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Trip and Fall Accidents in New Jersey: A Case Study Uncovering Negligence and Liability
Episode 815th June 2023 • Jersey Justice • Gerald H. Clark, Esq.
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Episode 8 of Jersey Justice Podcast™: Trip and Fall Accidents in New Jersey: A Case Study Uncovering Negligence and Liability with Stephanie Tolnai, Esq.

Watch this episode on our YouTube channel to see clips of how our client fell down poorly marked stairs outside a New Jersey restaurant.

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Transcripts

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Welcome to Jersey Justice, a civil law podcast that shares

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practical tips and stories about personal and workplace injuries.

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

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and Mark Morris of Clark Law Firm.

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As they take you behind the scenes of.

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Justice and civil law.

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But first, a quick disclaimer.

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

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

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individual case or situation.

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This information is not intended to create and does not constitute

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an attorney-client relationship.

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

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

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

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

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and fall injuries in New Jersey.

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

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us about slip and fall injuries.

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We wanna welcome Stephanie.

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So Stephanie, welcome to the show.

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Thank you.

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Glad to be here.

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

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

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It can be anything.

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

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

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

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Well, thank you.

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I'm glad to be here today.

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

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

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your case, arguing your opinion.

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

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

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the client that I definitely feel now.

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

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like a case is like a story.

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

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

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

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

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have a good ending to their story.

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

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

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

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it and they get immediate responses.

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

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And I feel like that it benefits the clients.

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Things I love to do.

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I love to travel.

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I travel with my family.

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

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

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Awesome.

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Awesome.

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Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

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I love that you love to travel.

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That's so much fun.

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

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

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That's really commendable.

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So thank you for sharing that.

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

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slip and fall injuries.

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

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

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

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

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well to describe these type of injuries?

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

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

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

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something off the back of the truck.

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

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It could be at a restaurant with spilled something.

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

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

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And you happen to step on that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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or something was left out in the area.

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

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

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

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

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

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were no safety cones like preventing that.

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So thank you for sharing that.

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So Jerry, I wanna get your perspective on this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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there's like a bad connotation about that.

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

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

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there are all kinds of building codes and construction codes.

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

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So if you walk.

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

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

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

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

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

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that's natural with the way you walk.

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So that where you would naturally put your hand down.

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You wouldn't miss the stairwell and fall.

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

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to prevent disaster happening to people.

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

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A person's gone blind.

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

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bones, which required surgery and.

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

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

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to just disregard basic safety rules.

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

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

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

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you fall down, it's no big deal.

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

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but those are young, young people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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an aisle and it's funny because.

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

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

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

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injury case in Mexico as I understand it.

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I mean, I don't practice in Mexico.

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I don't know for sure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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they're not followed, disaster can happen.

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

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experienced in that can help you out.

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

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

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

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

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and a lot of things are involved.

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So thank you for sharing that.

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I wanna go back over to Stephanie.

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And Stephanie.

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

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that had to do with the slip and fall?

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

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

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how the, that case was handled.

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

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

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

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But when these, a lot of our older clients.

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

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

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

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And it was dark.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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walkway and attach it to the tree.

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

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The tree's not lit.

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

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

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

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kneecap, and she had to have surgery.

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

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

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

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So then she had another surgery.

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She had to have that all removed.

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

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clearly that both the restaurant and the.

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

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able to get very good recovery for her.

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I think I kind of remember that case.

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And what was the wire like?

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Could you see it?

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

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like, almost like a trip wire.

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Like what was that wire like?

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Do you remember?

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That's exactly what it was.

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Like.

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

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

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paver all the way across the wall.

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

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so that's why she tripped right over it.

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

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No.

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There were no flags.

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

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

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

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Then they decided to put that around it.

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

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

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individual who did get injured.

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So that's clearly they were negligent.

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

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

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involved and sent a letter?

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No, they did it after she fell.

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They did it after she fell.

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And actually there were emails between the restaurant and the.

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And the Christmas tree company the next morning and the restaurant

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

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It's a danger to our patrons.

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

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

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

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

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the Christmas tree company.

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

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

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They have a duty of care to them.

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So they both violated their safety rules.

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Wow.

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

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things like that happen all the time.

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

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

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going out, you know, for a nice meal.

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

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

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They may not even be aware of the dangers.

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The sidewalk might not be even at these places.

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

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

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that make the floor slippery.

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Right.

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

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

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know, frequent these establishments?

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

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point out earlier that sometimes I think.

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

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

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to, I fell something was on the floor.

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That store is automatically responsible.

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

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and knowledge of that condition.

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Meaning notice the knowledge that.

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

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shopping in to get your, your tissues.

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

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which one of the situations is if the.

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

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

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

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

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

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that defendant created that condition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Thank you so much for sharing about notice and knowledge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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duty to make the place safe for people.

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You can't invite people in into a trap.

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

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

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

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

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That's always really important.

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Today, many places are covered by surveillance videos,

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so we'll try to get that.

