

Speaker: 00:19:53

because where the yellow line is, I mean, it's like deceptive.

Speaker: 00:19:58

You know?

Speaker: 00:19:59

Imagine if it was an older person who had a bit of cataracts,

Speaker: 00:20:02

that would be even worse.

Speaker: 00:20:04

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:04

So you could see she's going to step and if, I don't know

Speaker: 00:20:07

how much you can see it there.

Speaker: 00:20:09

But you could see the edge of this top of the platform.

Speaker: 00:20:12

And her heel is like right in the middle of it.

Speaker: 00:20:15

She's thinking she's still on the top platform and goes down, so,

Speaker: 00:20:21

so if we look at a closeup picture of that and you could see it.

Speaker: 00:20:24

Look at this one.

Speaker: 00:20:26

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:28

Okay.

Speaker: 00:20:28

So we had an expert look at that to give you an idea of what these cases are like.

Speaker: 00:20:33

And lo and behold, there's a building code that addresses this exactly.

Speaker: 00:20:37

And these yellow stripes on the steps are called treatment.

Speaker: 00:20:42

They're called step treatments.

Speaker: 00:20:44

And if you decide to treat the, first of all, you have to put treatment on it,

Speaker: 00:20:49

meaning you have to put the yellow strip because this wood all looks the same.

Speaker: 00:20:52

So you have to have a treatment to differentiate it.

Speaker: 00:20:55

But when you do the treatment, the building code requires the treatment

Speaker: 00:20:58

also to be on the top step for this very thing that happened here.

Speaker: 00:21:03

So we investigated the case.

Speaker: 00:21:05

We attempted to settle the case pre-suit.

Speaker: 00:21:08

They weren't offering any, any reasonable money.

Speaker: 00:21:11

We got experts in the case and then the insurance company.

Speaker: 00:21:14

So in all these cases, pretty much all these cases, there's an insurance

Speaker: 00:21:17

company behind the restaurant.

Speaker: 00:21:19

When you file the case, yes, you name the restaurant, but really it's the

Speaker: 00:21:22

insurance company that would hire the lawyers for the restaurant and

Speaker: 00:21:27

pay any judgment or settlement to the limits of the insurance policy.

Speaker: 00:21:31

So really it's the insurance company that you're fighting with.

Speaker: 00:21:34

So then they hire these experts that said, oh, it, you don't need a treatment

Speaker: 00:21:39

on the top of the step, and it would've made it more dangerous, et cetera, et

Speaker: 00:21:43

cetera, and that shouldn't be done.

Speaker: 00:21:46

So then in the case, after we got those reports and after they got the

Speaker: 00:21:49

report from our expert that did this and laid it out, we went back to the

Speaker: 00:21:53

scene and lo and behold, they put a treatment on the top of the step.

Speaker: 00:21:57

So they're basically hiring these experts to basically just lie.

Speaker: 00:22:02

And it's like, oh, you know, so what happened?

Speaker: 00:22:05

So here, there was a bunch of injuries, but one of the more significant injuries

Speaker: 00:22:10

was she broke her wrist real bad.

Speaker: 00:22:12

You can see the deformity there.

Speaker: 00:22:14

And then she had to go to the, to the er, and they put her hand up in the

Speaker: 00:22:17

sling and did like a closed reduction.

Speaker: 00:22:20

And then what we'll also do from time to time in cases, is

Speaker: 00:22:24

we'll get medical illustrations.

Speaker: 00:22:26

So this is a, this is a medical illustration of the, the actual

Speaker: 00:22:32

x-ray, and then it's drawn to show what happened to the bones, and then

Speaker: 00:22:38

there's like plates put in and all this kind of thing, you know, and

Speaker: 00:22:42

then there was like other injuries.

Speaker: 00:22:44

So that's kind of like an example of one of these cases.

Speaker: 00:22:47

And.

Speaker: 00:22:48

I mean, a person like that, they could have broke their neck.

Speaker: 00:22:50

It could have been an older woman.

Speaker: 00:22:51

I mean, this woman had probably $200,000 in medical bills from this.

Speaker: 00:22:56

It's not like you do it and then, oh, the insurance company pays the money.

Speaker: 00:23:00

No.

Speaker: 00:23:00

What they do, because these insurance companies are funded

Speaker: 00:23:03

like to billions of dollars.

Speaker: 00:23:05

And they used that money to just fight and try to wear you down.

