First and foremost, I was shocked to learn that there are so many closet Goldfinger Injury Lawyers Blog fans out there?!?!?! Apparently, there are lots of you. This is kinda like me telling you; the reader; that “I’m big in Japan“; but apparently I AM! I’m to weird law seeking people what David Hasselhoff is to Germans; an obscure Uber Shtar. Even my near and dear cousin Sharky in Malibu is a fan of the blog. He’s a Hollywood writer, so he knows good writing when he sees it. Next stop, Düsseldorf. Can you believe I managed to dot the “u” on Düsseldorf?
With my new found celebrity, has come large responsibility. An obligation to my adoring public. People want to know WHERE they should be most careful in order to avoid accident; so they don’t become Goldfinger Injury Lawyers’s newest client.
What do you want me to tell you? Seriously? You should drive your car in full body armour because there are so many bad drivers on the road? You should walk your weiner dog Buttons while wearing a helmet because you never know when one can slip and fall on an uneven sidewalk? You should pad the walls of your condo like an insane asylum to avoid traumatic injury? You should never leave your house except in the event your house spontaneously bursts to flames? The answer to all of these questions is of course, YES.
While most of the cases we see at our office involve serious car accidents, I would be pleased to share a secret with you about an overlooked place where many accidents happen.
The next time you go to the Supermarket or Department Store, BEWARE. You wouldn’t believe the amount of calls we get each week from people wanting to sue their local supermarket or department store for personal injury. People slip and fall on wet spots near the produce, collide into other shoppers with their grocery carts, trip over displays protruding into the aisles, slip on the floor mats near the entrance, or simply have goods improperly stacked on high shelves avalanche down on them. I can’t make this stuff up. It happens and it happens frequently. Take a good look around the next time you go grocery shopping or to a department store/big box store at all of the commotion and all of the people bustling around in close quarters. Recipe for disaster.
If one of these supermarket or department store accidents happen, the first thing to do is to report it to the store. They should take an accident report and help you in contacting an ambulance. The biggest mistake which people make following these accidents is they forget to take pictures of the hazard which caused the accident to happen. If you slipped on your own shoe laces, then I don’t want a picture of that. But, if it was a wet spot on the ground, get a picture of it with your cell phone camera. If you don’t have a camera, borrow someone’s cell phone camera. That photo of the hazard will be the difference between a winning case, and a losing case.
Also get the names and contact information of all the witnesses who saw the accident. Because police rarely if ever, get involved in accidents at private retail chains, it’s necessary for you to preserve the evidence and conduct your own investigations into what caused the accident.
Many people sue grocery stores and department stores in relation to accident claims. Accidents happen frequently at these locations. The injuries in these cases is often not the issue. The issue in these cases is HOW the accident happened, whose fault was the accident, and whether or not the accident victim is partially responsible for the accident for failing to pay attention to their surroundings.
So next time you go shopping, be alert and stay safe. You never know when the Supermarket Monster will strike.