When you slip or fall in a departmental store, such an accident can lead to severe injuries that you shouldn’t treat with kid’s gloves. It’s the duty of departmental store managers or property owners to provide a safe environment for customers to shop and employees to work effectively. Businesses have an obligation to uphold standard safety procedures by eliminating potential hazards to forestall accidents within their business environment.
When they fail in this responsibility, slip and fall accidents often happen. And what should have been a timely grab-and-leave errand for supplies can find one in a medical center. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, slip and fall accidents are the major causes of injuries in retail and departmental stores across the US.
It goes to show how often these incidents occur. Sadly, most businesses get away with such acts of negligence by shoving blame on victims. They can easily say the victim was reckless, hurrying, or wore slippery footwear among the many excuses they give to reduce any funds you may recover.
You deserve compensation for any injury sustained in a departmental or retail store. However, it can take a while for all the paperwork, legal process, and implementation to happen. So, your best shot at getting faster compensation is by hiring a Queens slip and fall accident lawyer to handle your case.
Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents in Queens, NY
Slip and fall accidents are prevalent across workplaces in the United States and are not adequately reported. Some of the most common causes of these accidents include:
Clutter
A cluttered store can cause people to stumble on objects and large inventories, leading to falls. Several clothes on the floor, lack of adequate spacing between racks, bottom drawers left open, trash cans blocking the aisle, or any section of a departmental store in partial disarray can contribute to falls.
When people are busy shopping, they have their eyes on the items and barely have time to check if the store is properly arranged. This is partly because they assume the store manager or staff should have done the needful in ensuring people don’t shop in dangerous conditions. Unfortunately, they become victims of gross mismanagement and negligence by store owners.
Wet and Slippery Floors
Wet floors are a leading cause of slips and falls in most retail and departmental stores across the US. A wet floor is a potential hazard, and it only takes a while before an unsuspecting victim comes tumbling down. When a floor is recently mopped, it should be left to dry before allowing customers to walk through. Alternatively, the area can be cordoned off with a sign that it’s wet around there and should be avoided.
Water, alcohol, and spills from other liquid forms can lead to fatal slips and falls if not cleaned on time. Since most fall injuries are from liquid floors, it shows how negligent staff and management of departmental stores can be.
Loose Wires
Wires and cords from electrical appliances running loose on the ground are traps waiting for victims to activate them and fall. If there are no alternatives to reroute the wires rather than walkways, they should be taped to the ground or wrapped in insulating materials. It’s easy for shoes with adornments to get entangled in these cords and lead to the epic falls of customers, most times, along with everything they carry.
Faulty Handrails
Some businesses turn a blind eye to faulty and weak handrails. When ignorant customers rely on them to climb stairs, it won’t take long before these frail handrails give way to pressure and crumble with the customers and their wares.
The safety codes in some states demand that all staircases and ramps in business places must have handrails to ensure the safety of people using them. Yet, business owners default on this rule. Falls from staircases due to faulty handrails are devastating and could incapacitate victims for some time, putting them off work while incurring steep medical bills.
Slightly Dark Areas
Some aisles, stairwells, or entire sections of departmental stores are a bit dark either due to clutter, burned-out light bulbs, or insufficient lighting. Hence, it’s almost impossible to discover water spills, loose wires gracing the floors, or tripping hazards in these areas.
Epic falls that lead to complicated injuries and the destruction of delicate shopping items are inevitable under poor lighting conditions in retail stores. Store managers and owners should ensure adequate lighting across every section of the business environment is sustained, including outdoors, to limit falls.
Decaying Infrastructure or Uneven Surfaces
Cracks on the floor, sidewalks, and parking lot are signs of infrastructural decay left unattended. Women on heels are the major potential victims as they require even floors to move around safely.
So, when there’s a slight depth on the floor, it creates uneven movements, and since it often comes as a surprise, stumbling is nearly inevitable. Other customers and employees are also prone to falling regardless of what footwear type they are wearing. Any defect found in the structural part of a building should receive immediate attention.
Lack of Warning Signs
Failing to place warning signs in potentially hazardous areas can lead to slips and falls. It’s the duty of grocers, store managers, and business owners to warn customers of potential hazards. If there was a liquid spill, a cracked floor, an uneven surface, or loose wires gracing the floor, there should be a sign that the store employees are yet to manage the situation or are working on it.
Sometimes, employees may have the intention to clean a spill on the floor and fail to place warning signs. Unfortunately, that few minutes between getting a mop stick and returning to clean the spill can lead to numerous fall accident injuries, especially from toddlers wandering.
