Hotels and hospitality are robust industries in Washington, D.C. Whether you are a foreign dignitary or a tourist eager to explore our nation’s capital, there are numerous reasons to choose a historic DC hotel. However, pursuing an injury claim against a hotel can be complex. These large corporations often have skilled legal teams ready to challenge any claim you make, making it essential to be well-prepared and informed. Our DC hotel injury lawyers have represented victims of hotel negligence for over 70 years. Below, we discuss the most common causes of hotel injuries in our practice. But in a hotel, there are infinite ways you can get injured. Your injury may occur in the fitness center, pool, or a slippery floor in the lobby. In these instances, establishing liability is critical. An injury alone is insufficient to create a claim against a hotel.
To protect your rights in a DC hotel accident, you should speak with a DC hotel injury lawyer. Our consultations are always free, and we never charge a fee unless we win your case. However, specific steps should be taken immediately after your injury to protect your rights. For example, taking pictures of the accident scene after the fact is critical. A hazard a hotel should reasonably foresee injuring a guest may disappear a few minutes later. Thus, documenting any evidence is critical for the success of your case. Reacting promptly and getting legal help may be the difference between winning and losing.
While there is a near-infinite number of reasons our DC hotel injury lawyers can hold a hotel responsible for your injuries, we discuss the most common hotel injuries below.
A lot can happen in the lobbies and corridors of a hotel. If you are injured in either of these spaces, the question becomes whether the hotel is liable for your injury. We know of three negligence theories that prevail in holding hotels liable for your injuries. The first is a wet floor. This is a slip-and-fall injury. While that can happen anywhere in the hotel, it is more challenging to be successful in a corridor than in a lobby. Why is this? Hotels have a duty to inspect hazardous conditions on a reasonable basis. Thus, they have a duty to inspect the floor in the lobby more frequently than in the corridor of each room in the hotel.
However, if the hotel is on notice of a slippery condition, they must address the issue almost immediately. Note that putting up a warning sign can absolve them of liability as long as it clearly indicates the hazard it refers to.
Poor lighting is another act of negligence our DC hotel injury lawyers will attack. This occurs most frequently in corridors or stairwells. This is when documenting the scene is critical. Proving this requires an expert witness, so your injuries should justify the cost of pursuing it.
Restaurants and bars are another source of liability within a hotel that our DC hotel injury lawyers frequently pursue. Similar to a slip-and-fall in a lobby or corridor, a spill not promptly cleaned may be a source of negligence. Misplaced furniture may also be negligence. However, note that you have a duty not to be contributorily negligent. If a jury finds you even 1% negligent in causing your injury, you are barred from recovery. Although, we can argue that you had no other way to exit the bar or restaurant. Thus, doing the best you can in a situation is not negligent.
Improper food handling, storage, or preparation can lead to serious health issues. The issue for a DC hotel injury lawyer is proving causation. There is no question that a restaurant must give you clean food that will not make you sick. The hotel breaches that duty if they get you sick from food poisoning. However, proving that the food served by the hotel is the exact meal that caused you sickness is difficult. The only way to do this is if many different tables got sick from the restaurant’s actions. Or, in rare cases, if there is a health inspection that the restaurant fails on the same day you got sick.
Our DC hotel injury lawyers also sue for negligence related to staircases and elevators. In a staircase, there are two modes of proving negligence. The first is inadequate lighting. If you cannot see where you are stepping because the lighting is poor, we may be able to prove negligence and recover for your injuries. We may also be able to demonstrate the design is faulty. That is not as good an option as proving inadequate lighting, as lighting is something any juror can understand. Meanwhile, establishing a faulty design will require a skilled expert witness to explain why and how it caused your injury.
Our DC hotel injury lawyers have experience proving negligence related to elevators. If you are injured on an elevator, note that there must have been some abnormal activity. You cannot merely sue because you fell on the elevator. Did the elevator stop suddenly? There needs to have been some level of carelessness to establish liability.
There are three common types of pool accidents a DC hotel injury lawyer will handle.
When an assailant assaults or batters you, how do you establish liability against the hotel? Our DC hotel injury lawyers must prove one of three things.
Hotels have vast responsibilities as they play many different roles. For example, their legal duties may be one thing in their restaurant and a different set of duties at the pool. However, the same general rules can be applied in nearly all scenarios in DC hotels. Our DC hotel injury lawyers advise that watching for obvious dangers is essential. If a threat is obvious, the hotel may not legally be obligated to rectify it. Additionally, a hotel may not be legally liable for a hazard created by something other than its negligence if you get injured within seconds of the hazard occurring. This is a fact-dependent rule, and the applicable reasonableness test should be used depending on all extenuating factors.
