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Accident Attorney Story: Man Falls Out Of Office Chair and Sues
Tom went to see an accident attorney. Tom had attended the deposition of his wife in a court case, at the office of the New Jersey law firm. About 90 minutes into the deposition, Tom fell out of his chair and injured himself. I guess the deposition testimony wasn’t going well.
Actually, Tom’s complaint was that the chair he had been sitting in wasn’t properly adjusted. It was one of those chairs that tilt back. You could adjust the tension too low, medium or high. At low setting, there would be very little resistance if you tried to tilt back.
Tom claimed that he didn’t realize that his chair was set at low tension. This caused him to lose his balance and fall off the chair. Tom’s accident attorney claimed that the law firm where the deposition took place should have adjusted all their chairs to a medium setting before the deposition started.
Unfortunately for Tom, a New Jersey appeals court recently tossed his case out of court. The court noted that the chair was in perfect working order. If functioned the way it was supposed to. The judges would not impose a duty on business owners to check all the working chairs in their offices every time they had guests.
The court further pointed out that Tom had been in the chair for 90 minutes before he fell. He should have figured out in that time how the chair worked.
It is important to remember that, had the chair been defective, the result likely would have been different. Similarly, had the chair mechanism been difficult to figure out for anyone with an IQ of over, say, 60, I suspect the case would not have ended the same way.
If you or someone you know ever suffers an injury on a business’ premises, you should consult an accident attorney immediately. You might be entitled to compensation. There is a deadline to take legal action. If you miss the deadline, you will never be able to receive compensation, even if your case otherwise has merit.
If have had a slip and fall you can find out more about hat you can do here.