Walmart offers aisles and aisles of the things we need to keep our families and our lives running in Los Angeles. However, those dash-in and out shopping trips leave little time to consider the hazards that could lurk across all that floor space.
Customers can track a spilled soda across the tile or drop a bottle of cough syrup. These are hazards that seem small until you come along and have your feet taken out from under you. A slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident could leave you with a head injury and easily cause a broken bone.
When hurt at a store, it’s important to know what you’ll be facing when you ask for help paying for your medical recovery. Your rights as a victim are especially important when you must rely on a giant retailer like Walmart for support.
Los Angeles Walmart Slip-And-Fall Dangers
Like any business, Walmart owes California shoppers a “duty of care.” That means they are responsible for your safe passage in the parking lot, through the automatic doors, and to the last aisle and back.
Walmart employees and managers must constantly monitor the store for spills, puddles, boxes on the floor, soap on the bathroom tile, and other hazards. A customer may have created an obstacle, but it’s still up to Walmart to spot those dangers and get them repaired or cleaned up in a reasonable amount of time.
When customers get hurt due to the negligence of this duty of care, Walmart is bound by “premises liability” laws to help victims they’ve caused harm to. Getting Walmart to accept that legal responsibility and provide what is fair in support is another matter.
Walmart should be first in line to accept blame and help victims of accidents at their stores. Especially when there’s so much potential danger in their mega marts and so many spots for falls to happen.
Those dangers aren’t always confined to inside the store either. These are just a few of the places you could get hurt:
- Outside Walmart – Parking lots can develop potholes to create trip-and-fall hazards. Crumbling sidewalks and curbs are also dangerous. Landscaping issues might send you to the ground for a hard impact. Items left in the parking lot or oil spills from cars could topple you. Rain only adds to the slippery conditions and foot traffic then tracks the water inside.
- Inside Walmart – Puddles arise when customers, and sometimes children, dribble their drinks or drop items that spill onto the floor. Puddles are also produced by freezer units and by sprinklers in produce sections. These hazards are supposed to be spotted and cleaned up, but careless employees don’t always take the time or show the effort needed to prevent accidents. Floor mats are always a tripping hazard. Employees can leave items along the aisles to catch feet and store displays provide constant obstacles.
Common Injuries in Walmart Trip-And-Falls
In trip-and-fall accidents, victims are generally sent flailing forward. The fall exposes the face, knees, hands, wrists to the force of impact.
These are some of the most common injuries emergency room doctors treat after a serious trip-and-fall:
- Arm Injuries – When victims fall forward they often try to catch themselves. Fingers and wrists may bend and break under the pressure.
- Facial Fractures – Victims may fail to stop their fall and land face first. This can lead to damage to the cheekbones and the jaw. The nose is always vulnerable in these falls.
- Knee Impacts – After a fall on the knee, the bone may no longer bear weight without pain. It may also swell and no longer bend. Surgery or even replacement could be required.
- Mouth Injury – Impacts can leave teeth loose, broken, or knocked out completely. This is not only painful, fixing this damage could be very expensive and leave the victim with difficulty eating.
Slip-And-Fall incidents often send victims to the ground sideways or backward. This is when so many victims fracture their hips.
These are a few of the outcomes victims experience most often:
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) – A blow to the head can happen with any fall. The head may hit the ground or a shelf, or a Walmart shopping cart. A brain injury might rob you of your short-term or long-term memories. Your sight could be affected. TBI injuries could lead to light sensitivity. Victims can experience depression and other mental health issues after a blow to the head.
- Cranial Fractures – The skull bone might receive a hairline fracture that leads to swelling and bleeding. Expensive neurosurgery may be prescribed.
- Spine Damage — Spinal cord and spinal structure injuries rob victims of control of parts or all of their bodies.
- Other Broken Bones and Dislocations — Elbows and hips can take the brunt of a backward fall. Hip fractures are notorious for taking a long time to heal. Victims will be off their feet for a while and could experience other health issues while attempting to recuperate.
Proving Premises Liability for Walmart Accidents
When a duty of care is ignored and you are hurt, Walmart is subject to premises liability law and must provide compensation if it can be proven they were negligent in your fall.
A premises liability claim can be made on your behalf by a personal injury lawyer. Your attorney gathers evidence and testimony to prove that Walmart didn’t fulfill its duty of care to you.
There are generally two routes to show Walmart is guilty:
- Demonstrating that the hazard that caused your fall was created by the proprietor, or
- The proprietor knew of the hazard or should have known of the hazard, perhaps created by a customer, and didn’t fix it in a reasonable amount of time.
Walmart and their corporate lawyers will seek to discredit your case. They’ll likely claim they didn’t know about the issue or that they were attempting to fix the issue when you got hurt. Walmart could also assert that you were in a section of the store not meant for customers.
This is why it’s always important to grab photos from the store after your fall. Show the obstacle that sent you to the ground. Take pictures of any warning signs put out, or show how there were no warning signs out. Getting contact information from any witnesses will also help your attorney build a strong case against Walmart.
Seeking Support After a Walmart Trip-And-Fall Injury
After a serious fall at a superstore, you’ll face thousands of dollars in medical bills and at the same time you’ll likely be missing hours at work and losing out on valuable paychecks. It would be a difficult situation for anyone to recover from.
That’s why it’s important to hold Walmart legally responsible for its negligence. They must be your partner in your physical and financial recovery. Walmart won’t automatically provide this support, but a skilled personal injury lawyer will hold them legally accountable and earn the most compensation available for you and your family.
Contact attorney Martin Gasparian for a free and confidential case evaluation. Mr. Gasparian works with victims to make sure they are never forced to pay for someone else’s negligence. You may feel helpless against a retail giant or a supermarket chain, but allow a Los Angeles Attorney to turn the tables and make those responsible for your injury do the worrying.