Speaker: 00:23:09

We took this case, I think we litigated for like four years, um, and we

Speaker: 00:23:13

brought it all the way to trial.

Speaker: 00:23:14

We were in the middle of jury selection and then finally they paid, I forget

Speaker: 00:23:18

the exact number, it was like got the woman like six or $700,000 and

Speaker: 00:23:23

settlement, but it wasn't easy.

Speaker: 00:23:24

It was like a lot of work.

Speaker: 00:23:25

And then they send her to doctors saying that, oh, her injuries aren't

Speaker: 00:23:28

bad, and she had a good result.

Speaker: 00:23:30

She also had some spinal injuries and they say, oh, well, She

Speaker: 00:23:34

doesn't have spinal injuries.

Speaker: 00:23:35

And even if she does, that's from being a cheerleader in high

Speaker: 00:23:38

school or something, and they come up with all these crazy things.

Speaker: 00:23:41

So that's what we have to fight.

Speaker: 00:23:42

So, so again, you gotta be careful out there if you're, if you know,

Speaker: 00:23:47

if you're running a business and stuff, make sure you get your general

Speaker: 00:23:50

liability insurance and make sure you're following just basic safety rules.

Speaker: 00:23:54

And a lot of these safety rules are just common sense, you know, Jared,

Speaker: 00:23:57

like that's such a great example.

Speaker: 00:23:59

And I mean, what's coming to my mind is, I'm pretty sure.

Speaker: 00:24:02

That's not the first time that someone has fallen down that staircase.

Speaker: 00:24:05

It's just that that's the first time someone's fallen down and injured

Speaker: 00:24:09

themselves or injured themselves enough where you know they broke

Speaker: 00:24:13

their wrist and things like that.

Speaker: 00:24:15

But I can guarantee someone's probably fallen down unless it was newly built and

Speaker: 00:24:19

that she's one of the first few people.

Speaker: 00:24:21

The other thing that comes to mind is, When things like this happen,

Speaker: 00:24:24

I think clients are not aware.

Speaker: 00:24:26

Like they just think like the restaurant's gonna say, oh yeah, I

Speaker: 00:24:29

can deal with our insurance agency.

Speaker: 00:24:30

And they're not really clear about why it's so important to hire a reputable and

Speaker: 00:24:36

knowledgeable personal injury attorney to fight for them because maybe you can

Speaker: 00:24:40

shed a little bit of light on what happens when they don't have an attorney to

Speaker: 00:24:43

represent them, and they're just trying to deal with the insurance company and

Speaker: 00:24:48

the restaurant on their own, for example.

Speaker: 00:24:50

Yeah, just real quick on that and then maybe Stephanie can speak to that, but

Speaker: 00:24:53

I, I had a quick thing just in what you said, well, maybe they didn't get hurt

Speaker: 00:24:58

or maybe they, the other maybe is, you know, if there was other people that

Speaker: 00:25:01

fell is maybe they didn't find a lawyer that knows how to handle these cases.

Speaker: 00:25:05

We've had many cases come to us that we have settled for many hundreds of

Speaker: 00:25:09

thousands or sometimes millions of dollars, where other attorneys either

Speaker: 00:25:13

told them you don't have a case, or they handled the case for a while.

Speaker: 00:25:17

I just settled the case last Friday.

Speaker: 00:25:20

It was for a worker who fell off scaffolding on a job and he had built the

Speaker: 00:25:25

scaffolding and it didn't work, and he had to like kind of go off the scaffolding.

Speaker: 00:25:28

We settled this case for $400,000 and that again, it was after like five years

Speaker: 00:25:33

of litigation, but he was so happy.

Speaker: 00:25:35

He goes, you know, I went to this other law firm.

Speaker: 00:25:37

And they told me I had no case and I couldn't handle it.

Speaker: 00:25:40

And that wasn't like a real estate law firm or a criminal defense law firm.

Speaker: 00:25:43

It was a personal injury law firm.

Speaker: 00:25:45

So it's important to actually find a law firm that handles the cases

Speaker: 00:25:50

that have a reputation of taking cases to trial, that kind of thing.

Speaker: 00:25:54

But Stephanie can probably speak a little bit better about what, specifically

Speaker: 00:25:59

what, what you had asked about.

Speaker: 00:26:01

Can someone handle these cases on their own and get justice?

