Yes. Home Depot has a legal duty to provide safe shopping experiences inside and outside its stores. If a customer trips on a pothole and is injured, or slips on some loose mulch and is hurt, the victim has the legal right to ask Home Depot for help with recovery costs.
Home Depot is liable for accidents caused by its lack of care in maintaining parking lots, sidewalks, and landscaping, but it doesn’t automatically provide help to victims in pain. Home Depot is a massive retailer that can afford a team of lawyers to attack your case and help the company wiggle out of responsibility. They’ll try to imply that you were clumsy or that the tread on your shoes caused you to take a tumble. Having a skilled California slip-and-fall lawyer handle your case protects you from these tactics meant to rob you of recovery support.
Parking Lot Hazards and Home Depot’s Accident Liability
Under the state’s premises liability laws, all businesses are responsible for the safety of customers and clients. Home Depot must take all reasonable action to protect visitors from harm as much as possible.
In a store parking lot, store managers and employees must avoid creating hazardous situations. They must not set up bags of mulch or pallets in the parking lot that might catch someone’s foot. Employees must monitor the condition of pavement and sidewalks to ensure potholes or crumbling concrete don’t create fall hazards.
Home Depot operators must also keep a close eye out for the potential dangers that customers can leave behind. This might include a shopper who leaves some stones from a bag of decorative rock on the parking lot, ready to cause someone to stumble. It might mean cleaning up a box of nails that spilled out, ready to cause someone to have their feet taken out from under them.
If these hazards should have been cleaned up or repaired and someone gets hurt, the victim can file a personal injury claim and seek help with all medical bills now and in the future. The lost income the victim suffers while being unable to work should also be compensated. A skilled Home Depot Accident Lawyer would also demand support for a victim’s physical pain and emotional trauma endured during recovery.
Common Trip-And-Fall Hazards Found in a Home Depot Parking Lot
Home Depot sells thousands of different types of products, and they can all end up on the parking lot outside, waiting to cause a painful fall.
These are just a few of the most commonly spotted hazards in parking lots that could send a victim to the hospital:
- Oil slicks – Slipping hazards where cars have leaked oil and other substances on the parking lot surface.
- Potholes – Victims can step in a giant hole and be launched forward to land on a knee cap or even their faces for serious consequences.
- Landscaping – Mulch, limbs, and landscaping equipment might be left out to cause someone to slip or trip.
- Sidewalks – Debris left to build up on sidewalks and crumbling concrete can create tripping hazards that might cause a fall and a hip fracture.
- Inside the front door – On a rainy day, customers can bring the water inside as they walk into the store. Entrances need to be mopped regularly and “wet floor” signs must be out.
- Parking lot displays – Home Depot likes to set gardening supplies and other display areas out in the parking lot. People might have to dodge broken bags of mulch and even flatbed platform carts discarded by other shoppers.
What Should I Do If I Fall in a California Home Depot Parking Lot and Get Hurt?
When victims do fall, they should contact 911 if they are injured and get checked out by paramedics. If they are left strong enough, they should act to get photos of the obstacle that caused their injury.
Victims should secure contact information from witnesses. They should also alert a Home Depot manager so that an incident report is created and proof of what happened exists.
After that, victims should visit their own doctors even if they’ve already been to the emergency room. Patients need to have any new pain examined and documented. Victims should follow their doctors’ orders.
Contact a California Slip-And-Fall Accident Attorney
If you only suffer some minor bruising and soreness after a fall at a Home Depot, you might not need a lawyer’s help. But if you endure a more serious injury, it’s a good idea to go over your options with a California Home Depot slip-and-fall accident lawyer. A lawyer can often secure much more for you in a settlement claim than you could earn by handling the case yourself. You’ll want to earn everything you can for recovery, because there’s no guarantee you won’t have a flare up or re-injure a weakened body part and need additional care in the years ahead.
Contact Maison Law for a free, no-obligation consultation. It’s a no-risk way to find out what your injury is worth and what you should demand from unhelpful insurance companies. And if you feel we can help you earn more for your case, you don’t need to worry about finding the money to hire a lawyer. We don’t get paid unless we score a case victory for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement Home Depot must provide to you.
