How many times have you gone to the grocery store with one specific thing in mind to buy? Instead, you end up buying a bag of groceries with everything except your one item. It’s no wonder. The average supermarket stocks around 30,000 to 40,000 unique items.
It’s easy to get distracted.
Unfortunately, while you’re looking at the shelves, you miss that spill on the floor. In a flash, you’re sprawled out on your back, embarrassed and hurt. You might want to scramble to get up and get out of the store. That would be the wrong thing to do. Even if you feel fine in the moment, you’ll want to report the incident to the store manager. That is the first step toward verifying that you fell and may have been injured.
It may also be the only way to move forward with a claim. In fact, it will likely be the first question an experienced Seattle slip and fall lawyer asks: “Did you report the incident?”
That is just one of the steps you should take after a slip and fall accident in a grocery store. The actions you take will determine if you can prevail in your personal injury claim.
Immediate Steps to Take After a Seattle Grocery Store Injury
If you fall at a grocery store, these are the steps to take:
Step 1: Report the Incident
As mentioned, report the incident before you leave the store. Most grocery stores have some form of an incident report. Alert the manager on duty about what happened. They will write up the incident report, and you should ask for a copy.
Step 2: Take Photos and Video
Use your phone to photograph the exact hazard that caused your fall, like a puddle or a fallen item, before anyone cleans it up. Then photograph the surrounding area, including any warning signs or the lack of them, and note any security cameras that might have recorded the fall.
Step 3: Gather Witness Contacts
Also, before you leave the store, get the names and phone numbers of anyone who saw the fall or helped you back up. You might not be able to get those contacts once you leave.
Step 4: Get Medical Care
After leaving the store, see your doctor or go to urgent care or the ER right away. Even if you don’t feel much pain, a prompt visit creates a medical record that ties your injuries to the fall. Adrenaline can also mask serious problems, and the CDC notes that some concussion symptoms may not appear for hours or days.
Step 5: Preserve Physical Evidence
Save the shoes and clothing you wore during the fall in a safe place and avoid wearing them again. These might be called into question as part of the accident investigation.
Step 6: Avoid Giving Detailed Statements
When the store manager asks what happened, stick to basic facts. Do not admit fault or sign any paperwork. You also should not give a recorded statement before getting legal advice to avoid saying something that could inadvertently hurt your claim.
Step 7: Speak to an Experienced Attorney
Talk to an attorney soon, even before you know the full extent of your injuries. Stores can record over surveillance video quickly, and a lawyer can act to preserve it.
How Constructive Notice Applies to Your Washington Slip-and-Fall Accident
To hold a grocery store responsible in Washington, you generally have to show the store created the hazard, knew about it, or should have known about it. That last one is called constructive notice. It means the dangerous condition existed long enough that the store should have discovered it through reasonable care.
How does that play out in a grocery store? Suppose another shopper knocks a bottle of olive oil off a shelf and it shatters. You come around the corner and slip on the oil moments later. Constructive notice probably doesn’t apply, because employees had no reasonable chance to find the spill and clean it up.
Now suppose shopping cart tracks and footprints run through the oil. That can suggest the spill sat there long enough for employees to spot it. So can evidence that the store skipped its routine floor checks.
Washington also has an exception that can take notice out of the picture. Under the Pimentel exception, you don’t have to prove the store knew or should have known about the hazard if the store’s way of doing business makes that kind of hazard reasonably foreseeable. You still have to show the store failed to take reasonable care.
The exception is narrower than it sounds, though. Being a grocery store isn’t enough. Washington courts look for a link between the hazard and the way that part of the store operates, such as a self-serve area where spills or dropped items are a predictable part of how customers shop. The original Pimentel case involved a paint can that fell from a store shelf, so if the way the olive oil was displayed made falling bottles foreseeable, that fall might still qualify.
Make an Informed Decision About Your Claim Options
If a store hazard caused your fall, you may be entitled to seek compensation. You shouldn’t be stuck with medical bills or lost wages for something that wasn’t your fault.
Proving that is another matter.
At Law Offices of Justin R. Boland, PLLC, we act fast to preserve evidence. A store’s surveillance footage is often the best evidence of how a fall happened. We can send the store a preservation letter demanding that it keep the footage.
If we take on your claim, we’ll also help calculate the full extent of your losses, including current and future medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
If you’ve been hurt in a slip and fall at a grocery store, we want to hear your story. Call to set up a free consultation, and we’ll help you make an informed decision about your legal options.
Don’t wait until the footage is gone.