Speaker: 00:26:05

So I think the answer to that is somebody could handle it on their own, but they

Speaker: 00:26:10

certainly will not get the amount of money and the compensation that they would

Speaker: 00:26:15

get if they hired a well-versed personal injury law firm like ours, or really

Speaker: 00:26:23

any firm that knows what they're doing.

Speaker: 00:26:27

Cuz the thing is, the insurance company will say to them, oh,

Speaker: 00:26:31

here's, you know, Here's $3,000 or $5,000 to keep them quiet.

Speaker: 00:26:37

And to a client that might be like, Ooh, okay, that's good.

Speaker: 00:26:39

But the thing is, when they come to us, then we say, okay, we, we get the video.

Speaker: 00:26:46

We see if there were any prior incidents there.

Speaker: 00:26:48

And then once we get involved, the insurance company, they kind of sit up

Speaker: 00:26:54

and take notice and say, okay, wait.

Speaker: 00:26:55

This is a serious case.

Speaker: 00:26:57

So I definitely think if you wanna get the most for your money and be compensated

Speaker: 00:27:03

for a safety violation that the store or the restaurant has committed, then

Speaker: 00:27:08

I definitely think you need to come to our law firm or an experienced attorney.

Speaker: 00:27:13

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: 00:27:14

That's, that's, you know, really, really crucial because without that,

Speaker: 00:27:18

they're just gonna be misled and they may not know what they don't know.

Speaker: 00:27:21

Right.

Speaker: 00:27:22

It's not their fault for not knowing.

Speaker: 00:27:23

And I think that's one of the reasons why we're, you know, putting this podcast

Speaker: 00:27:27

out there is to educate New Jersey workers and residents on knowing the

Speaker: 00:27:34

difference between the laws and getting the justice that they need because

Speaker: 00:27:37

they don't know what they don't know.

Speaker: 00:27:39

Right.

Speaker: 00:27:39

And we're doing this to.

Speaker: 00:27:41

Bring more awareness around injuries, whether it's workplace

Speaker: 00:27:44

injuries, whether it's construction injuries, whether it's slip and fall

Speaker: 00:27:47

injuries, like all of those things.

Speaker: 00:27:49

So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker: 00:27:50

And then one of my final questions would be like Jerry, And then maybe if

Speaker: 00:27:55

you know you wanna chime in after that, Stephanie as well, that'd be great.

Speaker: 00:27:58

But I know like people always wanna know this like, well, how,

Speaker: 00:28:02

how are settlements calculated?

Speaker: 00:28:04

And I know there's 10 tons of factors that go into calculating a settlement,

Speaker: 00:28:08

but for the people that are always asking these questions, maybe you

Speaker: 00:28:11

could shed a little bit more light onto that topic, because I know it's

Speaker: 00:28:16

a common question that people have.

Speaker: 00:28:18

All right, so I'll equate that to a hamburger or a cheeseburger.

Speaker: 00:28:22

How is a cheeseburger priced?

Speaker: 00:28:25

Well, if you go to McDonald's, the cheeseburger is gonna be priced one way.

Speaker: 00:28:30

If you go to Spark Steakhouse in New York City, the cheeseburger is

Speaker: 00:28:35

gonna be priced a different way, and a lot of that goes into how

Speaker: 00:28:40

many cheeseburgers are they making?

Speaker: 00:28:41

What kind of meat are they getting?

Speaker: 00:28:43

So at the end of the day, you know, law is a business, law firms, private

Speaker: 00:28:49

law firms, personal injury law firms.

Speaker: 00:28:51

It is a business and there's, and there's different business models.

Speaker: 00:28:55

And some law firms will go for like kind of the fast food law, meaning they'll

Speaker: 00:29:00

make a ton of hamburgers and charge $2 for the hamburger, or maybe perhaps on

Speaker: 00:29:06

one menu you can get it for a dollar.

Speaker: 00:29:08

Whereas a steakhouse is gonna charge a lot more because it's a better hamburger.

Speaker: 00:29:12

So, Settlements are calculated on a lot of different things.

Speaker: 00:29:17

There's never a guarantee in any of these cases, and we've definitely lost cases.

Speaker: 00:29:21

There's no question about that.

Speaker: 00:29:22

But we've also won a lot of cases, and we've certainly won

Speaker: 00:29:25

far more than we have lost.

Speaker: 00:29:27

And we like to think that we get really good settlements and we

Speaker: 00:29:31

get high settlements in cases because we we're not a mill.

