Lancaster Slip and Fall Lawyer

Slip and fall injuries can be difficult to validate due to the social stigma that is often associated with them. However, this does not mean that you do not have a valid case. Slip and fall victims that hire a lawyer generally recover more financial compensation compared to those that do not have legal representation.

Thank you so much for the job well done.
_{– Client of Schmidt Kramer}

For more than 30 years, Schmidt Kramer has provided a voice for injury victims throughout Pennsylvania. Our Lancaster slip and fall lawyers understand Pennsylvania’s premises liability laws and use that knowledge to help build a strong argument for your slip and fall case. Our attorneys have also been recognized by numerous, prestigious legal organizations, including Partner Scott Cooper who has been named as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer every year from 2010-2020.

There are no upfront fees if you choose to hire us and we only get paid when we obtain a recovery.

Call (717) 888-8888 to schedule a free consultation.

Compensation for a Slip and Fall Accident

If you have suffered a serious injury after a slip and fall accident, you may be eligible to pursue several different types of damages. These may include:

Past and future medical expenses
Lost wages
Loss of earning capacity
Medical assistive equipment, such as a wheelchair
Rehabilitation

Pain and suffering
Loss of enjoyment of life
Loss of reputation
Disability
Loss of companionship
Cost of a caregiver

However, as every case is different, it can be difficult to calculate the damages without knowing the details related to your specific incident. For this reason, we recommend contacting a slip and fall lawyer from our firm to help determine if you have a case and if so, the potential value of it.

We offer a free, initial consultation where you can speak to a lawyer at our firm, and there is no obligation to proceed if we determine you have a case.

Building a Slip and Fall Case

Our Lancaster slip and fall lawyers must establish that your injury was the result of property owner’s negligence to recover compensation for your damages.

Negligence refers to a failure to uphold a duty of care. A duty of care is a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to keep people safe.

The duty of care is determined by your legal classification when you entered the property. There are several classifications for visitors on a property, depending on the reasons visitors entered the property. These classifications include:

Licensee

A licensee is someone who has permission to enter the property from its owner for his or her own benefit, such as the property owner’s friend or family member who is visiting the owner for a personal reason.

Property owners have a duty of care to warn the licensee of known hazards that exist on a property or hazards that licensees will not discover on their own. However, property owners are not obligated to inspect their property for hazards that may harm a licensee or fix one that may exist.

If you were injured as a licensee on another’s property, a Lancaster slip and fall attorney can launch a detailed investigation to determine whether the property’s owner adequately warned you about the hazard before your accident.

Invitee

An invitee is an individual who has been invited to enter the property for the owner’s benefit. This may include a maintenance worker who is conducting repairs on the premises, or a customer in a restaurant or store that is there to shop and financially benefit the property’s owner.

Property owners owe the highest duty of care to invitees and must warn them of any known hazard that may exist on the property. Additionally, the property’s owner must take steps to inspect the property and fix any existing hazard that may harm the invitee.

A property owner can potentially be held liable for an invitee’s injuries if he or she can prove the owner should have known about the hazard and failed to fix it or provide adequate warning of its existence.

Trespasser

A trespasser is anyone who illegally enters a property without the owner’s permission or consent.

In most slip and fall cases, property owners do not owe trespassers a duty of care and do not need to make the property reasonably safe for the trespasser. However, the property owner must refrain from intentionally or willfully injuring the trespasser. This means a property owner cannot intentionally make his or her property dangerous for a trespasser.

However, property owners may still owe a duty of care to children, regardless of whether one is trespassing on the premises. The owner must inspect his or her property to see if there may be any attractive nuisances, such as a swimming pool, that might attract children. If there are any attractive nuisances that the owner could reasonably expect would attract children, the owner must take steps to protect children from potential harm. If a child is injured near a swimming pool and there was no fence around it, the property owner could potentially be held liable.

Proving liability in a slip and fall claim can be difficult, especially if you are unfamiliar with Pennsylvania’s personal injury and premises liability laws. You may need the help of a personal injury lawyer in Lancaster to help you determine if the property’s owner is at fault for your injury. He or she will help you build a case that holds the at-fault party liable for his or her negligence.

Call (717) 888-8888 to find out if you have a slip and fall case.

