Slip and fall accidents can happen anywhere, your local bank, your favorite restaurant, and even your neighborhood K-Mart. Slipping and falling on the ground can often leave more damages than many can expect, from minor bumps and bruises to truly devastating injuries like spinal cord damage. They can also be caused by any number of things from slippery floors, to poorly lit aisles. Fortunately, if you or a loved one have suffered the damages caused by a slip and fall accident at a K-Mart, you may be eligible to file a claim for significant monetary compensation. Through the filing of a K-Mart slip and fall lawsuit, you may be able to cover damages like medical expenses, a loss of wages, a potential loss of future wages, and any pain and suffering you may have experienced as a result of this accident. However, when filing a K-Mart accident claim, it is always in your best interest to have an attorney experienced in slip and fall and trip and fall injuries. At Normandie Law Firm our K-Mart injury attorneys can guide you through the often arduous process of building a case, filing a claim and collecting monetary compensation for the damages that you and your loved ones have had to endure. If you have any questions after reading this article, please feel free to reach out to our law offices in Los Angeles, California, for a free consultation from one of our top-rated legal advisors.
Slip and Fall Accidents & The Damages They Cause
Slip and fall accidents can occur anywhere and can inflict some truly life-changing damages. For the sake of this article, slip and fall accidents at K-Marts can occur in K-mart parking lots, bathrooms, and anywhere else in the store. The damages these accidents can cause can extend beyond the initial physical trauma. There are also financial damages that come with receiving medical treatment for the injuries. Fortunately, victims of K-Mart slip and fall accidents can sue the K-Mart for injury. However, when filing these suits, it is incredibly important that you can identify the specific damages that you suffered. To give you an idea of some of the injuries that a K-Mart customer can experience, we’ve listed some of the common injuries that arise from slip and fall accidents:
- Head Injuries: Head injuries can range from minor contusions (or brain bruising) to more severe traumatic brain injuries or TBIs. Some TBIs can cause ongoing seizures, mood changes, cognitive impairment and other debilitating symptoms. In most cases, head injuries require emergency room treatment, or hospitalization and in more severe cases can result in death.
- Hip Fractures: Hip fractures often require surgery and extended hospitalization. In some more serious cases, surgery may be necessary to implant an artificial hip. Out of every five hip fracture patients, one of them dies due to their injuries
- Back and Spinal Cord Injuries: Injury to the spinal cord can lead to permanent paralysis, temporary paralysis and other severe neurological and sensory impairments
- Shoulder Injuries: slip (trip) and fall accidents can result in shoulder dislocations or more severe forms of shoulder injuries called brachial plexus injuries. The brachial plexus is a network of nerves that connect the shoulder, arm, and hand to the spinal cord. These injuries are often treated with surgery followed by extensive physical therapy
- Sprains and Fractures: The force of slipping and falling can cause minor to severe bone injuries. In some cases, the impact of the ground could cause minor sprains, in others; it could cause debilitating bone breakage that may result in temporary disability. Some of the common fractures that victims suffer include hip, spine, forearm, leg, ankle, pelvis, upper arm and hand.
While making a note of the damages can play a significant role in your case, being able to place liability on a K-Mart effectively can truly make the difference between filing a successful lawsuit, and having your case dismissed from court.
K-Mart & The Causes of K-Mart Slip and Fall Accidents
K-Mart is an American ‘big box’ department store chain with locations scattered across the country. Purchased by Sears in 2005 for $11 billion, the company has thrived since 1899. Headquartered in Estates, Illinois, the chain is operating 591 different locations and one Super K-Mart Center location. The company has stores across the United States, including locations in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Due to the company’s large size, many who are injured at a K-Mart due to the negligence or misconduct of the staff and management are intimidated to bring their suit forward. Those who do find the courage to file their case, are often pressured to settle their case early, resulting in a compensation payout that may not adequately cover all of the damages suffered. For this reason, it is highly recommended to seek legal representation from an experienced Attorney that can help you sue K-Mart for your damages. When filing a K-Mart slip and fall claim, it is crucial that you understand what caused your accident. For instance, if your accident occurred as a result of your negligence, it is unlikely that K-Mart can be found liable for the damages. However, if it is found that, for instance, your slip and fall accident occurred due to a slip and fall hazard that wasn’t remedied, you could have a successful case on your hands. Listed below are some of the common ways in which a K-Mart slip and fall or trip and fall accident can occur:
- K-Mart parking lots and sidewalks: slip and falls in K-Mart parking lots and sidewalks can occur as a result of uneven pavement, or some other potential floor hazard that results in the customer slipping or tripping and falling.
