Retail Store Accidents

Premises Liability Lawyers Advocating for Grand Rapids, Traverse City, and Detroit Residents

Retail stores are some of the most visited businesses and include department stores, shopping malls, big box retailers and smaller family-owned shops. While most retail stores take the necessary precautions to ensure a safe space for customers, that, unfortunately, isn’t always the case. If you are hurt in a retail store due to the store’s negligence, the Detroit, Traverse City, and Grand Rapids premises liability attorneys at Neumann Law Group may be able to help you hold the store accountable. Each year for the past several years, Kelly Neumann has regularly secured more than $3 million in personal injury cases.

Common Retail Store Accidents

Some common reasons that people are injured in retail stores include spilled liquids, wet floors, melted snow, falling big boxes, and cracks or defects in an entryway. These slip and fall accidents can result in serious injuries, such as brain injuries, neck injuries, back injuries, broken bones, and dislocated hips.

Seeking Compensation After a Retail Store Accident

As in other personal injury cases, plaintiffs trying to establish a retail store’s liability must first establish negligence by a preponderance of the evidence. This entails proving that the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff, the defendant breached this duty, there was actual and proximate (legal) causation, and damages were incurred. Under Michigan law, retail stores have a legal duty to make sure their property is reasonably safe for customers. They are expected to conduct regular inspections of their property to make sure there are no dangerous conditions that necessitate repair or warning signs. A plaintiff must establish that the store had actual or constructive notice of a dangerous condition.

How to Prove a Store Had Notice of a Hazard

It can be difficult to prove actual notice unless an employee admits that he or she saw a spill and simply failed to clean it up, or there is documentation that an employee noticed improper stacking of big boxes and nobody bothered to fix it. The longer a dangerous condition exists, the more likely it is that a court will find there was constructive notice of the condition. For example, if there is a pool of opaque liquid on the store floor for five hours, and nobody bothers to put up an orange warning cone or mop the area, this is likely to be considered constructive notice. However, if one customer spills water on the floor, and immediately another customer slips on it, there may not be enough time for the store to have had constructive notice of the spill.

Moreover, in Michigan, a storeowner will not be liable for an open and obvious dangerous condition. This means that when a customer reasonably could be expected to see a hazard on his or her own, he or she is expected to try to avoid it.

What to do After a Slip and Fall Accident at a Retail Store

If you suffer injuries in a retail store, you should immediately let the store manager know and file a written report. You should also make sure that the report includes the time and date and the names of eyewitnesses. Although the duty owed by retail stores to their customers is clear, it can be difficult to establish the requisite notice without any other eyewitnesses. It is also important to take pictures. In some cases, retail stores have surveillance footage of an accident, but they do not always archive videotapes. Therefore, it is important to contact an experienced Traverse City retail store accident attorney right away about your injuries.

Discuss Your Case with a Knowledgeable Traverse City Premises Liability Attorney

Retail store accidents like slip and falls can cause serious injuries. The Traverse City premises liability lawyers at Neumann Law Group may be able to help you establish a store’s liability so that you can recover compensation for your economic and noneconomic damages. We represent victims in Petoskey, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Holland, Midland, Muskegon, Saginaw, Wyoming, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Flint, Ann Arbor, and communities throughout the Upper Peninsula, as well as in California and Massachusetts. To learn more, and to schedule a free consultation today, give the Traverse City personal injury lawyers at the Neumann Law Group a call at 800-525-6386. You can also connect with us through our online contact form. Calling is free, and we will not bill you for our services unless and until we can connect you with the compensation you deserve.