If you have been injured at a retailer's location in Los Angeles County or anywhere in Southern California, contact us today for a free and confidential consultation.
Retailer liability
When a retailer holds itself open to the public for the sale of goods, it has a duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition. If it can't readily remedy a dangerous condition, it must warn its customers of the danger. That includes any parking lots and sidewalks outside of the actual business premises that are within its property lines. If the retailer has notice of a dangerous condition on its property, and a customer is injured as a result of that condition, the retailer can be held liable. This is true for large outlets like Walmart, grocery stores such as Costco, or shopping centers and stores at Santa Monica Place, Abbot Kinney Boulevard or on Rodeo Drive.
Negligence at a retailer's location
If an injured customer wants to have a retailer held liable for injuries suffered as a result of an allegedly dangerous condition, he or she must prove the elements of negligence. Those elements are that:
- The retailer owed a duty of care to the customer
- There was a breach of that duty
- The breach of that duty caused an accident that the claimant was involved in
- The accident was the proximate cause of the customer's injuries
- The claimant suffered legally recognized damages
Injuries on a retailer's business premises can occur in a wide variety of ways. Just a few examples of dangerous conditions that have caused injuries to customers include:
- Potholes and uneven walking surfaces in parking lots and sidewalks
- Snow and water accumulation at the entrance to the actual business
- Failure to warn of a danger like a wet floor
- Merchandise that falls on customers from above eye level
- Display bases that obstruct aisles
- Elevator and escalator accidents
- Inadequate security
Damages and compensation for injuries
Punitive damages are rare in retailer liability cases. Damages that are typically awarded in California in such cases are almost always compensatory in nature. Those include both economic and non-economic damages. The economic damages are easily ascertainable. They have a definite price tag on them like hospital, doctor and rehabilitation bills. Non-economic damages are more difficult for a jury to calculate. Damages commonly awarded in these cases might include:
- Past and future medical bills
- Past and future lost or diminished earnings
- Any permanent disfigurement
- Any permanent disability
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of a normal life
- Funeral and burial costs in the event of a wrongful death
Don't think you're doing something wrong
There's a segment of society here in California that has been propagandized by the insurance industry. It believes that most retailer negligence lawsuits are either frivolous or predatory. Some accidents that occur on property that is under the control retailers are serious and result in lifelong disabilities. Those injuries require treatment and rehabilitation. Retailer negligence lawsuits can operate to protect the public from the carelessness that allows serious injuries to occur in the first place. Management is far more likely to change its routine when a jury awakens it. If it never had a routine, a jury draws management's attention to implementing one. Our legal system can compel retailers to become more accountable by hitting them where it hurts the most. After that happens, it's far more likely that they'll change their pattern of carelessness and negligence. That makes your family and others safer.
We investigate retail negligence cases quickly. We document the dangerous condition, memorialize it with photos or video and take the statements of any witnesses to the occurrence. We'll also look into prior similar lawsuits against the retailer along with any prior citations for code violations. Those are just a few of the tools that we use to prove that the owner knew or should have known about the dangerous condition that injured you.
Contact a Los Angeles Retailer Negligence Lawyer Today
If you or somebody close to you was seriously injured in an accident in a California retail store, contact us right away for a free consultation and case evaluation with a highly qualified and respected California retailer negligence lawyer from our law firm. There's no obligation, and we don't even get paid unless we obtain a settlement or verdict for you.