- K-Mart entrances and exits: another area where a customer can slip and fall are at a K-Mart entrance or exit. These accidents can be caused by wet floors or even items left on the floor. It is up to the staff to be able to monitor and maintain their premises efficiently.
- Slips and Falls near food vendors: food and drink vendors inside K-Mart also pose a significant risk as spilled beverages, and food can result in slip and fall hazards. These areas are expected to be efficiently monitored by staff and owners
- Slips and falls near K-Mart bathrooms: K-Mart Bathrooms and washrooms also should be regularly checked and monitored for slip and fall hazards. One major way to prevent hazards of this kind is to place adequate wet-floor hazard signs.
- Slip, and fall accidents in K-Mart’s housewares, and electronics department: While less common than the other causes, this section of the store should also be monitored for potential slip and fall hazards. Even if the hazard is caused by another customer, if the staff does not respond in time to either notify or remedy the hazard K-Mart could be found liable.
- Slip and falls in K-Mart grocery department: Slip and fall hazards can commonly arise here as a result of dropped items, or even malfunctioning leaking refrigerator systems. If a refrigerator is broken and causing a slip hazard, customers should be notified to keep away from the refrigerator until the hazard is remedied.
When attempting to file a suit or personal injury claim against a K-Mart, it is highly recommended that you report the accident as soon as possible. The sooner you report your injury to K-Mart staff; the less likely the management will be able to dispute your claims.
How To Sue K-Mart For Slip and Fall Accidents
When injured shoppers come into our law firm looking for assistance on their K-Mart personal injury claim, they often ask our Los Angeles attorneys a wide variety of questions regarding their legal rights, and whether or not they can sue K-Mart for personal injury. The short answer to this question is, yes, if you can prove that the K-Mart staff and management acted negligently, and those negligent actions resulted to your injuries you can file a K-Mart personal injury claim for monetary compensation. However, the process of doing so can be somewhat challenging, especially when attempting to prove the negligence of a large company like K-Mart. To give you an idea of what some of these clients ask, we’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions below for your reference:
- How to sue K-Mart for a slip and fall accident?
- What is the best way to file a trip and fall claim against K-Mart?
- How can I sue K-Mart for personal injury?
- How do I file a trip and fall lawsuit against K-Mart?
Your first step in filing a K-Mart personal injury claim is to seek legal representation from a lawyer who can sue K-Mart. While every individual can represent themselves in court, having a lawyer with experience in handling K-Mart slip and fall lawsuits can make all the difference between a successful case and having a case dismissed from court. Victims of K-Mart slip and fall accidents should also gather as much evidence as possible as soon as they can. This evidence can take the form of video footage, photographs of the hazard that caused the accident, and medical reports that detail the damages suffered. Filing a personal injury claim against a K-Mart also requires that you follow the statute of limitations that influence cases in your particular state. The Statute of limitations is the state-mandated period a damaged party has to bring a case to court. If the damaged party fails to adhere to the statute of limitations, they could face having their case dismissed from court. For your reference, the statute of limitations in the state of California dictates that those injured at a K-Mart due to a slip and fall accident have two years from the date of the accident to bring their case to court.