Comparative Negligence in Pennsylvania

In some cases, a slip and fall accident victim may have also acted negligently to cause his or her injuries. When this occurs, Pennsylvania uses the standard of comparative negligence to determine the amount of compensation the victim can receive, according to Tit. 42 § 7102.

Under comparative negligence, you may still recover compensation as long as your negligence is not greater than the at-fault party’s. However, you will be assigned a percentage of fault based on your degree of negligence during the accident. The amount of compensation you may receive will be reduced by the percentage you are assigned.

For example, you may file a $100,000 personal injury claim after slipping and falling on a wet surface in a restaurant. However, a court may find that you were warned about a spill in the area, and are 40 percent at fault for your own injury. As a result, your claim will be reduced by 40 percent to $60,000.

Our slip and fall lawyers in Lancaster will be able to explain the amount of compensation you may be entitled to receive during a free, no obligation consultation. We have represented numerous personal injury claims and understand how to accurately estimate the value of your claim.

Complete a Free Case Evaluation form to get started.

Pennsylvania’s Statute of Limitations for Slip and Fall Cases

If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident and believe you are entitled to compensation, you should not hesitate to take action against the at-fault party.

Pennsylvania imposes a two-year statute of limitations on personal injury claims, including slip and fall accidents, according to 42 Pa. Consol. Stat. § 5524(2).

This deadline begins on the date you suffered an injury from your slip and fall accident. If you do not file your lawsuit against the at-fault party within two years, your case will likely be dismissed and you cannot recover compensation.

Although two years may seem like a long time, you should contact an attorney as soon as possible to find out if you have a case against the at-fault party. Your attorney will need time to build a case against the at-fault party by gathering evidence that establishes the property owner’s fault and using your medical records to create a link between your injury and the slip and fall accident.

During your free, no obligation consultation, our slip and fall attorneys in Lancaster will explain the time limits that apply to your case. We will help you file your lawsuit within the statute of limitations to ensure you have a chance to recover the compensation you deserve.

Complete a Free Case Evaluation form.

Types of Slip and Fall Accidents

When a property owner neglects to maintain his or her property or fails to warn visitors about a known hazard that exists on the premises, it can result in a serious accident, such as:

Slip and Fall

A slip and fall accidents occurs when you lose your footing on a wet or slick surface. Some of the most common causes of slip and fall accidents include:

Unattended spills
Recently mopped or waxed floors

Puddles from rain or water buildup
Snow or ice buildup

Trip and Fall

A trip and fall accident happens when you trip over an object located in your path and fall onto a hard surface. This may be caused by:

Uneven surfaces
Loose wiring, cords or ropes
Torn or loose carpeting
Poor property maintenance

Trash, debris or objects left unattended on the ground
Cracks in a sidewalk or walkway

Step and Fall

Visitors to a property may be injured in a step and fall accident when they encounter an unexpected hole or hazard in their path. Causes of a step and fall accident include:

Potholes
Broken staircases

Lack of handrail in elevated areas
Cracked or missing pieces of sidewalk

If you are able to prove the property owner failed to take reasonable care to remove or warn you about a hazard, you may have a case.

Contact Our Lancaster Slip and Fall Lawyers

Although a slip and fall accident may seem minor, victims often suffer serious injuries that affect their ability to live a normal and independent life. When this occurs, you should consider contacting an experienced attorney to discuss your right to pursue compensation from the at-fault party.

Schmidt Kramer’s slip and fall lawyers in Lancaster are dedicated to helping victims after being injured in a serious fall accident. We understand how to effectively represent your claim with the at-fault party’s insurance company, and will not settle for any amount of compensation less than what you deserve.

Contact us today to schedule a free, no obligation consultation with a member of our team of skilled attorneys. All of our attorneys work on a contingency fee basis and will only charge you if we recover compensation for your claim. There is no risk in finding out if you have a case.

Call (717) 888-8888 to get started today.

