Legal Help: Getting Hurt on the Street

Many retailers start working early in the year to ensure that their Black Friday sales will really kick off their holiday season. They work hard to create door busters that will attract the crowds to their store. What they do not realize is that their efforts to create crowd frenzy, combined with the overstocking of their stores, may be doing more than kicking off their sales. The stores may be kicking off their liability for potential personal injury lawsuits.

Types of Shopping Accidents 

There are many different things that can happen when you are shopping that are a result of negligence of another shopper, a store employee, or faulty premises. While one of the most common cases which result in a lawsuit being filed are slip and falls, there are many things that can injure you as well. Some of these are

• Parking Lot Accidents — while auto accidents which occur between two drivers when they are on the grounds of the shopping center may not be the fault of the store, there are conditions that may make the store a party to these. If you can show that there was inappropriate lighting, conflicting directional signage, or other obstructions placed in the parking lot such as tents, or other temporary storage, the store may have to share in the liability.

• Pedestrian Accidents — no one plans to be hit by a vehicle in the parking lot, but these types of accidents can easily happen when crowds of people are everywhere. 

• Shopping Cart Injuries — have you ever placed something in your cart, and your cart turned over, or flipped up? This can happen easily, and if it does, you can be injured. Not to mention the injuries that can happen from someone running over you, or your heels when they are not paying attention.

• Escalator Accidents — escalators can be scary places even when they are operating correctly. Many times their height alone, can invoke panic attacks, or a fear of falling. When they fail to operate how they are expected to, they can cause you to be seriously injured, or even killed. 

• Falling Items — in an effort to ensure that they have as much merchandise that they can sell throughout the holiday season, many stores have their shelves overstocked. This can put you at risk of being struck by items falling from the shelves. This may not hurt if it is a package of toilet tissue, but you can be seriously injured if it is something like a large can of beans.

As you can see, when you consider all of the possibilities of injury, and add in the crowds that are present on Black Friday, the day after Christmas, and other popular shopping days, there is a much higher potential for an accident happening. If you have been injured as a result of an accident that happened on the premises of a store, or shopping center, you need to contact a personal injury attorney, such as Palmetto Injury Lawyers, who specializes in shopping injuries. They will be glad to review your situation, and let you know if you have a case.