AboutDoctor Settlement Expertise 27 years of front line plaintiff`s trial lawyer experience in PERSONAL INJURY INSURANCE CLAIMS. Along with other attorneys and insurance adjusters, we have created a website to help injured people settle their own personal injury claims. With the help from feedback from hundreds of satisfied members, www.settlementcentral.com has become THE AUTHORITY for Internet personal injury insurance claim settlements. I am humbled and honored if people can benefit from my experience and current volunteer work in helping injured people. I hope I can explain things in a manner that is useful for the questioner. If not, do not hesitate to e-mail me and I will take a second shot at it! Best Wishes for your physical and financial recovery.
Experience
Life Experience: 27 years of front line plaintiff's trial lawyer experience
Organizations: American Trial Lawyers Association (AAJ)
Washington State Trial Lawyers Association
Awards and Honors:
I am humbled and honored everytime I am selected to help injured people. And when people give feedback that they have benefited from my experience and current volunteer efforts, then that is a double honor and award for me.
Question I was in a new Food City store,first time,looking around at the deli and produce area on 12-19-08 decided to stop wasting time and go get item I wanted, turned around and fell.The employee who saw my fall told the manager he saw me fall and that I had slipped on what he thought was a cheese sample from the deli and he had put it up as evidence.I filled out an accident report for their corporate ofc.My right hip and wrist were hurting so I went straight to the ER for x-rays after checking with my Dr.s ofc. because I have osteoporosis.The ER Doc splinted my wrist as it was sprained but the x-rays looked O.K.I was given a paper that I had a sprain and contusions.I saw my Dr. on Friday 01/02/09.The bruises had come out horribly on my hip by then and some on my wrist and hand area. I start physical therapy on Monday. My right leg,in particular, hurts very much from my lower back to the end of my toes which do not want to freely move backwards or frontward. I hurt all down my leg and knee. The wrist pain has gone up my arm into the neck and shoulder area and I am not able to lift with my right hand which makes daily life challenging at best. I called the corporate office for a copy of my accident report which was denied and asked how to go about payment for my treatment that I did not believe my insurance would pay since it was an accident and was advised to turn it into my ins. and if they would not pay maybe the therapy center would allow me to make payments. Somehow this does not seem right to me. I entered their store feeling fine finishing up for New Years Eve cooking and left hurt which only gets worse each day. Am I at wrong here? My family is picking up the slack around the house and I sit with my leg propped up and my splint on my wrist. I took pictures of my bruises. Any help out there or am I out of luck. Do I have a law suit?
Answer Hi Deborah
I think you DO HAVE A LARGE NEGLIGENCE CLAIM versus the store, and that an attorney is going to be a requirement for you. Maybe this will come as a surprise since most questioners at allexperts.com know that Doctor Settlement is an expert in personal injury insurance settlements pro se—that means on a self-help basis. But this claim is too large and complex to handle on your own in light of the refusal to accept liability. If the store had accepted liability, then all the forms and templates for insurance claims at www.SettlementCentral.Com will guide the injured victim successfully. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and with the significance of your injuries, I think you do need to get an attorney ASAP. DO NOT WAIT. DO IT BEFORE THEY WANT TO TAKE YOUR STATEMENT.
Let me give you a bit of information about making a statement without an attorney and about the requirement of proof in premises liability claims.
#1. NO RECORDED STATEMENTS—EVER!
Be Prepared for the Kinds of Questions they Might Ask of you.
Of course we would like to avoid giving any recorded statement, so ask the adjuster to send a list of questions since you "do not think well in quick pressure situations". Tell him that you will be able to give a more thorough response if he were to send you a list of topics or questions he wants answered. Fat chance he will do that, but you could try. At a minimum, you need to be prepared for an interview.
We have not made up a list of questions to expect for the premises liability part of the free side of my website, so you will just have to use the following as a guide to the range of questions to expect. This is a list of questions insurance adjusters ask http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0207.htm injured claimants.
Here are two pages that tell what to do now if you have already given a recorded statement to the adjuster.
#2. YOU MUST PROVE LIABILITY OR YOU HAVE NO CLAIM
We start with the most important issue: liability; we will first look at both sides of the liability issue. You need to be able to cite some reason why the store should be responsible for your damages; tell how they breached their duty of care to customers; otherwise you will lose. In this case, there are two important pieces of evidence.
First is that the area was near a sample place, where spillage would be anticipated. Second, is you have a witness who picked up a piece from floor that came from the sample table. BTW, did you notice any cheese on your shoe?
But there is no automatic liability against a business; one has to show negligence on their part. Premises Liability Slip Or Trip And Fall Accidents http://www.settlementcentral.com/page3006.htm is an excellent review of premises liability or slip and fall accident confusion as to liability. There are three good examples on that page to show you the difference between liable property owners and those whom one cannot sue.
