Auto Insurance Claims: personal injury, lower lumbar strain, wooden pallet

Question
I was in the produce section at Wal-Mart standing near a wooden pallet containing vegetables.  When I walked forward to continue shopping my right foot got caught on a broken piece of wood that was sticking out from the pallet and into the aisle.  I tripped and fell to the floor.  I filed an incident report with Wal-Mart.  The next day I went to the ER due to pain in my left wrist, hip, leg and back.  The Doctor's report indicated a wrist sprain, contusions and lower lumbar strain.  I was advised that symptoms from the fall would start to go away within 4-5 days.  It had now been two weeks since the incident and I am still experiencing back and wrist pain. I am interested in filing a personal injury claim.  How should I best proceed with this on my own without legal assistance?  

Answer
Dallis,

Generally, before you submit a "claim" you need to determine the extent of your injuries. It sounds like you need medical treatment due to your ongoing pain. You may want to consult your doctor further to determine the long term extent of your injuries, if any. After the injuries are resolved or your doctor advises he can no longer improve your symptoms, you may then want to consider trying to resolve the claim with Walmart by sending in a letter delineating the bills incurred, pain suffered, inconvenience endured, etc..

Should your bills get to high or your injuries not resolve to your satisfaction, you may want to consider legal representation to assist you.

Thank you.

Marc B. Nussbaum, Esquire