Speaker: 00:29:34

We don't handle big volumes of cases, and I like to think that we have a reputation

Speaker: 00:29:40

for taking cases to verdict and trying them and hiring good experts and putting

Speaker: 00:29:45

the resources and the tender loving care that these cases require we put into them.

Speaker: 00:29:51

And I like to think that because of that we're making.

Speaker: 00:29:55

A better hamburger, but we're we're getting better settlements.

Speaker: 00:29:59

So there's a lot that goes into how do you value a case and

Speaker: 00:30:02

how do you value a settlement.

Speaker: 00:30:04

It's the injury, but it's the attorney and the law firm and how they're working

Speaker: 00:30:10

the case up and are they investigating it.

Speaker: 00:30:12

Like those medical illustrations that I showed you on that case, I

Speaker: 00:30:15

think they cost probably $8,000.

Speaker: 00:30:18

Some law firms.

Speaker: 00:30:20

Won't even think to do medical illustrations like that.

Speaker: 00:30:22

They'll just say, oh yeah, they broke the wrist and had surgery.

Speaker: 00:30:25

It's one thing to say, it's another thing to show it.

Speaker: 00:30:28

A lot of it goes into like the age of the person and what permanent life

Speaker: 00:30:32

changes they've had and what the medical bills are and what the wages are.

Speaker: 00:30:38

But it's easy to say all those things, but it's another thing to go up against

Speaker: 00:30:41

a well-funded insurance company or a corporation that's fighting you in court

Speaker: 00:30:47

and fighting everything you do, including fighting your ability to make the claim

Speaker: 00:30:50

for medical bills, fighting your ability to make a claim for wages or fighting,

Speaker: 00:30:56

your ability to bring in witnesses to testify as to what the injuries are.

Speaker: 00:31:01

So a lot goes into how it's valued.

Speaker: 00:31:04

So thanks for asking that.

Speaker: 00:31:06

Yeah, thank you for sharing that.

Speaker: 00:31:07

I mean, and then that was a great analogy, by the way.

Speaker: 00:31:09

Thank people can relate to storytelling and hamburgers and all that stuff,

Speaker: 00:31:14

so thank you for sharing that.

Speaker: 00:31:15

You know, last thoughts are like, let's, let's see if we can leave the

Speaker: 00:31:18

audience with some pointers on their day-to-day life and errands that

Speaker: 00:31:21

they're running out in New Jersey.

Speaker: 00:31:23

Like what are some tips you can give them on staying safe and being

Speaker: 00:31:27

more aware of their surroundings so that they are not ending up

Speaker: 00:31:31

in one of these slip and fall or.

Speaker: 00:31:33

Fall down injuries, as you would say.

Speaker: 00:31:36

I think a few tips that I would have is just one of the things that you said is

Speaker: 00:31:40

being more aware of your surroundings.

Speaker: 00:31:42

So when you park in the parking lot at the, at the mall or one of the

Speaker: 00:31:46

big box stores and you get out, think to yourself, okay, am I getting out?

Speaker: 00:31:51

And especially if there's ice or there's snowy conditions, don't assume, never

Speaker: 00:31:56

assume that it's properly cleared.

Speaker: 00:31:59

Never assume that there it was properly salted or that there isn't ice somewhere.

Speaker: 00:32:04

So just I, I would say as to that, take your time, be very mindful of your

Speaker: 00:32:10

surroundings when you're in a store.

Speaker: 00:32:12

The same thing, be mindful of your surroundings.

Speaker: 00:32:15

Don't assume that it, the stores are gonna be, the aisles are gonna be

Speaker: 00:32:18

clean and neat and there's not gonna be something that's, that's there.

Speaker: 00:32:22

But one of the things I wanted to bring up was, Also don't assume because

Speaker: 00:32:28

it's not gonna happen, that if you do fall, that that store is gonna

Speaker: 00:32:33

have your best interest at heart.

Speaker: 00:32:35

So for instance, if you're too injured, you call somebody and have them come,

Speaker: 00:32:39

you know, come out to file an incident report to say, Hey, you, you need to

Speaker: 00:32:45

save whatever video you have here.

Speaker: 00:32:47

Because you can't trust that they will have your interest

Speaker: 00:32:51

at heart because they won't.

Speaker: 00:32:53

And also, say for instance, you fell outside on a sidewalk at

Speaker: 00:32:57

your condominium complex, okay?

