Store Injury

We Seek Compensation for Store Injury Victims in All Florida Counties

Store injuries can be painful and life-altering events leading to serious harm, sometimes necessitating costly immediate and ongoing medical treatment. You may face significant physical and financial challenges for several years or for the rest of your life, depending on the circumstances. If the injury prevents you from working, this could mean a significant loss of income. A Florida store injury attorney can help you curtail these threats to your financial future and seek appropriate compensation for your losses while providing you the support and guidance you need during this challenging time.

Store owners and managers have a legal obligation to maintain safe premises for shoppers under Florida’s premises liability laws. If they fail in this duty and it leads to an injury, they could be held liable for the consequences. In the midst of these challenges, you also face the task of collecting and preserving evidence crucial to your claim. This might encompass accident reports, witness testimonies, and photos of the scene.

Beyond the physical pain, there’s also the emotional distress caused by the accident, which can greatly impact your quality of life. Severe injuries might limit your ability to work in the future, affecting your earning capacity. Other losses could include a diminished quality of life or loss of enjoyment of activities. Each of these difficulties you suffer due to the injury should be accounted for in your injury claim.

Contact our experienced personal injury legal team at Cohen and Cohen Law today to schedule a free consultation, where we will assess the unique details surrounding your store injury and plan a strategy to help you seek the compensation you need. We handle the legal complexities surrounding injury claims so you can focus on healing and rebuilding after a store injury. Let us be your advocate during this challenging time.

Common Types of Store Injuries in Florida

Store injuries in Florida are quite common, and they can occur under various circumstances. The following are common types of injuries that occur in retail stores and other commercial locations throughout Florida:

• Slip and Falls: These usually occur due to wet or slippery floors from spilled liquids or cleaning residue. They can lead to a wide range of injuries, including fractures, sprains, back injuries, head injuries, and soft tissue injuries.
• Trip and Falls: These accidents can happen due to uneven flooring, cluttered aisles, or poorly placed objects. They often lead to similar injuries as slip and falls.
• Falling Merchandise: Items falling from shelves can cause serious injuries, especially if the items are heavy or sharp.
• Accidents in Poorly Lit Areas: Inadequate lighting in parking lots or store areas can lead to accidents, ranging from minor bumps and bruises to more severe injuries like fractures or head trauma.
• Shopping Cart Accidents: These can occur when a cart tips over or runs into someone, potentially causing bruises, fractures, or even more serious injuries — depending on the force of impact.
• Injuries from Faulty Equipment: This can include anything from escalator malfunctions to automatic doors closing prematurely, leading to a variety of potential injuries.

Contact Cohen and Cohen Law today if you have been injured at a store, and request a free consultation. We will review the events surrounding your injury and plan a tailored strategy to seek appropriate financial compensation if the accident occurred due to the carelessness of the store owner or manager.

Grocery Store Injuries are Common

Store injuries in Florida commonly occur in various locations and under different scenarios:

• Grocery Stores: These premises are often sites for slip-and-fall accidents due to spills, wet floors, or overstocked shelves. It is important to take quick action to secure evidence of your customer injury at the accident site when a grocery store accident occurs, as the hazardous conditions that made the accident happen may quickly be resolved by the grocery store staff in order to prevent further injury in these high-traffic areas.
• Retail Stores: Such stores can present hazards like slippery entrances, defective sidewalks, or dangerous product displays.
• Shopping Centers: From small boutiques to large malls, these areas can have issues with fixtures like broken escalators or malfunctioning elevators. There are a variety of ways retail store negligence can lead to serious injury on store premises.
• Parking Lots: Injuries due to hazardous conditions, poor security, or actions by third parties at a parking lot can lead to significant injuries.
• Stadiums and Arenas: Large crowds and extensive facilities can lead to various premises liability accidents.
• Restaurants, Bars, and Clubs: Spills, debris, and uneven ground can lead to slip-and-fall incidents in these venues.
• Escalator Accidents: Accidents can occur due to being caught in the escalator machinery or due to falls onto the metal escalator stairs, over the railing, or when either stepping onto or off of the escalator.
• Malfunctioning Elevators: Failures to properly maintain or inspect elevators can increase the likelihood of an elevator accident.
• Faulty Shopping Carts: Shopping carts can deteriorate due to misuse or extended use, and failure to fix or replace these carts to ensure shoppers’ safety may lead to a premises liability case.

In many of these scenarios, issues like poor lighting, wet surfaces, obstructions, or falling objects may occur due to store negligence. Whether you suffered a slip-and-fall accident or any of a variety of possible injuries, a store injury lawyer at Cohen and Cohen Law can assess your personal injury case. The details surrounding your injury at a store will significantly impact your ability to pursue a legal claim and hold the retail store liable in Florida.

