Following Toronto’s biggest snowstorm of the year so far, Nainesh Kotak, the founder of Mississauga’s Kotak Personal Injury Law, says yearly falls on ice lead to more than 9,000 hospitalizations in Canada.
But many people may not know the steps involved in protecting their legal rights.
Here are the top five mistakes to avoid if injured in a slip and fall accident due to negligence on someone else’s property – both private and city owned.
1. Not seeking immediate medical attention.
“They’re embarrassed about the fall,” said Kotak. “They hope things will get better and you know, later on, it turns out there’s something more sinister, more serious, that could delay your recovery but also could also lead to issues like causation as to the incident that caused your injury.”
2. Not recording pertinent information such as the nature of the injury, the date, time and where it happened.
“Sometimes there’s an issue over who owns the property and you may have a townhouse complex. There could be various units. You might not remember where you fell. You leave the area, you go to the hospital afterwards, you can’t recall for yourself. Well, that causes a bit of an issue in terms of who you can sue because you need to be able to say you’re suing the occupier of the property. And it can happen, you just don’t know where it was.”
3. Not collecting evidence or witness statements.
“Take a picture of in terms of if there was ice or snow that wasn’t cleared,” said Kotak. “If there some sort of obstruction in the ground, a pothole. Get a picture or get somebody else to go out soon after a get pictures because sometimes the dispute is the state of the road or the sidewalk or the walkway where you fell.”
4. Waiting too long to file a claim.
”When it comes to injuries where the municipality is the owner or occupier and that includes roadways and also sidewalks, you have to put the municipality on notice within 10 days of the incident,” says Kotak. “And since 2022, if it’s a non-municipality, you need to put one of the parties who’s going to be sued, on notice, within 60 days and it needs to be done by registered mail. And there is a two year limitation period from the day of the incident.”
5. Not obtaining proper legal advice.
“You may not know that you are entitled to compensation and who you should sue and what you should sue for,” said Kotak.