You, With The Porcelain Tub, In The Bathroom: How Your Fall In The Guest Bathroom Equals Lawsuit

Law Blog

If you have ever played the game of Clue, then you are very familiar with the "accusations." Somebody with a weapon in a room is always how it goes. Right now, you may feel just like that after a fall in a guest bathroom and cracking a porcelain tub in pieces. While they are pretty, porcelain tubs can be lethal. Cracking and shattering one under the weight of a human body is never something you would want to happen. As such, the injuries occurred while you were a guest in someone else's home, so they should be the homeowner's responsibility. Here is how a fall in a guest bathroom equals personal injury lawsuit.

When the Porcelain Tub Breaks...

When you fall on the edge of a porcelain tub and it breaks and shatters, those pieces of porcelain are like glass to your naked flesh. They are sharp little shards that slice and cut. If you get a shard or piece stuck in your body in just the wrong place, you could be bleeding quite heavily. That leads to a lot of hospital bills, medical bills, ambulance bills, and a host of other bills you would rather forget. Your host (and possibly friend) has an obligation to your safety as well as to your mounting medical bills. That means your host should, at the very least, file a homeowner's claim, which would help you pay for some of those bills.

When Your Host Will Not File a Claim

If your host/friend will not file a homeowner's claim for personal injury to guests on the property, that leaves you in a very bad situation. You would not want to sue your host/friend, but at the same time you should not have to shoulder the burden after an accident that left you badly injured. Usually, when you hire a personal injury attorney, he or she will offer to send your host/friend a letter on legal letterhead paper that politely asks the host/friend to assist with your bills and why he/she should, according to the law, accept some responsibility. The letter is often enough to motivate people to help their injured guests, and should work. If it does not, the next step is to sue.

From Tragic and Bizarre Accident to Lawsuit

Now your fall in the guest bathroom and your encounter with the porcelain tub has come round to a lawsuit. As soon as you are able to get up and move around, your lawyer will schedule a hearing on the matter. Be sure to get copies of all of your injuries, the ambulance reports, the EMT reports, and the police reports, if there are any. All of the emergency room documentation is helpful too. Communication between you and your host/former friend should be saved and transferred to your lawyer as well. Now instead of "you, with the porcelain tub, in the guest bathroom," it has become "you, with the personal injury attorney, in the courtroom."

For more information, talk to a personal injury attorney at a law firm like Dunnigan & Messier P.C.

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