What To Do After a Store Injury in Florida

Act quickly following an injury on a store’s premises. This is crucial for several reasons pertinent to your health and protecting your injury case:

• Preserving Evidence: It’s important to gather and preserve evidence as soon as possible. This can include photographs of the accident scene, surveillance footage, and any physical items involved in the accident. Take photos or videos of the conditions that led to your injury, which may include wet floors, uneven surfaces, or other hazards. Prompt action can help to ensure that critical evidence is not lost or destroyed.
• Identifying Witnesses: Witnesses can provide valuable testimony that supports your claim. It’s essential to identify and secure contact information for any witnesses as soon as possible before memories fade or people become difficult to locate.
• Report the Incident: Inform the store owner or a manager about the incident. They should create a report, which can be useful evidence later on.
• Seeking Medical Attention: Immediate medical attention is crucial, not only for your health, but also to document your injuries. A delay in treatment could be used against you to suggest your injuries were not severe or were not caused by the accident. Immediately seek appropriate medical assistance from a health professional even if you don’t think your injuries are severe.
• Contacting an Attorney: An experienced attorney can help expedite the legal process, guide you on gathering evidence, and negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf. Your attorney can guide you through the process of filing a claim, including gathering further evidence and negotiating with insurance companies. The sooner you engage a lawyer for injury-at-a-store cases, the more effectively they can advocate for you.

By following these steps, you can help to protect your rights and increase your chances of securing fair compensation for your injuries.

Responsibilities of a Store Owner or a Manager to Protect Safety of Customers

In Florida, store owners and managers have a legal obligation to ensure the safety of their customers. This duty encompasses several key responsibilities:

• Maintain a Safe Environment: Store owners are required to keep their premises free from hazards that might cause harm, such as spills, damaged steps, or poorly positioned merchandise.
• Provide Adequate Security: Businesses must provide adequate security to protect their customers from unreasonable risks of harm. This includes ensuring that the premises are well-lit and equipped with necessary security measures.
• Address Potential Hazards: Store owners have a duty to promptly address any potential hazards of which they are aware or should reasonably be aware.
• Protect Customers from Foreseeable Crimes: If a business is located in an area with a high crime rate, the owner has a duty to take additional precautions to protect customers from foreseeable crimes.

In summary, Florida law mandates that businesses provide a safe and secure environment for their patrons. Failure to do so can lead to the business owner being held liable for any injuries that occur on their premises. A skilled premises liability attorney at Cohen and Cohen Law can assess to what extent the negligent acts of the store owner, store manager, or store employees may have contributed to the incident. Let our attorneys review your case to explore your options to pursue legal action.

Preserving Evidence Following a Store Injury in Florida

Preserving evidence following a store injury in Florida is of utmost importance. Work closely with your attorney to safeguard the evidence needed in accordance with your case strategy. Much of the evidence that may prove store negligence in such cases is ephemeral, meaning it can quickly disappear or change. This makes immediate action crucial to building a strong case. In the majority of store injury cases, an injured person should act promptly to document the scene, secure store footage, and identify witnesses.

Your Own Videos and Photos At The Injury Scene

Taking videos or photos at the scene of the accident can provide tangible proof of the conditions that led to the injury. This might include wet floors, uneven surfaces, or poorly displayed merchandise.

Requesting The Store’s Camera Footage

Securing store camera footage is also vital. Such footage can provide an unbiased account of the incident and help establish the store’s liability. However, this footage is often deleted or recorded over within days or weeks, so it’s important to act quickly. Request it immediately, and coordinate with your attorney to make sure you gain access to a copy of it that you can preserve.

Witnesses With Fresh Recollections of the Incident

Securing witness contacts is also key. Witnesses can corroborate your account of the incident and help establish the store’s negligence. As time passes, witnesses may forget details of the incident or become harder to locate, so it’s crucial to identify and contact them as soon as possible.

Store Injury Claim Valuation and Types of Damages in a Florida Premises Liability Case

The valuation of a store injury claim in Florida is a complex process that involves several key factors. Work in coordination with a skilled attorney to assess these factors and determine the potential value of your claim:

• Liability: The degree to which the store was at fault for the accident will impact the value of your claim. If the store was entirely at fault, your claim could be worth more. If you were partially at fault, this could reduce the claim’s value.
• Insurance Policy Limits: The store’s insurance policy limits can also affect the value of your claim. Even if your damages are high, you may not be able to recover more than the policy limit.
• Quality of Evidence: The strength and quality of the evidence you have to support your claim can significantly impact its value. This includes medical reports, witness statements, and photos or videos of the accident scene.
• Impact on Quality of Life: If the injury has had a significant impact on your quality of life, this could increase the value of your claim.

In Florida, a victim of a store injury can pursue different types of damages, namely economic, non-economic, and in some cases, punitive damages.

