Police Report for Slip & Fall Claim?

Based on our experience, we strongly encourage you to file a police report if you slip and fall inside or near a business, commercial property, or someone else’s residential property. This may seem like a no-brainer, but at that moment when a fall occurs, you might be embarrassed, and the last thing you might want to do is stick around longer at the scene of the fall. However, you should not be embarrassed, as you are not alone when it comes to slip and falls - about one million people need emergency medical care for injuries from these types of accidents in the U.S. each year.

Certain Establishments Will Offer You “Treatment”

If you’ve ever fallen or had the slightest medical issue at a place like a casino, mall, or vacation resort, employees might call some kind of in-house medical response team to check on you. You may have even been told the person was a doctor. You may have been offered bandages or ointment (sometimes even free drink tickets or upgrades, depending on the location). In the end, you will be asked to sign their “report,” which usually states that you are okay.

Don’t be fooled. This person is not offering you medical treatment or great customer service - they are encouraging you not to sue the company, and that document you signed most certainly has a provision waiving your right to take legal action on it somewhere. This means you agree to hold the casino or resort harmless (you will not sue them) over this slip and fall injury.

This response will happen so quickly and often in such a professional, official way that you’ll hardly even know what happened. You may still be bleeding, waiting for an ambulance, or on the ground. You are under no obligation to sign anything, even though they will treat it like a common procedure. Ask yourself why the casino or resort would be making a report anyway. They will ask for your vitals, take photos, and act like police or doctors. You should not trust this process to protect your interests.

Get a Police Report

If a business you’ve patronized allowed unsafe or negligent conditions to exist, we cannot encourage you enough to just call 911 in the case of a slip and fall. Yes, you should still notify any on-site security or management about the incident, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to call real paramedics and law enforcement. The impartial first responders will provide you with proper medical treatment and put together a factual report after investigating all sides.

Since you don’t know if next week or next month you will experience a painful complication because of this fall, it’s better to be safe than sorry. The police report is free, and it’s a tool your Suwanee, GA, personal injury attorney can use to help prove liability for your fall and injuries if needed.

We Are Hard-Working Suwanee, GA, Slip and Fall Lawyers

At Banks, Stubbs, & McFarland, a personal injury law firm in Suwanee, GA, we are passionate about helping the victims of negligence, such as slip and fall survivors. If you’ve been injured in a slip and fall accident, and you believe a negligent business, city government, or homeowner was at fault, we can help. Call us today at 770.887.1209 or fill out our contact form.