The store IS NOT AN INSURER OF YOUR SAFETY. You can recover ONLY if you can show that the store was negligent, and even then, your award will be reduced TO THE EXTENT OF YOUR OWN NEGLIGENCE IN FAILING TO WATCH WHERE YOU WERE WALKING. The store will raise this defense in an effort to reduce your award.
The duty of the store toward its patrons is one of affirmative obligation to inspect and to remove any dangers, such as spilled samples. In fact, operating a sample table puts the store on heightened duty to inspect. There is also an affirmative duty to protect the patrons from a foreseeable risk if the cost of that protection is reasonable.
For example, perhaps they lacked an inspection schedule for patrolling the store, or lighting that might have prevented your fall. In this case, the cost of setting up a periodic inspection patrol or better lighting is minimal when compared to the risks to the patrons. But what if they DID have a schedule for employees to look at the aisles around the sample table for debris every fifteen minutes, but the cheese was spilled just after the inspector walked past? Why should the store be liable in the event a shopper dropped the cheese? My answer is that the sample table will make them a lot more liable for dropped debris than if they had not operated the sample table.
Here are THREE SITUATIONS WHEREIN LIABILITY CAN BE PROVEN in your case:
#1. What if the place you fell were in front of a place where the store had an employee (i.e. the sample table), or in front of some other place where employees frequent, such as a customer care counter, or a checkout counter, or within a pathway that all employees took to go to break or to the office? In that case, you would have a better chance of showing negligence since the employees were either right there working at the sample table or passing by regularly and they should have seen it.
#2. Here there is good solid evidence that the cheese spilled as a result of some kind of SELFHELP STORE DISPLAY, i.e. the sample table. I am not talking about just getting cheese from the shelf, but instead some kind of open sample display that would make it more likely that some debris could be dropped and later stepped on or run over? That would help you in your liability proof.
#3. What if there is a security film? Maybe the film, if run backward from your fall for half an hour will show the spill and then show one or more employees walking right past it. In that case, your claim is going to be helped since that would be the proof of negligence. But how do you get to see the film? You have to file a lawsuit first. Then your attorney can get it as part of what we call "the discovery process".
Basically, this means that each side gets to "discover" evidence held by the other side. In this case, your attorney will send a set of "interrogatories" and a set of "requests for production". The interrogatories are a series of questions, and the store will be asked if a film exists for that day. The requests for production will require the defendant to produce that film for copying or to make a copy for you to own.
Can you do this on your own? Probably NOT, unless your adjuster is willing to go along with you on an informal basis. In all of my years with insurance claim adjusters Doctor Settlement has personal injury experience with hundreds of insurance adjusters, and I can list on my two hands those who would take the risk to give you this kind of evidence before you start a lawsuit. You already know that they do not want to give up the official report without a discovery request.
The danger, of course, is that the cheese may have been spilled just a minute before you came along. What if it were spilled by a customer just five minutes before you arrived? In that case, absent an attendant at the sample table, there would not have been any chance for you to say that the store breached its duty of care by failing to inspect the aisles.
YOUR OWN LIABILITY
One of the basic problems in all slip/trip and fall accidents is that if the dangerous material was big enough for the store employees to see it, then is was also big enough for the customer to see it. So, the adjusters always ask: why did you not watch where you were walking?
Now, once again let’s look at your own liability. The point is, your negligence can be used to reduce the amount of your award. So here is your lesson: assume that they will claim that you are at least one-third at fault, and be prepared to defend on the basis set forth above.
DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED about that defense, but just be aware that it will be raised if your claim has any value. Without telling anyone about your visit, you should go into the store and spot the area where the cheese was and see if any of the conditions I set forth above exist. Perhaps try to take some photos if the conditions are similar. Show the eyelevel distractions of what would have caught your eye as you walked. To the extent that the store made displays to attract your attention, they cannot really insist that you should ignore their eyelevel displays and look at the floor.
Gather Evidence: photos and witness statements
GET PHOTOS
Take your cell phone or small camera and take some photos of the area. GATHER ALL EVIDENCE NOW: DO IT QUICKLY AND QUIETLY, without notifying the store just yet. Leave that for later. http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0216.htm Evidence to Support Your Personal Injury Insurance Claim of Premises Liability, Slip and Fall.
GET WITNESS STATEMENTS: if you know of anyone who has experienced a slip and fall or even a near-accident on any similar conditions, then you can use their statement. Also, take a moment to get the statements of any witnesses down in writing. This will also prepare them for what they will be asked later on. Do not forget witnesses from work, friends, and family. Witness Statements Settle Personal Injury Insurance Claims http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0196.htm
I trust that my extra time here has produced some information that has been of value to you, and thus I would respectfully request that you take the time to locate the FEEDBACK FORM on this site and leave some feedback for me.
