How fake slip-and-fall claims can lead to rising rent, homeowner costs | 7 On Your Side Investigates
NEW YORK (WABC) -- The 7 On Your Side Investigates team is continuing to look at fake accident claims that are driving up costs for everyone - this time looking into questionable slip and fall claims.
A slip and fall claim involves someone alleging they were injured when they fell on a sidewalk with a crack or defect. They sue the property owner adjacent to the sidewalk for negligence. In New York City, property owners are required to maintain the sidewalk outside their buildings and can be held liable if someone is injured on the sidewalk.
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, New York City is the number one city in the country for questionable slip and fall claims. Insurance experts told Eyewitness News the fake claims are causing insurance premiums to rise for building owners who are then passing on the increased costs to tenants, homeowners and consumers.
Eyewitness News spoke with a building owner in Brooklyn who believes he received a fraudulent lawsuit from a man who alleges he was severely injured when he fell on the sidewalk outside the owner's building.
Eyewitness News reviewed the surveillance video of the fall and it doesn't appear to be a serious incident.
"You know outright this doesn't make any sense," the building owner told investigative reporter Kristin Thorne. "I feel this is, like, some kind of setup that goes on beyond our control."
The building owner did not want to be identified but showed Eyewitness News the bills he was getting from his property insurance charging him a $10,000 deductible to investigate the claim.
"Doesn't have anything to do if the claim is legit or if it's not," he said. "The deductible you have to pay regardless."
Attorney Marc Sloane is representing a building owner in the Bronx who received what they believe to be a fake slip and fall claim.
"It's not legitimate," Sloane said. "It's fraud."
Eyewitness News reviewed surveillance video of the incident.
Two men pull up on a scooter and destroy the sidewalk. At one point, you see them throw a piece of the sidewalk away.
A few hours later, a man comes by, drags his back foot, and falls on the sidewalk at the exact spot that the men on the scooter destroyed.
The man who fell sued the building owner saying he injured his back, and his knees and had psychological injuries.
He claimed he couldn't work as a result.
"What are the coincidences that a person - two people whatever - just pulls up, gets off a bike, and just starts breaking up a sidewalk, and then 'X' amount of hours later somebody just happens to allegedly trip and fall over a defect that didn't exist prior to a few hours before the incident?" Sloane asked.
Eyewitness News reviewed court documents that point to the two men on the scooter as being part of the legal team representing the man who fell. The men can be seen on surveillance taking measurements and pictures of the crack they created which are identical to the pictures submitted to the court by the legal team of the man who fell.
"It's 100% fraud," Sloane said.
Shortly after Eyewitness News reached out to the law firm, the firm filed a notice with the Bronx Supreme Court saying they were withdrawing from the lawsuit because they suspected their client - the man who fell - may have committed fraud.
The law firm did not respond to Eyewitness News' request for comment.
Mark Browne, Chair of the Faculty at the Greenberg School of Risk Management and Insurance at St. John's University, said the costs associated with fake slip and fall claims aren't free.
"It's going down to the tenant, the homeowner," he said. "It's robbing from other people. It's fraudulent, it's criminal, it's wrong."
Browne said it's not uncommon for retail stores to raise prices on their products due to fraudulent insurance claims.
"I hope that people will understand that they suffer as a result of this," he said.
According to the New York City Comptroller, the city in fiscal year 2023 spent $53.5 million in taxpayer money on sidewalk slip and fall claims.
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