Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

While shopping at a Home Depot home center, I was walking down an aisle in the appliance section, and tripped on a plastic tie strap from an unopened appliance box. I didn't see the strap, tripped and fell on my left knee and completely onto my stomach. I did feel pain, but after a few moments I felt it was not serious. I did not report the incident when it happened but after being home for a couple of hours the pain increased and I had difficulty bending my leg at the knee. Fearing that I would have to have an x-ray I went back to the store and asked to fill out an incident report.

I told the manager I could show her where the fall happened but she said it wouldn't be necessary.

I received a call from the Home Depot home office and was asked about the injury. The representative asked if I had incurred any out of pocket medical expenses. I told her I had not but that could change in the future.

I was asked if I was seeking out of pocket expenses or compensation for my injury. I told them I felt it was to early to tell. They said they would follow up with a phone call in a week. The pain has subsided, I am able to bend the leg a little more so I have not received any medical care.

I am 70 years old and had a similar injury to my other knee a few years ago, the pain did not go away completely

for almost a year. Although my injury may not be serious, this injury has substantially disrupted my daily activities, and could cause early arteritis.

Can you advise me please?


Asked on 2/25/17, 8:46 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

The reason they keep asking about out of pocket is because the personal injury law system (primarily the insurance companies that are involved in 90+% of such cases) has become very sophisticated in evaluating how juries and judges make awards for pain and suffering. By sophisticated statistical modeling they know that pain and suffering awards are pretty much invariably one to five times the out of pocket expenses, weighted a little more to the medical expenses, and that the vast majority of awards are in the 2x to 3x range, depending on how much of the out of pocket is medical and how much is other losses, such as damage to a car, or lost wages. All of which is to explain that if you don't have out of pocket medical or other expenses/losses due to this, they value your claim at $0.00, particularly if you haven't even contacted your doctor about it.

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Answered on 2/25/17, 12:22 pm


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