Financial Recovery for Elevator Accidents in California
Anyone who was injured in an elevator accident can file a lawsuit against those who were responsible for causing the accident.
A personal injury lawsuit allows a victim to pursue a money settlement, including compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
The parties who could be held liable for an elevator accident include the elevator manufacture, elevator maintenance company, and the property owners.
In a situation where someone was killed in an elevator accident, then a wrongful death lawsuit can allow the family to obtain compensation for the loss of their family member.
Elevator accidents happen with surprising frequency, despite safety designs and because of an elevator's obvious hazards.
Suspend riders in a cabin moving up and down along vertical shaft dozens of times daily, and accidents are bound to happen despite safety systems, laws, and inspections.
Our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys are providing a detailed review below.
Common Causes for Elevator Injuries
One CDC report indicates nearly thirty elevator deaths and about ten thousand elevator injuries in the U.S. every year.
The reported accidents include not just the elevator cabin's release and fall down the shaft with riders aboard but also:
- riders or technicians falling down the empty shaft due to open safety doors;
- elevator speeds so high and stops so abrupt as to cause occupant falls;
- trips and falls over the misaligned cabin and building floors on entry and exit;
- crush injuries from closing doors or rising cabin against building floor;
- crush and pinch injuries from elevator cables and flyweights;
- burn injury or electrocution death from the elevator or building wiring;
- lung or brain injury or asphyxiation death from fumes in elevator shaft; and
- elevator platform collapses.
An elevator injury doesn't have to take the victim's finances and future down with it.
If you or a family member or friend have suffered an injury in an elevator accident, then contact our personal injury attorneys.
We know how to navigate the ups and downs of elevator accident claims for the best possible financial recovery.
Why Elevators Fail
Elevators fail because elevator systems are the risky product of imperfect human ingenuity.
People aren't perfect, and that imperfection includes the people who design, install, inspect, repair, maintain, and ride elevators.
Few if any elevator makers are exempt from claims. Over the years, claimants have taken legal action against Otis, Arundel, Schindler, Abell, Viola, and other leading elevator makers.
The theories for financial recovery, which generally require proving some fault or violation of standards on the defendant's part, only begin with unsafe design-and-manufacture claims against elevator makers.
The theories also include failure to reasonably:
- inspect and load test according to schedule;
- diagnose and repair or correct equipment malfunctions;
- lubricate, update, and maintain according to schedule;
- inspect and repair on notice of periodic or repeated malfunction;
- balance and adjust for proper leveling and stopping;
- ground and insulate electrical wires and equipment;
- lockout and warn during repair and maintenance;
- maintain operator controls and safe operating speeds;
- warn of occupant limits and load capacity.
What an Elevator Accident Claim Accomplishes
Retaining our personal injury lawyers to bring an elevator accident claim can result in substantial financial recovery. Proving elevator accident claims takes engineering knowledge and legal skill.
Our expert civil litigators can first retain design and maintenance experts to investigate the claim.
They could also testify to the defects or departures from industry standards and customs or safety regulations that caused the accident.
Claimants must prove fault or defectiveness to recover.
We also know the medical experts to prove the accident injuries, vocational and rehabilitation experts to prove the work disability.
Further, we know the accountants, economists, and other experts to make the best case for the amount of medical expense, wage and benefit loss, and other damages.
Our skilled presentation can convince the defendants' insurers to settle your case for its maximum value or convince the jury that you should win that value at trial.
Retain The Best Elevator Accident Attorneys
Elevators are sophisticated pieces of equipment. Unlike a motor vehicle accident involving driver error, the cause of an elevator accident is often hidden within the elevator's mechanical and electrical operation, and repair and maintenance schedules.
Liability insurers don't pay based only on the injury. They instead pay only when their insured has done something wrong, which is up to the claimant to prove.
That proof takes a premier legal counsel, not a lawyer who handles only auto accident cases.
Insurers pay claimants full value only when the claimant's skilled lawyer shows the claimant will win full value at trial.
Our premier civil litigators have the resources, experience, and reputation for obtaining full recoveries in elevator accident cases.
We will investigate, prepare, and present your personal injury claim with no fee unless you recover. Retain top-rated injury lawyers you can trust to recover your claim's full value.
Injury Justice Law Firm is a top-ranked personal injury law firm serving victims of negligence in Los Angeles County, Orange County, Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, Riverside, and San Bernardino.
We are located at 1999 Avenue of the Stars, 11th Fl., Los Angeles, CA 90067, and in the San Fernando Valley at 14401 Sylvan St #112 Van Nuys, CA 91401.
Call our firm at (818) 781-1570 for free case consultation, or contact the firm online.