Maison Law represents victims injured at home improvement stores like Lowe’s. We help victims hold home improvement chains fully accountable when owners and operators create an unsafe environment for customers, including safety risks due to forklift operation. To find out how to hold a negligent company fully responsible for your medical bills, contact a skilled, local California Lowe’s Accident Lawyer and schedule a free, no-obligation case consultation.
Do I Need a Lawyer After a Forklift Accident at Lowe’s?
If an item falls on you while shopping at Lowe’s Home Improvement and your injuries are very minor, such as scratches and bruising, you may not need a lawyer to help you with your injury claim. But if your injuries are more serious and the negligence of Lowe’s forklift driver, your fair treatment may depend on having a skilled lawyer on your side.
Unfortunately, when hospital bills rise, insurance adjusters and corporate lawyers are instructed to find ways to reject your claim. They may say your clumsiness caused your accident. They may try to convince you to sign off on a “lowball” settlement offer that doesn’t cover all of your recovery costs. Your Maison Law attorney is a safeguard against this treatment. Your lawyer fully investigates what happened and uses the evidence collected to force Lowe’s to provide the maximum in compensation available.
Forklift Accident Risks at Home Improvement Stores
It’s a long way across Lowe’s Home Improvement locations and a forklift may be the best tool for covering ground with heavy payloads. Forklifts can be used to stock shelves, deliver purchases to customers, stack lumber and pallets, and other items.
Some forklifts that require drivers to stand to operate them can be called stand-up forklifts or electric riders. No matter the type, these machines are heavy and fast-moving. Not to mention they have large metal forks jutting out from them to do their carrying.
These factors are all dangerous for customers and employees. This is a partial list of dangers that may cause you to suffer an injury at Lowe’s:
- Forklifts knocking merchandise, tools, and lumber off shelves
- Items falling off a forklift
- Speeding forklift drivers
- Inadequate training and certification for forklift operators
- Inadequate safety policies for forklift operation in Lowe’s
- Taking inadequate steps to block off aisles where drivers are operating forklifts
- Overloading forklifts to cause overturning hazards
- Improper maintenance on forklifts and electric riders
The potential long-term injuries that a collision with a heavy vehicle could cause make it much more important that victims get every benefit from insurance companies representing Lowe’s. Patients may suffer Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) that affect their ability to care for themselves for years to come. They may suffer crush injuries that force the amputation of a limb, forcing patients to adapt to life with a physical disability.
If you sign off on a settlement that doesn’t provide money for these very real possibilities, you won’t be able to go back and ask for more help later. Those enormous medical bills will be your financial responsibility.
Is Lowe’s Responsible for Injuries to Customers Involving Forklifts?
Yes. Lowe’s invites customers into its public stores each day. It means they are legally obligated under California premises liability laws to show a “duty of care” towards all customers.
If a guest is injured by an employee speeding along on a forklift, Lowe’s would be liable to assist victims in paying for recovery, no matter how long they require health care and physical therapy.
Victims could sue to get their hospital bills paid, replace the income they’d missed while away from work, and even non-economic damages. Unfortunately, Lowe’s is a giant company with over 2,000 stores in the U.S. That means they can afford teams of lawyers to try to discount or disprove your claim.
It’s critical that you have a skilled California Lowe’s Accident Attorney of your own with experience standing up to major businesses and their legal representatives. Your lawyer would be backing your case with strong evidence of Lowe’s mistakes and demanding the maximum in compensation available.
What Kinds of Things Can I Earn Compensation for After a Fork Lift Accident?
Your attorney fully investigates Lowe’s and its employees after an accident. Witness testimony, incident reports from the store manager, and any surveillance video are secured for your case. Your attorney also collects all medical bills and medical charts.
A strong case backed by evidence and testimony will be key to preventing corporate lawyers or an insurance company from trying to shift the blame to you.
You’ll list every hardship you’ve endured since the accident in your claim so that the insurance company is well aware of everything they must cover in a settlement check.
These and other damages will factor into how much compensation you receive:
- Hospital and medical expenses in the present and those expected in the months to come.
- Costs associated with a permanent physical disability such as future medical equipment needs, house upgrades, and training for a new career.
- Physical pain. The devastating effects chronic pain can have on a patient over a lifetime and the cost of pain medication over months and years.
- Emotional Distress. The anxiety and depression that can follow a violent accident and being unable to enjoy the freedoms the victim once did. Emotional distress may include the trauma experienced by family members as they cope with the loss of certain activities the victim can no longer participate in.
- Paychecks and work benefits lost while victims can’t perform their job duties.
- Travel costs. The expense of traveling to numerous doctor’s appointments. The expense of seeing out-of-city or out-of-state specialists.
Contact a California Lowe’s Forklift Accident Lawyer
After an accident and injury suffered at Lowe’s, be sure to discuss your case with an experienced California Forklift Accident Lawyer. You are allowed two years after an accident to file an injury claim, but you should act quickly. Waiting months or years can mean valuable evidence disappears and witnesses become hard to locate.
Contact us today for a free case evaluation to find out how we can assist you. We can also represent Lowe’s employees who are injured due to unsafe working conditions. There’s no obligation, but if you feel we can help your family earn more, you won’t need any upfront money to pay Maison Law. Our lawyers work on a contingency basis. It means we don’t get paid unless we win your case. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check Lowe’s must pay you.
