At Stanley Law Offices, it’s always personal. We measure our work by one standard: what we actually recover for injured people across Upstate New York and Pennsylvania. This result belongs to a client we’ll call Dawn.*
Dawn was at work, in the building where she spent her days, when she stepped into a bathroom that had just been mopped. Nobody had put out a wet floor sign. Nothing indicated the floor was wet at all.
She slipped and fell, injuring a back she had already hurt a couple of years earlier. This time it did not heal. Dawn never returned to work.
Most people in Dawn’s position believe workers’ compensation is the whole story. It is not, and the difference is worth real money. Workers’ comp covered her as an injured worker, but it pays nothing for pain and suffering and rarely comes close to replacing what a career is worth. Because the building was owned by one company and cleaned by another, and neither was her employer, Dawn had a second case: a negligence claim against both.
That claim came with a familiar defense dynamic. Two defendants, each pointing at the other. The building owner blamed the cleaning company, the cleaning company minimized its role, and both leaned on her prior back injury, arguing her problems were old news rather than the result of the fall. We took depositions of both defendants and pressed the case toward its scheduled court date. With trial approaching, it settled for $150,000.
We also represented Dawn on her workers’ compensation claim, which meant both cases were handled by one team working in coordination rather than at cross purposes. Liens, offsets, and timing between a comp case and a third-party case can quietly drain a recovery when nobody is watching both sides. We were watching both sides.
If you were hurt at work because of someone other than your employer, you may have two cases, not one. Most injured workers never find that out.
*Our client’s name has been changed to protect her privacy.
Hurt Because Someone Else Was Careless? Talk to Us First.
Talk to us before you talk to the insurance company. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win. Call Stanley Law Offices at 1-800-608-3333 or reach us online. It’s always personal.