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

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

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

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

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

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So, so that's it.

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

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We call 'em war stories sometimes.

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

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to share a little video here.

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

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video is about 30 seconds long.

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

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

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And she goes to step and falls down.

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

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

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So we did investigation.

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

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I have a question for you.

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

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ends and the first step starts?

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Can you tell.

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I'm gonna be honest with you.

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It's really hard to tell.

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

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All right.

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That's funny you say that.

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

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on the platform at the top platform.

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Do you see that?

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

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Oh wow.

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You know what?

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You're right.

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It does.

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That's exactly what it looks like.

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

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That's very deceptive.

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Yes, and that's exactly what happened here.

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

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

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

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

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and that's why she mistepped and fell.

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

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step because you don't see the step.

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

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

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You know?

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

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that would be even worse.

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Yeah.

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

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how much you can see it there.

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

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

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

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

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Look at this one.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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

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

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And these yellow stripes on the steps are called treatment.

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They're called step treatments.

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

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

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So you have to have a treatment to differentiate it.

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

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

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So we investigated the case.

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We attempted to settle the case pre-suit.

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They weren't offering any, any reasonable money.

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

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

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company behind the restaurant.

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

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insurance company that would hire the lawyers for the restaurant and

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

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

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

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

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cetera, and that shouldn't be done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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was she broke her wrist real bad.

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You can see the deformity there.

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

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sling and did like a closed reduction.

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

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we'll get medical illustrations.

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

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

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

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then there was like other injuries.

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

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And.

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

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It could have been an older woman.

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

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

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No.

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What they do, because these insurance companies are funded

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like to billions of dollars.

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

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

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brought it all the way to trial.

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

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

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settlement, but it wasn't easy.

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It was like a lot of work.

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

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bad, and she had a good result.

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

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doesn't have spinal injuries.

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

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

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So that's what we have to fight.

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

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

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

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

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like that's such a great example.

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

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

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

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themselves or injured themselves enough where you know they broke

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their wrist and things like that.

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

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that she's one of the first few people.

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

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I think clients are not aware.

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

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can deal with our insurance agency.

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

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

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

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

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the restaurant on their own, for example.

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

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

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

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

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

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thousands or sometimes millions of dollars, where other attorneys either

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

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I just settled the case last Friday.

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

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

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

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of litigation, but he was so happy.

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

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

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

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It was a personal injury law firm.

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

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

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

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what, what you had asked about.

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

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

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

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

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any firm that knows what they're doing.

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

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

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

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

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We see if there were any prior incidents there.

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

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and take notice and say, okay, wait.

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This is a serious case.

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

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

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

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Yeah, absolutely.

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

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

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Right.

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It's not their fault for not knowing.

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

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

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

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

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Right.

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And we're doing this to.

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Bring more awareness around injuries, whether it's workplace

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

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injuries, like all of those things.

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So thank you for sharing that.

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

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

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

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how are settlements calculated?

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

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

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

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a common question that people have.

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

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How is a cheeseburger priced?

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

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

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

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many cheeseburgers are they making?

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What kind of meat are they getting?

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

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law firms, personal injury law firms.

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

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

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

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one menu you can get it for a dollar.

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

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

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

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There's no question about that.

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

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far more than we have lost.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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how do you value a settlement.

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

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the case up and are they investigating it.

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

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think they cost probably $8,000.

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Some law firms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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So a lot goes into how it's valued.

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So thanks for asking that.

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Yeah, thank you for sharing that.

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

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

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so thank you for sharing that.

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

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

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they're running out in New Jersey.

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

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

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in one of these slip and fall or.

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Fall down injuries, as you would say.

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

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being more aware of your surroundings.

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

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

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

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assume that it's properly cleared.

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

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

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surroundings when you're in a store.

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The same thing, be mindful of your surroundings.

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

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

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

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

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have your best interest at heart.

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

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

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save whatever video you have here.

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

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at heart because they won't.

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

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your condominium complex, okay?

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

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I gotta get to the hospital.

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I got to get, get this figured out.

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

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

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fell outside on her condominium.

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They didn't properly clear it.

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There was snow and there was ice.

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

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

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

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that showed exactly what happened.

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

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really try to be proactive.

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Don't wait.

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

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I mean, you or automobile crash you.

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Same thing.

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

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She was walking, she was a pedestrian.

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

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station across the road, isn't there?

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Let's get that video.

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

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

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

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

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you can get video and then, Come to us.

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Thank you, Stephanie.

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

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

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So thank you so much.

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

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

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

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

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

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You're so smooth, aren't you?

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

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

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

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

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

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So make sure you guys do that.

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And this is a wrap.

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We'll see you guys next time.

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And there you have it, folks.

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Another episode of Jersey Justice Podcast.

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

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

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Dive into more episodes@jerseyjusticepodcast.com,

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

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we're just a phone call away.

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Call us at +1 877-841-8855.

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

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