Waverly, NY Personal Injury Law Firms & Lawyers

"Difficult to prove" is different from "difficult to settle". The problem is that of liability. Just because you fell on ice in a business parking lot does not make that business automatically liable. The property owner is not obligated to keep it's property in perfectly safe condition, only "reasonably" safe. So what's "reasonable"? You have to prove one of three things: 1) The landowner actually knew of the hazardous condition 2)) The landowner should have known of the condition or 3) The landowner created the condition. Once you prove one of those three elements, you have to prove that the landowner had time to correct the condition, usually that's less difficult. In upstate New York we get a lot of ice and snow, and no property owner can be expected to keep all of the property completely clear of ice and snow all of the time, that would not be "reasonable". And of course, they will blame you for not avoiding the hazard whether you could or not. For all of those reasons, insurance companies like to fight this kind of case. I'm sure your lawyer has already explained all of this to you, it's not an excuse, it's the situation you happen to be in.

This is not a country run by debtors. You are obligated to pay your account in full except to the extent that you carry your burden of proof to show that some other arrangement was subsequently created. You might be able to prove that objectively the debt was affected by an agreement to pay monthly indefinitely. If you want to pay merely the minimum payment and thus pay down little or no principal over time you'll be laughed out.

You can't but she can, that is assuming that there was someone other than her who was at fault and that she sustained a "serious injury" as that term is defined by statute.