If you are inside or outside of a Safeway Grocery Store in Coeur d’Alene and are hurt in a fall, you should contact a local slip-and-fall lawyer as soon as possible. Safeway will write up a report on your accident and almost immediately try to protect themselves from blame.
Contact CCD Law serving Northern Idaho for a free consultation that comes with no obligation to you. Tell us how your accident happened and let us determine the best way to hold Safeway responsible for every bill you receive while recovering.
Slip-And-Fall Dangers at Safeway of Coeur d’Alene
Safeway has Coeur d’Alene grocery shoppers covered with two locations to choose from. North of Interstate 90 there’s the West Neider Ave store and south closer to downtown there’s the 4th Street location.
They offer great prices and selection, but because they’re popular, the steady stream of customers can also leave behind a trail of obstacles. A child can spill juice on an aisle, grapes may be squashed into the floor in produce, or a rug may be folded up. All of these hazards are seemingly harmless, but if they are left out and you don’t see them, they can send you down hard on the tile.
These trip-and-fall and slip-and-fall hazards can also appear in bathrooms and even in the parking lot. Safeway is responsible for your safety as soon as your car enters their property. Snow or ice build-up on the sidewalk or a pothole left unrepaired in the lanes can cause a serious injury and force Safeway to accept liability.
What to Do if You Fall at Safeway
Safeway and its employees invite you onto their property and inside their stores and that means they have a legal responsibility to make sure your visit is as safe as possible. Whether they create a hazard or a customer is the culprit Safeway and its representatives are responsible to clean it up or repair it in a reasonable amount of time. “Safe” is in their name after all.
When they fail in this duty and someone gets hurt, Safeway has to accept liability.
Of course, Safeway will do its best to try to pin the blame for your fall on you. That’s why it’s important to gather as much evidence as you can right after an accident. Here are a few tips on what to do:
- Safety first – If you need medical attention call 911. Don’t try to get up if you feel you can’t. If you can’t gather evidence ask someone with you to start taking photos. You could also ask a witness or store employee to help.
- Take photos – Snap some quick images of the hazard that sent you to the ground. It may be removed or cleaned up at any moment once the store managers find out they’ve failed in their duties. Take photos of any visible injuries.
- Alert a manager – Make sure company representatives know about what happened. They will need to fill out an incident report for their superiors. Tell them what happened but don’t offer information on how badly you’re hurt and don’t say it was your fault. You may not realize how badly you’re hurt and you may not realize at the moment who is to blame.
- Talk to witnesses — Get the contact information for anyone around at the time who saw you fall or can attest to the hazard’s existence. See if witnesses will either write down their account and sign and date it or allow you to record them on your phone telling you what they saw.
- Make an appointment with your physician – Get injuries documented and pay special attention to pain that arises in the days after a fall. Sometimes the shock of an accident masks pain from an injury until the next morning.
What if I was looking at my cellphone when I fell at Safeway?
You may have been distracted while you were walking through Safeway and then hit a puddle and fell. Your inattention may have had nothing to do with your accident, but if Safeway tries to claim you weren’t being careful that’s not the end of your case.
In Idaho, you can share the blame with the store and still receive compensation from Safeway to help with your injury recovery. This is called comparative negligence. You might have to accept 25% of the fault in your slip-and-fall, but Safeway may still have to accept 75%. That means whatever amount of compensation is settled on, you’d have your 25% of responsibility subtracted.
Idaho uses a modified version of comparative negligence meaning that if you are found more than 49% responsible for your own accident Safeway won’t have to provide support.
Contact a Coeur d’Alene Slip-And-Fall Lawyer
In Idaho, slip-and-fall victims are allowed up to two years to file a claim for damages. This may seem like there’s plenty of time, but it’s wise to file your claim as soon as you are ready. In the early going, evidence, documents, and witness testimony will be easier for your attorney to collect. This will help in building a strong case against Safeway and its legal team.
Established in Spokane in 1948, Crary & Domanico, P.S. is licensed and practices in both Washington and Idaho. If our Coeur d’Alene Slip-and-Fall Accident Lawyers represent you for your accident case we will work hard to make sure you have everything you need for recovery and to get your life back to normal.
Contact us after any accident resulting in a serious injury for a free, confidential case evaluation. We will only offer you advice that is in your best interest.
