A small bathroom plumbing repair or a major backyard renovation may send Fresno residents to a local hardware store. Fresno has plenty of local and national chain home improvement stores to call upon when a repair project pops up at home.
Some of the choices are warehouse stores, like Lowe’s and Home Depot. These are gigantic places with lots of stuff stashed along the floors and over the customers’ heads. But any size hardware store can subject local shoppers to slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall hazards.
You could be strolling a narrow aisle when your foot hits a puddle left on that shiny floor. You might suffer a broken wrist or head trauma after a slip-and-fall and be rushed to the hospital. You’ll likely wonder who can be held at fault for such an accident.
Contact a Hardware Store Slip-And-Fall Accident Lawyer for a Free Consultation
While you’re sitting on the floor and possibly in a lot of pain, you may not be thinking about who should be held responsible for what happened. Yet, when the hospital and doctor bills come due, liability might become your number one concern.
Don’t wonder about what to do after an accident at Home Depot or True Value Hardware. Take advantage of a free consultation and talk with a real Fresno Slip-And-Fall and Premises Liability Lawyer. At Maison Law, the wellbeing of the victim and the victim’s family is placed ahead of everything else. We want to make sure you earn the compensation you need to make a full recovery.
Slip-And-Fall Accident Dangers at Fresno Hardware Stores
The owner of any business or store must protect customers and visitors from harm. Under premises liability laws, places like Lowe’s Home Improvement or Fresno Ag Hardware must monitor for slip-and-fall hazards as long as they are open to the public.
A puddle left on the tile or nuts and bolts spilled out on the floor must be cleaned up in a reasonable amount of time. It doesn’t matter if an employee accidentally creates a hazard or if a shopper drops a cup of coffee. If you or a loved one come along and have your feet taken out from under you, you can ask for compensation for all medical expenses. A set of stairs may have a faulty handrail that gives way to send you tumbling. These dangers must be fixed.
This “duty of care” towards customers extends throughout the store from the bathrooms, near the lumber racks, and out into the parking lot. A pothole left unfilled could send you into a trip-and-fall accident that breaks your kneecap. You could fall on your face to suffer a broken nose or damage to your teeth.
These examples and others should prompt you to talk with a legal professional about your case. A Fresno slip-and-fall accident lawyer helps you determine who should be providing you with support and then shows you how to demand that support in a way that can’t be denied.
Insurance Tactics After a Fall at a Fresno Hardware Store
Recovering from your physical injuries after a frightening fall at a hardware store will be your most difficult challenge. But finding money to pay for that care is also a major worry.
A small, locally owned store like Cobb’s Hardware will have liability insurance. The insurance company’s adjusters may try to question the severity of your injury and attempt to show that you were to blame for your own accident.
A hardware store that’s part of a chain of stores like Ace will have insurance representatives, but they’ll also have corporate lawyers who work even harder to discredit your injury claim.
A team of lawyers for Home Depot may try several different tactics to limit what you receive in a hardware store slip-and-fall injury settlement. They may convince you that your pain and injury recovery should be your own responsibility. Don’t go into negotiations with these unhelpful companies without a hardware store slip-and-fall injury lawyer safeguarding your rights.
Your Fresno personal injury lawyer will be monitoring for these and other tactics and rejecting them to make sure you get the most out of a hardware store injury claim:
- Insurance adjusters will claim you were not watching where you were going when you fell. Maybe they’ll claim you were staring at your cell phone. This won’t block you from receiving compensation. Your lawyer fights back to show the hardware store was completely negligent. You can also be partially to blame for your accident and still collect support for your injuries.
- Corporate attorneys may claim your shoes were worn out and that’s what sent you to the ground. This is a weak argument. Your Fresno slip-and-fall lawyer deflects this attempt to rob you of compensation. You should hang on to the shoes you were wearing during an accident just in case they are needed as evidence.
- Attorneys for Home Depot may claim you were in an area not meant for the general public. If this is true, your lawyer can show that an area wasn’t clearly marked and customers might easily mistakenly wander into dangerous places.
- Corporate lawyers may also claim you didn’t pay attention to wet floor signs that were around. There may or may not have been small signs out, but a sign doesn’t exempt hardware store owners and operators from liability for accidents.
One way to fight back against corporate lawyers is to come into the case armed with photos of the scene. If you are strong enough, try to take pictures of the hazard that sent you to the ground. This hazard will likely be cleaned up or repaired minutes after you leave the scene. Show the whole scene, including any warning signs or caution tape in the area. You should talk to witnesses and find out how your attorney can reach them later for testimony.
Compensation Available to Hardware Store Slip-And-Fall Victims
Victims in Fresno slip-and-fall accidents have up to two years to file an accident claim. You should act quickly to give your lawyer the most time possible to secure other evidence, secure security footage, and track down witnesses.
Once your case is ready, your Fresno hardware store slip-and-fall attorney will be filing a claim. Your lawyer will be seeking an insurance settlement for these and other damages for you:
- All current medical expenses and those expected in the future.
- The lifelong expenses associated with a permanent disability.
- Compensation for the physical pain suffered and perhaps chronic pain lasting a lifetime.
- Compensation for emotional trauma. A patient’s enjoyment of life may be lost as they deal with anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms resulting from a slip-and-fall incident and a difficult recovery.
- All wages and benefits lost at work while the patient is unable to perform job duties.
- Travel costs accumulated to attend doctor visits while immobile and unable to drive.
- Wrongful death benefits. Support for families after a loved one has died from injuries suffered in a hardware slip-and-fall accident. This can include money to pay for a funeral and remaining hospital bills. The income the deceased would have continued to provide close family members in the future should also be compensated.
Contact a Fresno Hardware Store Slip-And-Fall Lawyer
After a slip-and-fall accident at a local hardware store, be sure to discuss your case with an experienced slip-and-fall attorney serving victims across Fresno County. You should be able to focus on your recovery without stressing over the hospital bills piling up and the rent and car payments going unpaid while you’re out of work.
Allow Martin Gasparian, the founder of Maison Law, to go to work on your case to secure the most compensation possible for your recovery. Contact Mr. Gasparian today for a free case evaluation to find out how he can help protect you and your family.
