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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Welcome to Jersey Justice, a civil law podcast that shares

practical tips and stories about personal and workplace injuries.

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

and Mark Morris of Clark Law Firm.

As they take you behind the scenes of.

Justice and civil law.

But first, a quick disclaimer.

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

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

individual case or situation.

This information is not intended to create and does not constitute

an attorney-client relationship.

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

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

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

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

and fall injuries in New Jersey.

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

us about slip and fall injuries.

We wanna welcome Stephanie.

So Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

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

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

It can be anything.

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

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

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

Well, thank you.

I'm glad to be here today.

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

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

your case, arguing your opinion.

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

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

the client that I definitely feel now.

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

like a case is like a story.

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

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

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

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

have a good ending to their story.

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

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

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

it and they get immediate responses.

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

And I feel like that it benefits the clients.

Things I love to do.

I love to travel.

I travel with my family.

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

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

Awesome.

Awesome.

Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

I love that you love to travel.

That's so much fun.

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

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

That's really commendable.

So thank you for sharing that.

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

slip and fall injuries.

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

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

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

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

well to describe these type of injuries?

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

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

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

something off the back of the truck.

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

It could be at a restaurant with spilled something.

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

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

And you happen to step on that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

or something was left out in the area.

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

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

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

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

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

were no safety cones like preventing that.

So thank you for sharing that.

So Jerry, I wanna get your perspective on this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

there's like a bad connotation about that.

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

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

there are all kinds of building codes and construction codes.

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

So if you walk.

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

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

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

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

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

that's natural with the way you walk.

So that where you would naturally put your hand down.

You wouldn't miss the stairwell and fall.

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

to prevent disaster happening to people.

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

A person's gone blind.

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

bones, which required surgery and.

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

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

to just disregard basic safety rules.

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

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

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

you fall down, it's no big deal.

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

but those are young, young people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

an aisle and it's funny because.

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

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

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

injury case in Mexico as I understand it.

I mean, I don't practice in Mexico.

I don't know for sure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

they're not followed, disaster can happen.

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

experienced in that can help you out.

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

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

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

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

and a lot of things are involved.

So thank you for sharing that.

I wanna go back over to Stephanie.

And Stephanie.

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

that had to do with the slip and fall?

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

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

how the, that case was handled.

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

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

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

But when these, a lot of our older clients.

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

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

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

And it was dark.

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

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

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

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

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

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

walkway and attach it to the tree.

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

The tree's not lit.

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

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

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

kneecap, and she had to have surgery.

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

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

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

So then she had another surgery.

She had to have that all removed.

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

clearly that both the restaurant and the.

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

able to get very good recovery for her.

I think I kind of remember that case.

And what was the wire like?

Could you see it?

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

like, almost like a trip wire.

Like what was that wire like?

Do you remember?

That's exactly what it was.

Like.

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

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

paver all the way across the wall.

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

so that's why she tripped right over it.

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

No.

There were no flags.

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

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

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

Then they decided to put that around it.

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

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

individual who did get injured.

So that's clearly they were negligent.

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

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

involved and sent a letter?

No, they did it after she fell.

They did it after she fell.

And actually there were emails between the restaurant and the.

And the Christmas tree company the next morning and the restaurant

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

It's a danger to our patrons.

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

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

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

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

the Christmas tree company.

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

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

They have a duty of care to them.

So they both violated their safety rules.

Wow.

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

things like that happen all the time.

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

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

going out, you know, for a nice meal.

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

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

They may not even be aware of the dangers.

The sidewalk might not be even at these places.

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

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

that make the floor slippery.

Right.

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

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

know, frequent these establishments?

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

point out earlier that sometimes I think.

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

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

to, I fell something was on the floor.

That store is automatically responsible.

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

and knowledge of that condition.

Meaning notice the knowledge that.

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

shopping in to get your, your tissues.

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

which one of the situations is if the.

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

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

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

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

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

that defendant created that condition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you so much for sharing about notice and knowledge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

duty to make the place safe for people.

You can't invite people in into a trap.

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

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

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

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

That's always really important.

Today, many places are covered by surveillance videos,

so we'll try to get that.

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

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

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

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

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

So, so that's it.

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

We call 'em war stories sometimes.

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

to share a little video here.

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

video is about 30 seconds long.