• Economic Damages are quantifiable financial losses you experience due to the injury. In a store injury case, these could include medical expenses (such as medical bills, physical therapy costs, and medication), lost wages due to time off work, and costs of future medical care if long-term treatment or rehabilitation is needed.
• Non-Economic Damages account for your personal, non-financial losses after an accident. These might include pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and inconvenience. For instance, if a store injury leads to chronic pain or psychological trauma, you might seek compensation for these non-economic damages.
• Punitive Damages are less common, but may be awarded in cases where the defendant’s conduct was particularly egregious or intentional. In the context of a store injury, punitive damages might be applicable if the store owner knowingly ignored a dangerous condition that subsequently caused an injury.

Note that each case is unique, and the types of damages you can pursue will depend on the specifics of the injury and its impact on your life. An experienced personal injury attorney at Cohen and Cohen Law can evaluate the damages that you may be able to claim if you were injured in a store in Florida.

Your attorney will guide you through this process, helping to gather and present evidence, and negotiate with the store’s insurance company to seek the maximum appropriate compensation.

Proving Fault in a Florida Store Accident Case

In a Florida store injury case, proving fault is a crucial element. It involves demonstrating the following:

1. Duty of Care: The store owner or occupier had a duty to maintain safe premises for its customers.
2. Breach of Duty: The store owner failed to uphold this duty, for example by neglecting to rectify a known hazard.
3. Causation: This breach caused your accident and subsequent injuries.
4. Damages: You suffered actual damages due to the accident, such as medical expenses or lost wages.

To prove these elements, you’ll need strong evidence, including incident reports, witness statements, and photographs of the hazard.

In 2023, Florida adopted a modified comparative negligence rule. This means if the injured person was partially responsible for their injuries, their compensation will be reduced by their percentage of fault. For instance, if you were found to be 30% at fault for your accident, any damages awarded to you would be reduced by 30%.

How an Injury Attorney Can Help You Following an Injury on Store Property in Florida

Our experienced Florida personal injury attorney team can help you throughout several stages of your store injury case:

• Investigation of the Accident: Our attorneys will conduct a thorough investigation of the accident, including gathering evidence, identifying witnesses, and acquiring doctor reports.
• Identifying Liable Parties: Your lawyer will work to pinpoint the liable parties, which could include the store owner, property owner, the store manager, or other entities.
• Claim Filing: Your lawyer will guide you through the process of filing a personal injury claim, and will deal with insurance companies on your behalf.
• Estimating Compensation: Our attorneys are skilled at preparing an accurate estimate of the compensation you are legally entitled to seek, based on the specifics of your case.
• Legal Guidance: Your lawyer can provide you legal advice and guide you throughout each step following the accident.
• Representation in Court: If your case goes to trial, our trial attorneys attorney will represent you in court, arguing your case to seek the maximum appropriate compensation.

It is essential to seek a free consultation with a personal injury attorney following a store injury. This allows you to understand your rights, assess your case’s potential value, and determine the right course of action without any initial cost.

Schedule a Free Consultation with Cohen and Cohen Law to Evaluate Your Florida Store Injury Case and Plan Your Strategy

Navigating the complexities in the aftermath of a store injury in Florida can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone. Our experienced store injury attorneys at Cohen and Cohen Law can guide you through the legal process for personal injury cases involving store negligence, accounting for your damages and negotiating in pursuit of an appropriate settlement.

Contact us today to schedule your free initial consultation with a Florida injury attorney at Cohen and Cohen Law by calling (800) 332-6436(800) 332-6436 or by filling out our online form. You will retain access to your lawyer via their cell phone number. When you work with us, you will be treated like family.

During the first call, we will gather the important details of your case and guide you regarding the right way to proceed. This first meeting is always free, with no obligation or pressure. There is no fee unless we win.

Experience Matters — Serving Florida for Over 50 Years

Frequently-Asked Questions Regarding Store Injuries in Florida

Is a store liable for a customer injury in Florida?

A store could be liable for a customer’s injury if the injury was caused by a hazard or unsafe condition that the store should have addressed.

What kinds of damages can an injured party seek against a Florida retail store?

An injured person who was hurt in a store in Florida can often seek damages for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and in some cases, punitive damages. It is important to account for the full scope of injuries and losses, including long-term expenses due to the injury. Seeing the sum of these losses underscores the importance of seeking financial compensation as part of your recovery strategy. Our experienced attorneys can help you determine your next steps.

How long do I have to file a slip-and-fall lawsuit against a retail store in Florida?

In Florida, you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. This deadline is called the statute of limitations.

Will video surveillance help a slip and fall claim or other store injury claim in Florida?

Yes, video surveillance can provide crucial evidence in a slip and fall claim, as it may show the existence of the hazard and the circumstances of the fall.

What is constructive knowledge in relation to a store injury or slip-and-fall claim?

Constructive knowledge refers to what the property owner should have known about the dangerous condition on their property. In Florida, this can be established by showing that the condition existed for such a length of time that it should have been discovered and corrected.