Once you have hired an attorney that can sue K-Mart, collected adequate evidence, and have taken note of the statute of limitations, you must be able to prove the negligence of the K-Mart staff and management. Under premises liability law, property owners are expected to provide a reasonably safe and secure environment for patrons and customers. This law influences K-Mart locations just as it does any other place of business. Through a claim of negligence, you must be able to prove that the K-Mart staff and management failed to live up to the expectation imposed by premises liability through direct negligent actions. In a claim of negligence, you must also be able to prove that these negligent actions directly lead to the damages that you or your loved ones endured. For your reference we have included the critical components of a successful claim of negligence below:
- Duty: The plaintiff (injured or damaged party) must be able to show that the defendant (K-Mart staff or retail owner) owed a legal duty to the plaintiff under the particular circumstances of the case.
- Breach: The plaintiff must be able to show that the defendant breached said legal duty through specific actions or failure to act appropriately
- Causation: The plaintiff must be able to show that the defendant’s actions or lack thereof caused the plaintiff’s injuries
- Damages: The plaintiff must be able to show that they endured some specific damages. This can usually be shown through the presentation of medical records, a loss of wages, or a loss of potential income.
When victims of K-Mart slip and fall accidents file a personal injury claim against K-Mart, they often expect to receive compensation for damages like medical expenses, a loss of wages, and pain and suffering. To give you an idea of what you may receive for your case we’ve included some common settlements and verdicts from previous K-Mart personal injury cases below:
- Woman awarded approximately $400,000 after she slipped on a freshly waxed floor at a K-Mart and sustained serious injuries.
- Louisiana Resident received $900,000 after slipping and falling at a K-Mart. Reports show that a puddle of water caused the slip and fall accident, which was witnessed by at least two store employees.
- A 43-year-old plaintiff received $2.25 million when she slipped and fell while leaving a K-Mart store in Midlothian, Illinois. As a result of the accident, she sustained a right knee fracture and a tear in her anterior cruciate ligament. She was also diagnosed with nerve damage. She had to undergo knee replacement, and some other surgeries aimed at repairing her peroneal nerve injury.
How Normandie Law Firm Can Help
If you or a loved one have suffered injury after a slip and fall accident at a K-Mart as a result of a failure in K-Mart policy, or the negligent actions of staff or owners, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit against the party responsible for your damages. However, when filing this kind of lawsuits it, is in your best interest to seek assistance from an attorney that can sue K-Mart. At Normandie Law Firm our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers can guide you through the often complicated process of building a case, filing a claim, and collecting compensation for the damages. If you file a claim with our law firm, you could find some if not all of the following damages compensable to you:
- All of you medical and hospitalization costs
- All of your future medical care and treatment
- A loss of income and loss of future earnings due to long-term recovery or permanent disability due to the accident
- Compensable economic damages include loss of property or damaged property.
- Compensable non-economic damages include emotional distress, trauma, PTSD resulting from the accident, pain and suffering and anxiety.
Victims of K-Mart slip and fall accidents can contact our law offices to learn more about how to receive compensation for their injuries. While our law firm is based in Los Angeles, our attorneys also practice in Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Orange County, Riverside, Fresno, and throughout the state of California.
Free Second Opinions
Other attorneys will sign you up for their firm but will disappear once your name is on the paper as they are busy signing up more cases. In these instances, their business is based more on volume and will attempt to sign up as many cases as possible. In turn, they will spend less time on cases resulting in severely reduced settlements. Our firm will not treat you like a number. We will be in communication with you throughout our lawsuit and will treat you like family. So if you already have an attorney don’t worry, we’ll give you a second review of your case 100% free of charge.
Zero Fee Guarantee—No Upfront Fees Ever
If you contact our law offices today, we can walk you through the complicated process of filing your claim completely free of charge. As a show this commitment to you and your case we offer our clients the benefits of a zero fee guarantee policy. Under our zero fee policy, all clients don’t pay for our services until their case is won. If you feel in need of a second opinion, second opinion case reviews are also free under this policy. Please, feel free to give us a call, and we can guide you down the path of receiving proper compensation for your damages.
Premises Verdicts and Settlements
Our experienced injury lawyers have successfully recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements on behalf of our clients. Below, we present to you a brief list of our more recent slip and fall, and premises liability verdicts and settlements. If you have any questions regarding your slip and fall case, feel free to contact our law office.