Injuries Resulting from Slips and Falls
Slip and fall accidents can lead to several injuries, resulting in major health complications for the elderly. A slip-and-fall accident may lead to the following injuries:
- Broken bones
- Skull fracture
- Nerve damage
- Concussion
- Hip fractures
- Soft tissue injuries
- Spinal cord damages
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Muscle strains
Fortunately, the New York law permits fall victims to sue for damages and get compensation from parties liable for the accident.
Time Frame for Filing a Slip and Fall Lawsuit in New York
The time limit or statute of limitations for filing a NY slip and fall lawsuit is three years, beginning from the day the incident occurred. It may be lesser if the incident happened in a public park or any property under the care of the city’s council. Hence, it’s essential you file a personal injury lawsuit as soon as possible. Whether it’s a government-owned store or a private business, you should seek legal redress and demand financial compensation via a fall injury attorney.
New York Laws on Slip and Fall Accidents
If you slipped and fell in a department store, serious injuries are inevitable. But that’s one way to look at the aftermath. You could be away from work for at least 4 weeks and more, depending on the severity of the injury, and that translates to lost wages. You’ll also spend on medical bills if you don’t take legal steps to address the incident.
Slip and fall accidents occur when property owners are negligent of the unsafe conditions in their business environment. Therefore, you shouldn’t be the one to take care of your medical bills. The party liable should do so at the behest of a court because they naturally would tend to avoid making compensations.
Yet, this is only feasible if you can prove:
- That the departmental store was open for public use and you weren’t trespassing on someone else’s property.
- That the store manager or owner failed to uphold safety procedures within the business environment which is termed negligence
- That the negligence of the store owner caused your accident.
If the store management was aware of a potential hazard and placed a warning sign, your slip and fall case may be undermined by the law. That will be termed negligence or carelessness on your path whether you saw the sign or not. In this case, you are partly responsible for the accident. However, a fall accident lawyer will still ensure civil justice prevails and the store owner is made to pay for damages, although you may not get full compensation.
What to Do When You Slip and Fall?
If you’ve slipped and fallen in a department store, the property owner should be liable for your accident. It doesn’t also have to be you. Your friend, or a loved one involved in a departmental store slip and fall accident, should also get justice in maximum compensation for negligence on the part of property owners. You can count on the experience of fall accident lawyers in filing a personal injury claim, helping you to recover money from lost wages and other damages. Before that, ensure you do the following:
Obtain On-the-Spot Evidence
In cases where the fall injury isn’t severe enough to cripple you at the spot, you can obtain shreds of evidence on the scene which you can use against the store owner. If there was a spill, cracked floor, cluttered pathway, or any common cause of slips and falls, take photos of the evidence and keep them.
If you don’t, the property owner may quickly erase any potential pieces of evidence on the scene and make your claim appear feeble in the eyes of the law. While a personal injury lawyer may still fight on your behalf and help you recover damages, you’ll be making the job easier if you can obtain on-site shreds of evidence.
Report to a Medical Facility for Urgent Attention
However, you should first report to a medical facility, depending on the severity of the fall. This will ensure you stem any bleeding occasioned by the fall and avoid escalating the physical problem.
Also, your insurance company or that of the liable party will demand a record of the treatments you’ve received after the slip and fall accident. It doesn’t matter if you are physically healthy after the incident, still report to a medical center for a check-up, especially the elderly.
Report to the Property Owner
After receiving immediate medical attention, look for a contact of the store owner or manager and inform the person of the incident. Provide a brief account of how the accident occurred and demand they write a report about your accident. Ensure to have your copy of the report for record purposes.
Get Witnesses If You Can
To further enhance your winning chances if the case goes to trial, you will need corroborators. Some persons may have witnessed the fall and offered to help you get up or go to a medical center for treatment. Get their contact details because your Queens personal injury attorney may need to contact them later for their eyewitness accounts when the defendant is denying.
Contact a Queens Slip and Fall Lawyer
With your evidence in handy, including a copy of the incident report from the store manager or owner, you can proceed to contact an experienced slip and fall attorney in New York. Fall attorneys will typically offer a free initial consultation on fall accident cases to determine if you deserve fair compensation.
Get a Queen’s Personal Injury Lawyer with Outstanding Results
If you or a loved one has been injured in a departmental store slip and fall accident, getting deserved compensation is possible with a Queens slip and fall accident attorney. Elliot Ifraimoff and Associates has a legal team with 60 years of combined experience to give you aggressive and personalized legal representation in your slip and fall accident case.
Call us now for a free consultation to determine whether you are eligible for the various compensation options available.