Free Case Review

No Upfront Fees

Recent Results

$10,043,952.13 Personal Injury
Schmidt Kramer, P.C.partner Gerard C. Kramer won a personal injury action for $10,043,952.13 in Northumberland County on behalf of a volunteer firefighter who was the victim of Intentional Tort. The 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was seriously injured when a barn collapsed, causing a spinal injury which left him a paraplegic. The claim was brought against the arsonist who intentionally started the fire. It is believed that the verdict is the highest ever in Northumberland County.
View Results
$4,034,000.00 Personal Injury
Yesterday a Judge in Union County (Lewisburg, PA) awarded a couple from New Berlin, Pennsylvania, over $4,000,000 because the husband was shot while turkey hunting.You might ask yourself, how does a turkey hunting accident end up with that type of verdict? In order to understand the verdict you would have to know our clients. They are good people who had their life wrecked. Plus, you would have to know the defendant, who should not have been hunting with a gun because he was prohibited after a previous criminal conviction.It is a good verdict, because the Judge was able to do two things with his decision. First, he communicated to two very good people that their losses were something that those of us on the outside could appreciate and value. Mike Hobbins (our client) is a 51 year old guy who lost his sight because a convicted felon --who should not have even possessed a gun-- went hunting illegally, and broke with impunity the most fundamental rule in hunting: identify your target before you pull the trigger. The Judge accepted the financial loss Mr. Hobbins' suffered, but listened closely to the evidence of less tangible losses. When Mike broke down on the stand, because his daughter would end up walking him down the aisle at her wedding, as opposed to how it was supposed to go, the Judge was listening. When Mike could not keep it together, because of how emasculating it was for him not to be able to provide financially for his family, the Judge was listening. It was facts like these that the Judge cited to support the $2,000,000 award for non-economic damages. Second, the Judge wanted to send a message. Union County is a hunting county. Many of the residents hunt there, and people from outside the area come to Union County to hunt. It was my impression, from the Judge's statements as he rendered his decision, that he wanted to send a message to the people in Union County to protect them in their sport. The rules in place to restrict people convicted of crimes not to have a gun are not to be broken. Hunting is serious and you have to identify your target before you shoot. When you turn your back on the rules that are set to provide safety in a sport, you risk being an example. Here, the $1,000,000 punitive damage award sends that message loud and clear.When it really comes down to brass tacks, the right action was taken against a Defendant who may never truly appreciate what kind of impact his reckless choices caused.At Schmidt Kramer, we are injury lawyers. That means we work with people who were hurt in car accidents, who were hurt by the neglect of nursing homes, or those that were seriously injured because of the reckless, thoughtless acts of others. If you or a loved one have been injured in Pennsylvania, we may be able to help. While the verdict yesterday is not one that is representative of every case we do, it does show that serious and dedicated representation can bring good results.Joe ChapmanJanuary 18, 2013
View Results
$2,200,000.00 Auto Accidents
On Monday, January 6, 2014, Schmidt Kramer accident lawyer Scott Cooper obtained a verdict on behalf of his client who is the widow of a man who died in a fiery crash on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County. The awarded verdict of $2.2 million was in a nonjury proceeding before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. That verdict includes $100,000 in punitive damages assessed against the owner of the trucking company.Kamilah Claxton won summary judgment in November after the defendants, Sukhwinder Singh and the trucking company for which he worked, failed to file a brief in opposition to Claxton's motion, which was made in September. The verdict in Claxton v. Singh was issued after the court held a non-jury assessment of damages earlier this month."Mr. Sukhchan Singh, the employer, is liable on the basis of respondent superior, but was also grossly negligent in failing to maintain his vehicle in compliance with state and federal law, particularly with regard to having required safety inspections and correcting defects in its braking equipment," said U.S. District Judge William W. Caldwell of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in his opinion accompanying the verdict."He was also grossly negligent in entrusting his vehicle to Sukhwinder Singh, an inexperienced truck driver who had failed the written test and driving test multiple times before finally earning his commercial driving license," Caldwell said.
View Results
$1,200,000.00 Personal Injury
A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.2012-06-26 10:00:00 AMDate of Verdict: June 19. 2012Court and Case No.: C.P. Dauphin County No. 2009-CV-14003-MMJudge: Scott EvansType of Action: Medical malpracticeInjuries: Anoxic brain injuryPlaintiffs Counsel: Terry S. Hyman, Schmidt Kramer, HarrisburgPlaintiffs Experts: Dr. Anna H. Messner, liability; Lucille Packer, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Palo Alto, Calif.; Terry P. Leslie, vocations and earning capacity, Lancaster; Dr. Hilary B. Berlin, pediatric psychiatry, Great Neck, N.Y.Defense Counsel: Andrew H. Foulkrod, Darlene K. King, Foulkrod Ellis, Camp Hill, PADefense Experts: James C. Reilly, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Wilmington, DEComment: A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.The entire verdict came against Dr. Andrew M. Shapiro, the doctor who plaintiffs Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Metz alleged chose to have the boy monitored at a pediatric ward. The plaintiffs argued Shapiro failed to tell nurses caring for the baby about, and how to care for, the boy's enhanced risk for respiratory failure.The jury came back on June 19 and awarded Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Mets $500,000 in non-economic damages and $686,170 in loss of future earning capacity, according to the plaintiffs counsel.According to the statement, the baby's mother brought him to Shapiro because she was "'afraid that he might stop breathing during his sleep,'" the plaintiffs' pretrial statement said. Shapiro performed a sleep study and observed the baby's Apnea Hypopnea Index to be 43 — four times higher than what's considered severe. A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy were performed.According to the plaintiffs, the baby's sleep study results put him at an increased risk for post-operative respiratory complications. Despite this, they argued in the statement, Shapiro ordered the pediatric nurses at the Harrisburg Hospital general pediatric ward to observe the boy as they would any other patients — about once every four hours.The pretrial statement said that one in four children who have an AHI in the 40s and oxygen desaturation below 80 have some type of respiratory problem. The younger the child, the greater the risk of a respiratory problem, the statement said.According to the statement, Shapiro took off the child's pulse oximeter, the finger-mounted device used to measure blood oxygen, and ordered a heart and respiratory rate monitor. The child was 11 months old at the time.The plaintiffs pled that the baby was last seen at 4 a.m. There was no record of his oxygen saturation for the next hour and 45 minutes. He stopped breathing a 6:40 a.m., and his brain was without oxygen long enough to cause demonstrable injury on an MRI."Immediately prior to his surgery, [the child] was a normal child, who could say mama, eat finger foods, and was just on the verge of walking," the statement said. "After his code, [he] was like a newborn. He could not lift his head or sit up. He could not talk. He could not move."In his pretrial statement, Shapiro argued that he recognized the child's pre-operative sleep study showed he was driven to breath by decreased blood oxygen saturation, which he said was typical in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.He argued the American Academy of Otolaryngology dictates that admission to the intensive care unit is not the standard of care. In the statement, he said nurses did not observe signs of respiratory distress. No alarms sounded until the child arrested, the statement said.He said the baby likely arrested as a result of hypoglycemia and/or an acute aspiration, which he argued would not have been identified by blood oxygen saturation.— Ben Present, of the Law Weekly
View Results
$1,024,040.80 Auto Accidents
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death case on behalf of the widow of a police office who was killed in a car accident in the line of duty for $1,024,040.80. The claim against the other driver was amicably resolved before suit was filed for the entire available policy limits for the other driver. The case took place in Adams County, PA.
View Results

