What does it mean when no attorney will take my case?

Slip and fall cases are difficult to win because you have to prove that the owner of the premises was negligent. Examples of negligence would be allowing loose carpeting, rickety stairs, water or food on the floor, ice, etc. after the owner was aware of the condition. You must establish that the owner knew, or should have known, of the dangerous condition and did nothing about it. You also need to establish damages through medical bills.

It means that either they think your case is too hard to prove, its not big enough, they are incompetent, or they don't like you.

There is no way to know why, exactly, attorneys turn you down - unless you ask each of them, of course. Chances are that it has nothing to do with what they think of you, and everything to do with what they think about your case. If you had an injury, it does not necessarily mean that anyone was at fault. For anyone to be liable for your injury, that party must have had some kind of legal duty to you and inexcusably failed to perform that duty. For example, if you were a customer visiting a store, and the janitor employed in that store washed the floor and left it slippery and did not post any warning signs, and you slipped on that floor - the store is liable for your injury. If you came into the same store just because you wanted to charge your telephone, and went to a utility closet marked "Employees only" and were electrocuted when you plugged your charger into an outlet - most likely, you have no case against that store. Another side of the problem is the measure of your damages. What were the direct losses (EMT and emergency room invoices, lost wages, etc.)? How serious was the injury, and are there any lasting effects that should be expected? All together, how much money would provide a reasonable compensation for your injury? If the amount of potential recovery is going to be close to the costs of prosecuting your claim, taking your case is not only unethical, it's impractical. Filing fees to the court - $325 + filing fees for every motion you need to make before the case is ready for a trial Discovery - hundreds of dollars in costs of copying and reviewing documents (an average medical record from a hospital costs $800-$1500, not counting the costs of searching the record for the evidence you need for your case); thousands of dollars in costs of depositions of the defendants (you have to pay to the court reporter to sit there and make a stenographic record of the deposition, and then you have to pay to get a transcript) Trial - you need expert witnesses to testify for you; they have to be compensated for their time; expert witness bills run in thousands of dollars. And your attorney has to work many hundreds of hours to bring your case to a resolution; that is his/her job, and he/she needs to be paid for doing it. All in all, your recoverable damages have to be enough to cover all these costs and leave you with some amount that would compensate you for your losses, your pain, and all the aggravation of going through a lawsuit, and all the time you will spend doing it. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time and effort. Apparently, the attorneys you consulted felt that either you have no case or that your claim will not cover the costs of its prosecution.

Slip and fall cases are, by their nature, difficult. First, you must be able to prove negligence on the part of the property owner/occupant. Negligence could be defined as the failure to use REASONABLE care; the owner is not a guarantor. To do this, you must be able to prove that the owner put the slippery substance there, or that they had prior knowledge of the hazard and failed to take care of it promptly. Second, they will claim ?comparative fault?, meaning that you had a duty to watch where you were walking, and thus are partly at fault. The result is that most lawyers are reluctant to take a slip and fall case unless there are substantial damages, and there are at least some arguments to be made on fault.

My guess would be that it is more the fact that premises liability cases in Michigan are very hard to win because the Judges have created the "open & obvious" exception to a premises owners usual duty to maintain a safe premises. The o&o exception states that a premises owner has no duty of care if the condition that causes injury is o&o. The theory being the injured party should have seen and avoided the hazard. Although we have comparative negligence in Mi., the Judges can't seem to bring themselves to allow a fair analysis of the injured parties conduct vs. the premises owners knowledge/conduct. In my judgment, you may thank "conservatives", Republicans and voters that are uniformly uninformed for this (unfair) state of affairs.

How am I supposed to know? I don't know what's in your past, or what anybody thinks of you are why you tripped.

Simply because you suffer an injury does not mean you have a case. If you are seeking a recovery which is doubtful, or too small to economically pay an attorney for their time and expense on a contingency basis they will decline the engagement.

Most attorneys take personal injury cases on a contingent fee basis. If your case involves minimal provable damages, most attorneys will decline to represent you for obvious reasons.

You don't get money for falling. You get money for injuries caused by the negligence of someone else, and proving you are not negligent and proving that the cause was not able to be seen with your naked eyes if you can see it and you walk into it or onto it it is said to be "open and obvious" and that is a defense. If no lawyer will take your case that is a good sign you don't have a good case.

It is most probable that there is no liability or your damages are not severe enough. Just because you get hurt on someone's property does not necessarily make them liable. You have to prove they did something wrong and that you are without any fault on your part.

There might not be liability of another for you tripping or enough monetary damages to justify an attorney accepting the case. If you want to pursue, you can always offer to pay an hourly rate. However, if liability does not appear to be another's responsibility, it id doubtful an attorney would even accept the case.

It has nothing to do with you. It's the actual case itself, you do not have a cause of action.

They think it is not worth the money. They would have to prove that the owner was negligent and caused you to trip. If you tripped over your own feet, there is no case. Secondly, even if the owner were negligent, how badly were you injured? Did you go to the hospital? Did you have follow-up care? Did you suffer permanent brain damage? If not, then your damages are minimal and it is not worth the time and energy to attempt to recover anything for you.