Words from the other side: lawyers, slips, and falls: here's what they think.(Interview)

Publication: Rehab Continuum Report

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COPYRIGHT 2004 A Thomson Healthcare Company

You've probably got a defense attorney or two giving you advice on how to avoid liability in slip-and-fall cases, but wouldn't it be great to hear from the other side? Imagine if a plaintiff's attorney explained, "Here's how to win when my client sues you."

P. Christopher Ardalan, JD, is a trial attorney in Sherman Oaks, CA, who often represents plaintiffs in slip-and-fall cases. His first words of advice: Never forget that you make an attractive target.

"With a health care facility, you've got a much sexier argument for a jury," he says. "If I were making a closing argument, I'd say, 'Ladies and gentlemen, we go to a hospital to be helped and healed. The last thing we would expect is to go to this place we consider a safe haven and be exposed to this type of danger.'"

The health care defendant may be held to a higher standard than, for example, a grocery store. A hospital setting offers more of an emotional appeal that can inspire a jury to mete out some justice in the form of a large award to the plaintiff, Ardalan says.

"Even if there is no legal differentiation in the case from a slip and fall in another setting, a good plaintiff's lawyer who knows how to evoke the emotion of a jury will be able to clinch liability and evoke more emotion in the jury," he adds.

A large payout also is much more likely with a health care defendant, Ardalan says.

Prevention is tint question

The first thing a plaintiff's lawyer will look at is whether you could have prevented the fall, he says. A trial lawyer will want to see the sweep sheets, the records that show when floor surfaces were inspected and cleaned.

For instance, Ardatan compares accidents in which people fall in a grocery store and in a hospital. In both cases, they fell because a liquid was spilled five minutes after the most recent floor inspection. The inspections are done every half hour, so the liquid remained hazardous for 25 minutes until the fall occurred just as the next...

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