If my daughter fell on a open cracked bottle of liquid at a store and her hand was cut open, would it benefit me to look into getting a lawyer?
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If my daughter fell on a open cracked bottle of liquid at a store and her hand was cut open, would it benefit me to look into getting a lawyer?
Asked on March 18, 2015 under Personal Injury, Indiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
There are two issues:
1) What were your daughter's medical costs (out-of-pocket costs only; i.e. not paid by insurance or by a government program) and did she suffer long-lasting or permanent disability or impairment? You can only recover compensation equivalent to your costs and the extent of the injury. If, as we hope, your daughter did not suffer long-lasting injury and if your out-of-pocket medical costs were relatively low, there's no point in suing: you'd spend more on a lawsuit than you'd get back for a few hundred dollars (or less) of medical costs and a temporary injury.
2) Was the store at fault? That's not a given: if the bottle had only just cracked or fallen on the floor and the store had no reasonable opportunity to clean it up, they would not be liable in the first place.
Therefore, it is far from certain that a lawsuit would be worthwhile.
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