If you slip and fall at a store, what would you do? Not everyone realizes that if you slip and fall in a store, you could be entitled to damages. If a store was responsible for your accident, you may be able to file a personal injury claim against the company.
What Is a Personal Injury?
Personal injury is a broad area of civil law. It helps ensure that people who are injured because of the negligence of other people or even businesses. To be able to file a personal injury claim, there are four elements that must have taken place at the time of your injury:
- There must be duty. Duty means that someone had an obligation to do or not do something. Things like paint thinner and other chemicals should be properly stored to prevent explosions or burns.
- The duty must be breached. If you were visiting a store and received a chemical burn because paint thinner was improperly stored and got on your skin or the can exploded, this could be negligence since the store had a duty to properly store those products.
- There must be an actual injury of some kind. The store's duty and a breach of that duty aren’t enough. Someone would actually need to be injured. A better example of this is a slip and fall. If the store neglected to salt a sidewalk directly in front of their store after an ice or snow storm, someone could slip and fall. Although that would be negligent, it may not matter unless someone actually fell and broke an ankle or received some other actual injury.
- It must meet the ‘but-for’ test. The ‘but-for’ test means that the injury received must actually be caused by the negligence. A hypothetical situation might look like this: But for a paint store improperly storing their paint thinner cans at high heat, the cans would not have exploded and the plaintiff would not have experienced chemical burns.
Hurt While Shopping?
If you believe that you suffered a personal injury while shopping, you should contact an experienced personal injury attorney to assess your claim. Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis. This means that if they take your case, you do not pay anything up-front. You only pay if they successfully settle or litigate your claim.
You shouldn’t just hope for the best if you were injured at a store. Talk with a personal injury attorney to find out how you can protect your legal rights and get the compensation that you need for your injuries.
*The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Sherwin-Williams, or any other location, you may not be entitled to any compensation.