If you are visiting a hotel, you are a business invitee. An invitee enters the premises in response to an implied invitation by the hotel. This implied invitation allows you to go to all parts of the hotel that a reasonably prudent person would expect to be able to go. Thus, if you enter a room where the door says that it is for employees only, you lose your status as an invitee if you enter that room. The hotel owes you a general duty to use reasonable and ordinary care to keep the property safe for your benefit. Note that what is reasonably safe at the pool and gym may differ from the lobby.
Our DC hotel injury lawyers note that not included in the duty to use reasonable and ordinary care to keep the property safe is obviously dangerous conditions. This is especially true in Washington, DC. In DC, you are contributorily negligent if you are even 1% negligent in causing your injury. So, suppose you are injured by something obvious, such as walking directly into something you did not have any reason to walk into. In that case, you are careless and are barred from making a financial recovery against the defendant. Additionally, a warning by the defendant of the dangerous condition will probably suffice. The defendant has satisfied its burden if the warning is clear to a reasonably prudent person. This is why you often see yellow “wet floor” signs. This is the quick and easy way for the defendant to absolve himself of liability.
However, even if a hazard is otherwise apparent to the reasonably prudent person, the defendant may still be liable for your injuries if distractions are around. This is a complex area of law. Thus, you should reach out to an experienced DC hotel injury lawyer immediately for your best chance at recovery.
When you contact Gelb & Gelb, the first thing you do is immediately speak with an attorney. Unlike at other firms, you will not go through a maze of paralegals or intake specialists. While they can be valuable, you need to speak with an attorney to properly assess the merits of your case and receive effective advice. At Gelb & Gelb, we never charge a fee for your consultation. So, you may call and ask as many questions as you would like pertaining to your injury. Our goal is to extrapolate as much key information as possible, determine whether you have a case worth pursuing, and set you up to be successful and maximize compensation.
If we believe you do not require legal assistance, we may advise you on steps to take independent of counsel. However, if your case warrants retaining a DC hotel injury lawyer, we will outline a plan and proceed to the next step.
If we decide you have a case worth pursuing and you decide to retain our firm, we will review the legal fee agreement. Our DC hotel injury lawyers use a simple fee structure used by nearly all personal injury lawyers in DC. Our fee is contingent on whether we win your case. If we win, we charge a fee of one-third of the recovery if we settle your case. If we file a lawsuit against the defendant hotel, we charge 40% of the recovery.
During this phase, we advise you on critical steps to preserve your case. For a DC hotel injury, we may immediately write a letter to the hotel to preserve any evidence. If they fail to do this, we can use that failure to preserve evidence against them at trial by requesting a set of jury instructions. We will also recommend that you seek prompt medical care, which ensures your health is prioritized and establishes documented evidence of your injuries. Additionally, we will guide you through other critical steps to maximize the compensation you rightfully deserve for your case.
The investigation and treatment phase can be the longest phase of your case with a DC hotel injury lawyer. Serious injuries arising out of a hotel’s negligence can require several months or even years of medical treatment. Meanwhile, while you are receiving treatment, we are in contact with the hotel, the hotel’s insurer, and you to organize your case. At this time, our hotel injury attorneys collect evidence from the hotel, such as security footage, interview witnesses, review incident reports and police reports, and gather comprehensive proof to build your case.
There are a few ways we can arrive at a favorable resolution. First, our DC hotel injury lawyers will seek to settle your case. This is the quickest and most cost-effective way to prevail in a personal injury case. There are a few ways to settle a case. For a simpler case, we will negotiate over the phone with the insurance company. However, a more complex case may require mediation, arbitration, or some other alternative dispute resolution method. If we cannot settle your case amicably, we will file a lawsuit against the hotel. This is a longer process, and it may require expert testimony. However, if it is the last resort to obtain justice, it is well worthwhile. Moreover, your case may settle while it is pending litigation.
Negligence can occur at any hotel in Washington, D.C., or elsewhere. Call to speak with a DC hotel injury lawyer if you are injured at a hotel on the list below.
The DC hotel injury lawyers at Gelb & Gelb, P.C. stand ready to assist you after a hotel injury in Washington, D.C. Staying at a hotel can be exciting. However, that can change instantly if you suffer a severe injury. No one should deal with an injury while on vacation or at work. Furthermore, you should not be stuck with the medical costs if another party’s negligence is responsible for your suffering. Learn what your case is worth.
Contact the attorneys at Gelb & Gelb today for a free consultation.
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