Dislocated joints, especially shoulders, knees and hips, are common slip and fall injuries. They are always painful and take time to heal. Typically, a dislocated shoulder injury makes it impossible to return to work straight away and may involve hospital treatment.
If the injury happened in a public place, and you believe that it shouldn’t have happened if the employees or management were doing their job properly, then you may have a case for a compensation payment.
Discuss your accident and injury with an experienced personal injury attorney first before filing a claim.
How You Could End Up With a Dislocated Shoulder
A dislocated shoulder injury is typically the result of an untimely fall. It is most likely to happen when you slip or trip suddenly without any prior warning.
It can quite easily and probably does occur often in stores because of their size. Store users may slipover on anything which is lying on the floor which shouldn’t be there.
If you see a hazard, then you are unlikely to slip over, but some hazards in big, busy stores are not easily seen in advance. If you do slip over, the tendency is to throw your arm out to cushion the impact of the fall.
Depending on exactly where you strike the ground and how hard the ground is, it is quite conceivable for your shoulder to take the main impact, causing a dislocation.
File a Personal Injury Claim if The Injury Was Not your Fault
Stores cannot always be blamed for every accident that takes place in them. If a hazard suddenly appears, such as a batch of bottles or containers that are dislodged and fall all over the ground, then any store, like Walmart, can only be considered negligent if it takes too long to do anything about it.
If the managers or an employee is alerted to the potential safety risk but the store does nothing about it until an injury occur, then it could be justified to state that the store was liable for the injury through its own negligence.
However, if the accident happened within minutes of the hazard appearing, it is unlikely that it could be expected that it could have been prevented and a claim may not be justified.
What You Could Claim
If your injury was caused by negligence at a superstore, then the typical claim would be for the cost of dealing with the dislocated shoulder at a doctor and / or a hospital.
Also included in the claim would be any loss in wages or other income if a return to work is impossible for the time being. Most PI claims also include a payment to cover the ‘pain and suffering’ experienced.
Discuss the Injury With a Personal Injury Attorney First
An experienced attorney can provide valuable advice about the feasibility of a personal injury claim. If a claim is justified, then it may be better to let the attorney do the negotiating for you. In most cases, the attorney will defer any legal fees until a settlement is reached.
Additional Resources
*Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Walmart, or any other party, you may not be entitled to any compensation.
