Understandably, you may feel embarrassed after slipping and falling in a space as public as a retail store. To get the attention off of you as soon as possible, you may shake it off and claim that you are fine. But in reality, you may have seriously hurt yourself. This may go beyond a clumsy mistake on your part, but it may have been caused by an unnecessarily dangerous condition on the premises. If so, please read on to discover whether you should sue after slipping and falling in a retail store and how one of the seasoned Prince George’s County slip & fall lawyers at Miller Berman can help you explore your legal options from here.
Am I eligible to sue after slipping and falling in a retail store?
Maryland law holds that a retail store owner or manager has a duty of care to keep you and all other invited visitors safe while navigating through their premises. So if you believe they breached their duty at some capacity, you may have a valid personal injury claim on your hands after your slip and fall.
Namely, for your claim, you must demonstrate that an owner or manager had either actual or constructive knowledge of a hazard on their property. Actual knowledge means they knew about it, while constructive knowledge means it existed long enough that they should have reasonably discovered it.
Then, you must establish that this hazard was the exact thing that prompted your slip and fall. For example, you may have slipped on a spilled liquid in the aisle, tripped over a lifted carpet in the entryway, lost your balance on uneven floor boards, etc. Lastly, you must show that this incident resulted in the injuries and damages you are seeking compensation for.
What should I do right after slipping and falling in a store?
To solidify the key elements of your legal argument mentioned above, you must present a sufficient amount of evidence to the Maryland civil court. Arguably, the most beneficial proof comes from the accident scene itself. So even though your instinct may be to flee out of sheer embarrassment, you must stick around to secure pivotal pieces of proof.
For one, you or a helpful fellow shopper should locate the retail store owner or manager on shift. You should then request that they conduct a store incident report that documents the time, location, and circumstances of your slip and fall. For your personal records, you should ask for a copy of this document, as well. And if your injuries are immediately visible or noticeable, you should even call emergency medical services to the store and accept transport to the hospital.
But before being taken away in an ambulance, if you are physically able, you should make sure to capture photographic evidence of the hazard that most likely contributed to your accident event. Later on, your lawyer may get the legal permissions necessary to acquire a copy of the retail store’s security camera footage that shows your incident playing out in real time. There is generally a three-year statute of limitations to file a claim or lawsuit, so it is imperative that you take prompt action.
Whether or not you took these actions immediately after your slip and fall accident, your next step should be to pick up the phone and call one of the competent Prince George’s County injury lawyers. Our team at Miller Berman will intently listen to your story and build a strong legal strategy off of it. So please contact us today.
