How am I going to seek compensation for my injury against the company?

First you claim is against the owners of the apartment and they owe only if they could have or should have know their was defect which might cause injury. They are not the insurers of safety for tenants or visitors to the complex. They owe only if there was a duty to prevent injury. If the defect was so noticeable, you had a duty to prevent injury too as you could see the danger a defect might cause. So the case is based on complicated facts. In the State of Washington, it is presumed both parties are at fault until an investigation proves otherwise. Have you preserve the look of the scene of the fall in pictures? If it has been changed in any way, this does not constitute an admission of responsibility. If it was not obvious, but you got hurt, any owner would take steps to fix it as they are now on notice of the defect. The company will pay what the company deems is the percentage share of fault for the accident. There is an act of God defense. In other words, some accidents just happen. There is no fault party. You say you do not want to go to court. Unfortunately slip and falls are the worst kind of injury claim because there are many (my guess 20%) are dismissable because of the act of God defense. The companies who evaluate these cases assign fault to the person injured about 30% of the time, therefore, they will not pay anything, or if they do it will be a nusance amount (a few hundred or thousand dollars only.) About 50% of the time there is a good case that the owners of the property should have known and should pay something. But the companies knowing the odds, they rarely offer to settle, but will only settle if one show resolve to fight they if they do not. Your injury sounds bad, but you need to know what percentage chance not just possibility that you will have leg expense in the future. If you are looking a knee replacement at the cost of $25 K, but the chance is only 10%, well you cannot expect to get $25 K as a settlement, maybe $2,500 plus current bills and say a Thousand for the hassle of having to treat and get care. If you are really going to be out of work for three weeks because there is an 80% chance of surgery, well then the evaluation changes. You must file a suit within 3 years of the injury or you forever lose your right to present a claim. It will take on average a year to get to a trial. So four years from the injury you will need to come up with a value you will be pitching to the jury. No one can tell you what is worth until you are stabilized and can think about chances or you are well. Obviously if this gets better in two years, the value of the claim is less than otherwise.

Well, Debbie Smith, what you are facing is a dilemma. You have a legal issue and you have a medical issue. They are completely separate, and you cannot link one to the other. Under Michigan law (if you are in another state, this may not apply) the apartment complex owes a duty to you, the tenant, both by the lease and by a state statute, to provide REASONABLY SAFE COMMON AREAS. The walkways, etc. do NOT have to be perfect; they only have to be reasonably safe. You, on the other hand, must be aware of your surroundings, and act for your own safety. So, they may be at fault for not making the walkway reasonably safe, but if the jury finds that you were at fault, the amount of your recovery will be reduced by the percentage of your fault. In Michigan, if you are more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover anything for your pain and suffering. A jury is not allowed to speculate on what may or may not happen to you in the future. So your case is worth whatever you can prove at this time are your foreseeable damages. If a doctor will put in writing that you definitely are going to require a medical procedure at a specific time in the future, then the present value of the procedure becomes part of the value of the case NOW. In other words, it is quite possible that you could lose and get nothing, or merely some help in paying off some of your medical bills. On the other hand, it is quite possible that you could hit the jackpot and get all of your out of pocket expenses paid, all of your medical bills reimbursed, your lost wages, prescriptions and etc., and in addition, recover for your pain and suffering. My advice is to avoid gambling. Part of something is better than all of nothing.

You need to retain a personal injury attorney. Based upon your input, the case is not worth a lot. However, it's the current and future medical needs that need to be accounted for. Your knee will bother you the rest of your life.

Insurers typically view the value of a case as "x" times the "specials". "Specials" are the provable costs of the injury such as wage loss (already incurred and projected future), medical bills (already incurred and projected future), replacement service costs, etc. "X" is any factor the insurer uses as a multiplier times the specials (usually the multiplier is a low digit #, such as 2 or 3 or 5 or the like). If future surgery is a probability, you would be best served by having your treater write a short note indicating your diagnosis and prognosis and of the need for future surgery and it's likelihood (also it's projected cost all in - in other words, surgeon, anesthesiologist, operating room, diagnostic tests, etc.) and the chances of success and length/cost of rehab. Insurers will also take into account whether there truly is negligence/liability on the part of their insured, any aggravating factors, etc.

how much were your medical bills? Were these bills paid by your health insurer? If so you will have to repay them. I would not settle until you have recovered from your injuries completely. In Louisiana you have only one year to file suit or you lose your claim. Other states maybe different.

You don't want to take advantage of the company but you do want to protect yourself. You don't want to go to court but you want a fair settlement. You don't want to hire a lawyer but you want legal advice. If you had gotten a lawyer to start with, you would have had a lot more leverage, you would have had protection against the insurance company taking advantage of you and you would have gotten legitimate legal advice. It may not be too late. It would be a disservice to try to make an evaluation based on one paragraph, with no accident report, no medical records and no photograph to look at, without even having met you. When you needed an MRI you went to an orthopedic doctor, you did not go on line and ask someone to draw a picture of your knee. Now you should go to a lawyer so that you can have someone who knows what he's doing handle this.