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

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

And she goes to step and falls down.

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

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

So we did investigation.

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

I have a question for you.

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

ends and the first step starts?

Can you tell.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

It's really hard to tell.

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

All right.

That's funny you say that.

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

on the platform at the top platform.

Do you see that?

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

Oh wow.

You know what?

You're right.

It does.

That's exactly what it looks like.

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

That's very deceptive.

Yes, and that's exactly what happened here.

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

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

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

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

and that's why she mistepped and fell.

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

step because you don't see the step.

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

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

You know?

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

that would be even worse.

Yeah.

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

how much you can see it there.

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

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

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

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

Look at this one.

Yeah.

Okay.

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

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

And these yellow stripes on the steps are called treatment.

They're called step treatments.

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

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

So you have to have a treatment to differentiate it.

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

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

So we investigated the case.

We attempted to settle the case pre-suit.

They weren't offering any, any reasonable money.

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

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

company behind the restaurant.

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

insurance company that would hire the lawyers for the restaurant and

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

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

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

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

cetera, and that shouldn't be done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

was she broke her wrist real bad.

You can see the deformity there.

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

sling and did like a closed reduction.

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

we'll get medical illustrations.

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

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

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

then there was like other injuries.

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

And.

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

It could have been an older woman.

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

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

No.

What they do, because these insurance companies are funded

like to billions of dollars.

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

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

brought it all the way to trial.

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

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

settlement, but it wasn't easy.

It was like a lot of work.

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

bad, and she had a good result.

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

doesn't have spinal injuries.

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

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

So that's what we have to fight.

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

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

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

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

like that's such a great example.

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

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

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

themselves or injured themselves enough where you know they broke

their wrist and things like that.

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

that she's one of the first few people.

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

I think clients are not aware.

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

can deal with our insurance agency.

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

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

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

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

the restaurant on their own, for example.

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

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

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

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

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

thousands or sometimes millions of dollars, where other attorneys either

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

I just settled the case last Friday.

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

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

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

of litigation, but he was so happy.

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

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

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

It was a personal injury law firm.

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

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

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

what, what you had asked about.

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

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

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

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

any firm that knows what they're doing.

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

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

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

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

We see if there were any prior incidents there.

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

and take notice and say, okay, wait.

This is a serious case.

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

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

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

Yeah, absolutely.

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

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

Right.

It's not their fault for not knowing.

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

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

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

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

Right.

And we're doing this to.

Bring more awareness around injuries, whether it's workplace

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

injuries, like all of those things.

So thank you for sharing that.

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

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

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

how are settlements calculated?

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

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

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

a common question that people have.

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

How is a cheeseburger priced?

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

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

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

many cheeseburgers are they making?

What kind of meat are they getting?

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

law firms, personal injury law firms.

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

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

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

one menu you can get it for a dollar.

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

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

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

There's no question about that.

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

far more than we have lost.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

how do you value a settlement.

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

the case up and are they investigating it.

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

think they cost probably $8,000.

Some law firms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So a lot goes into how it's valued.

So thanks for asking that.

Yeah, thank you for sharing that.

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

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

so thank you for sharing that.

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

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

they're running out in New Jersey.

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

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

in one of these slip and fall or.

Fall down injuries, as you would say.

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

being more aware of your surroundings.

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

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

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

assume that it's properly cleared.

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

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

surroundings when you're in a store.

The same thing, be mindful of your surroundings.

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

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

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

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

have your best interest at heart.

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

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

save whatever video you have here.

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

at heart because they won't.

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

your condominium complex, okay?

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

I gotta get to the hospital.

I got to get, get this figured out.

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

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

fell outside on her condominium.

They didn't properly clear it.

There was snow and there was ice.

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

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

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

that showed exactly what happened.

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

really try to be proactive.

Don't wait.

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

I mean, you or automobile crash you.

Same thing.

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

She was walking, she was a pedestrian.

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

station across the road, isn't there?

Let's get that video.

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

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

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

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

you can get video and then, Come to us.

Thank you, Stephanie.

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

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

So thank you so much.

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

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

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

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

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

You're so smooth, aren't you?

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

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

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

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

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

So make sure you guys do that.

And this is a wrap.

We'll see you guys next time.

And there you have it, folks.

Another episode of Jersey Justice Podcast.

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