Speaker: 00:32:59

You might be thinking, oh gosh, I'm, I'm injured, I gotta get,

Speaker: 00:33:02

I gotta get to the hospital.

Speaker: 00:33:03

I got to get, get this figured out.

Speaker: 00:33:04

And that's true, but you can also have maybe somebody in your family say, Hey.

Speaker: 00:33:10

Any ring doorbells, we have an issue, one of my cases where there's, she

Speaker: 00:33:15

fell outside on her condominium.

Speaker: 00:33:16

They didn't properly clear it.

Speaker: 00:33:17

There was snow and there was ice.

Speaker: 00:33:19

And it was at a time when they, they knew the condominium owners

Speaker: 00:33:23

would be out walking their dogs and going to work and it wasn't cleared.

Speaker: 00:33:26

And they ended up getting a ring doorbell from somebody, one of their neighbors,

Speaker: 00:33:30

that showed exactly what happened.

Speaker: 00:33:32

So I guess my point is, if this does happen to you, just

Speaker: 00:33:36

really try to be proactive.

Speaker: 00:33:38

Don't wait.

Speaker: 00:33:39

And I know we're not on this, but same thing with an automobile accident.

Speaker: 00:33:43

I mean, you or automobile crash you.

Speaker: 00:33:45

Same thing.

Speaker: 00:33:46

We just had one where I'd hit by a car.

Speaker: 00:33:48

She was walking, she was a pedestrian.

Speaker: 00:33:51

And I said to the daughter when she called me, Hey, go to, there's a gas

Speaker: 00:33:55

station across the road, isn't there?

Speaker: 00:33:56

Let's get that video.

Speaker: 00:33:58

And they've got the video and it captured everything.

Speaker: 00:34:01

You wait too long and then the video will be erased.

Speaker: 00:34:03

So I guess that's what I would say to keep your eyes and your ears open,

Speaker: 00:34:07

and if something, God forbid happens, please be your own advocate and see if

Speaker: 00:34:13

you can get video and then, Come to us.

Speaker: 00:34:17

Thank you, Stephanie.

Speaker: 00:34:18

Those are all great tips and you know, actionable things that injured parties can

Speaker: 00:34:22

start taking or anyone who's with them can also help them do some of those things.

Speaker: 00:34:26

So thank you so much.

Speaker: 00:34:27

And, and Jerry, what else would you add to that in terms of any safety

Speaker: 00:34:30

pointers and tips for all of our New Jersey residents out there?

Speaker: 00:34:35

Well, I know that when I watch podcasts, I definitely lose interest after 20

Speaker: 00:34:39

minutes, and I know we're over that part.

Speaker: 00:34:42

So my advice would be to tune into the next podcast.

Speaker: 00:34:47

You're so smooth, aren't you?

Speaker: 00:34:48

But I'm also gonna tell the audience if they are listening to the audio

Speaker: 00:34:52

version right now, that we're gonna link the YouTube video in the show

Speaker: 00:34:56

notes and make sure you check that out to see the video of the case that

Speaker: 00:35:01

Jerry shared where the female fell with the poorly marked staircase.

Speaker: 00:35:06

I think you'll find it very fascinating to watch.

Speaker: 00:35:08

So make sure you guys do that.

Speaker: 00:35:10

And this is a wrap.

Speaker: 00:35:11

We'll see you guys next time.

Speaker: 00:35:15

And there you have it, folks.

Speaker: 00:35:16

Another episode of Jersey Justice Podcast.

Speaker: 00:35:19

If you're loving what you're hearing, it's time to head that subscribe button

Speaker: 00:35:23

on Apple, YouTube and Spotify podcast.

Speaker: 00:35:26

And don't forget to leave us a review online, share this podcast with your

Speaker: 00:35:30

friends and become their legal hero.

Speaker: 00:35:32

Dive into more episodes@jerseyjusticepodcast.com,

Speaker: 00:35:37

r clark law nj.com, and check out our show notes for more information.

Speaker: 00:35:43

If you're navigating legal issues, an need a guiding light,

Speaker: 00:35:46

we're just a phone call away.

Speaker: 00:35:47

Call us at +1 877-841-8855.

Speaker: 00:35:52

Again, 1 8 7 7 8 4 1 8 8 5 5.

Speaker: 00:35:57

Until next time, Jersey Justice Warriors stay empowered and informed.