Your part once the case is filed
After a slip and fall accident lawsuit begins, the injured person becomes a central source of evidence. In New York, the plaintiff usually serves a bill of particulars that spells out the claimed injuries, the theory of how the fall happened, and the losses being sought, and later changes to it can be restricted. The defense will ask you to sign authorizations so it can obtain medical, pharmacy, and sometimes employment records. It will also take your deposition, a sworn question-and-answer session usually held in a lawyer's office with a court reporter. Your lawyer prepares you for it, and the goal is simply accurate, unhurried answers.
Prior injuries and the defense exam
Defendants often look for an earlier injury to the same part of the body and argue that the fall did not cause the condition you now have. That does not end a claim, because aggravating a prior condition can still be compensable, but it makes complete honesty about your history important from the start. The defense will usually schedule an examination by a physician it selects, and that doctor's report is often used to dispute the extent of the injury. You can generally have someone accompany you, depending on the court's rules and the circumstances. Some insurers also review public social media or conduct surveillance, so assume that what you post may be seen.
Timing and what to keep doing
Keep attending the treatment your doctors recommend and keep your lawyer informed of new providers, procedures, or time missed from work. A case moves through discovery toward a filing that certifies it is ready for trial, and the defense often seeks summary judgment at that stage. Settlement talks or mediation can happen at any point. If the fall occurred on public property, the notice of claim and the shorter deadlines that follow it should already have been addressed, and we check that early. At the start of representation we walk through what the lawsuit will ask of you month by month so that each stage is expected.