Testimonials

Dear Scott,
Hello there! I’m a little late to the game here, but I wanted to be certain I wrote to you. Oops—sorry for the typo! As you’ve probably gathered, I am writing you from a typewriter. Do you still use these in the office? Back on topic, I wanted to take a moment to express my deep gratitude for your guidance and support throughout the entire legal process for my accident. Can you believe it’s been five years?? Your attention to detail, professionalism, and delicate handling of my case made an incredibly difficult time more manageable for me and my family. We’re forever grateful.
From the moment you stepped foot in that hospital room with me, I felt relieved to have someone in my corner like you and your team. You took the time not only to explain each legal step in a way that made sense but also to acknowledge the emotional weight of what I was going through. That delicate balance—handling the intricacies of my case with precision while also being sensitive to my well-being—is something I will always be grateful for. In many ways, the outcome of the case reflected your dedication, but what has stayed with me even more is how you treated me throughout the process—with patience, respect, and compassion. You listened to my concerns and reassured me in moments of uncertainty. And even now, I feel your compassion each year on my birthday when I receive a text from you!
Thank you, not just for the outcome, but for the way you handled each moment. You are an incredible lawyer, but more importantly, an incredible person, and I was fortunate to have you in my corner.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Ricky D
Definitely were people of their word. Certainly helped me through my whole case
The legal team was very professional and met my needs I would highly recommend them
Monte cargile
Very great experience working with you guys continue the great service timely response communication well understand
jackie duffus
Schmidt Kramer is simply definition of hardworking, they are trustworthy and get best claim you could never think of.