Walmart Supercenters have staked their claim on every part of Spokane. By some counts, each store offers up 120,000 different products. Those items make for a lot of reasons to wander down their gleaming aisles. And it’s those slippery floors that are sometimes the dangerous drawback to convenience.
Walmart does everything it can to get your family in the door. They owe you a safe and injury-free time while you’re there.
Walmart Floors Slip and Fall Hazards
Business Insider reveals that the average Walmart is 180,000 square feet. That’s a lot of territory to navigate on a shopping trip. You may be rushing to check off your grocery list and trip over a box that was sticking out into the walkway.
The dangers begin out in the parking lot. Walmart is responsible for the safety of your entire journey from your vehicle into the store. Pavement damage, landscaping obstacles, and even ice and snow could land you on the ground with significant injuries.
Once inside, the hazards continue. Shoppers spill all sorts of things, kids drop toys, and employees leave merchandise and boxes lying around. If you’re distracted by those 120,000 products you’ll never see that object below your line of sight, ready to trip you up.
Walmart is a giant, nationwide retailer that is responsible for its customers’ safety inside and outside of its stores.
Slip and Fall Common Injuries
There are rarely any soft landings where hard, Walmart floors are concerned. Any tumble you take can lead to severe injuries. Injuries that can claim your mobility. Here are some of the most common slip and fall injuries:
- Skull fractures and traumatic brain injuries that can result in debilitating cognitive deficits. These types of injuries are most often seen in the elderly.
- Damage to the spinal cord and spinal structure that can lead to disability, paralysis, and diminished life expectancy.
- Dislocations and fractures that can require surgery and result in permanent partial disability.
- Hip fractures are the most serious of the fractures possible and lead to the greatest health problems and number of deaths.
Comparative Negligence in Washington
You may feel embarrassed by your fall and even try to blame yourself. Walmart’s own insurance adjusters may even blame you. Avoid this line of thinking.
Even if you were partially to blame for your accident, you don’t have to give up on pursuing compensation for injuries. You may still collect damages because Washington is a pure comparative negligence state. This means the blame can be divided between the people and companies involved.
For instance, if it’s determined you weren’t watching where you were going the retailer can still be liable for part of the injuries. You might take 25% of the responsibility and the store would still be held at fault for 75% of the damages. Even 75% can make a big difference in your financial well-being in the aftermath of an accident.
Making a Walmart Injury Claim
Washington law guarantees certain safeguards for customers. Because the slip and fall at Walmart happened on someone else’s property, the legal concept of premises liability applies. It means the operator of any big-box store must keep an area that is open to the public reasonably free from dangerous hazards.
Premises liability says that landowners, business owners, and property managers are responsible for certain injuries suffered by visitors while on the premises. A claim can be made. The law allows for two primary ways to prove negligence.
The victim needs to show that the hazard was:
- Created by the proprietor, or
- The proprietor knew of the hazard and didn’t fix it in a reasonable amount of time.
In most cases, the proprietor will probably deny they created the issue, or claim that they were attempting to fix the problem promptly. The majority of claims for department store injuries are routinely denied by the insurance company. They will wait until they know you can put together a proper claim before they take you seriously.
At Crary & Domanico, P.S., we know how to successfully make a department store injury claim, and we know how to counter the owner’s defenses and to deal with the insurance companies.
Contact a Spokane Premises Liability Lawyer
If your trip to Walmart ended with a painful injury, you will need the best medical care so that one day you can return to your normal lifestyle. It’ll be the goal of Walmart Insurance Adjusters and Lawyers to deny you any support for your hospital bills, loss of wages, and pain and suffering. You need an experienced attorney on your side from the beginning to ensure your recovery now and in the future is covered.
Established in Spokane in 1948, Crary & Domanico, P.S. is committed to providing our clients with the absolute highest quality legal representation. If our Premises Liability Lawyers represent you for your accident case, you have our assurance that we will use our absolute best efforts to win your case. Contact us after any accident resulting in a serious injury for a free, confidential consultation and case evaluation. We will only offer you advice which is in your best interest.
