New York Grocery Store Slip and Fall Accident Attorney
Slips, trips, and falls are incredibly common across the country. People slip on wet floors and loose objects every day in grocery stores, supermarkets, warehouse stores, liquor stores, bodegas, and any number of other retail shops. Slips, trips, and falls can lead to broken bones, strained or torn muscles, head trauma, traumatic brain injury, and many other serious injuries. In fact, slip and falls are the leading cause of traumatic brain injury across the country. If you have been injured in a grocery store slip & fall accident in Goshen, New York City, or anywhere in the Hudson Valley, contact our office to see if you may have a claim for relief.
The premises liability attorneys at Dupée & Monroe, P.C., in Goshen have years of experience recovering large awards for clients injured due to the negligent property management of others. We are well-versed in pursuing litigation arising out of dangerous premises, whether the accident was caused by a wet floor, a staircase collapse, or another premises hazard that should have been remedied before the accident happened.
Common Causes of Slips, Trips, and Falls at Grocery Stores
Grocery stores have an affirmative duty to inspect their property and look out for potential hazards. Some of the more common causes of premises liability injuries at grocery stores include the following:
- Wet sidewalk, parking lot, or entranceway due to rain, snow, mud, dirt, or ice
- Uneven floors
- Unplowed parking lots
- Dangerously located displays or stands
- Wet floors caused by spilled food and drink
- Freshly mopped floors left unmarked
- Sudden, hidden elevation changes
- Misplaced carts, baskets, pallets, or other hazardous objects
- Heavy, unbalanced, or otherwise unwieldy objects on higher shelves
- Dirty restrooms with wet floors or other surfaces
- Cracks in the sidewalk or parking lot
- Unsecured flooring such as a carpet or wood panel
- Staircase, elevator, or escalator collapse
- Cuts from shopping carts, shelf corners, or other sharp objects in a store
- Broken or unsecured railings on walkways, stairways, or escalators
Any accident caused by a hazard left unremedied in a grocery store or other market may give rise to liability if the hazard caused you injury. Store owners and their employees have a legal responsibility to inspect their premises for hazards such as those described above and to either fix them or alert customers of their presence. The remedy or notice requirement includes both inside and outside the premises, so long as the premises are under the care, ownership, or control of the store.
Proving Liability in a Grocery Store Slip & Fall Injury Claim
In order to demonstrate liability and collect damages from a grocery store, an injured plaintiff must establish that the grocery store was responsible for the injury. To prove liability, therefore, the plaintiff must show one of the following:
- The grocery store, or an employee thereof, caused the hazard that led to the injury
- The grocery store was aware of the danger and did not either remedy the situation or alert customers of the peril, such as with a clearly-marked sign
- The hazard was present for a sufficient amount of time such that the store should have known of the dangerous condition
The last category can be tricky to prove. If one customer causes a spill and someone else slips a minute later, the store may not have had sufficient time to find and clean the spill. If a spill was present for an hour, however, then the store may be held liable for negligently failing to inspect its premises. A seasoned slip and fall injury lawyer can evaluate the circumstances of your injury and build the strongest case for your recovery.
Contact Our Grocery Store Slip and Fall Accident Lawyers in Goshen for Help
The slip & fall accident attorneys at Dupée & Monroe, P.C., have decades of experience helping people who were hurt as a result of a dangerous property condition. If you or a loved one has been injured in a slip and fall accident at a grocery store, supermarket, liquor store, or bodega in Goshen, the Hudson Valley or anywhere in New York, contact Dupée & Monroe, P.C., today for a free consultation and immediate assistance. We handle personal injury and wrongful death cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you do not pay any attorneys’ fees until we collect compensation on your behalf.
