As a store owner, you certainly don’t want anyone to get hurt on your property. But imagine that someone slips and falls and suffers an injury. They tell you that they are going to sue you because the injury happened on your property, so you must be responsible. They want you to pay for their medical bills, pain and suffering and things of this nature.
But are they right? Are you always responsible for the injuries that happen in your store or on your property?
There are many factors to be considered
You’re certainly not always responsible. There are a lot of different factors that play into fault in a case like this, and they have to be considered.
For example, there may be situations in which your obligation is just to provide a reasonable warning. Maybe there was a wet spot on the floor. If you put up a sign warning customers and someone walked onto that spot anyway, ignoring the clear warning, you might not be liable for their injuries.
You also have to consider if it was even foreseeable that the accident would take place. People will sometimes refer to when a store owner “should have known” about a dangerous condition. You can be as diligent as possible regarding safety in your store, but you can’t necessarily correct every hazard instantly, especially when you don’t even yet know that it exists. So it may be very important to consider how long the condition existed for and whether or not you took realistic steps to check for hazards and resolve them.
These are just a few of the factors to keep in mind out of many. But they do show you why it’s so important to explore your legal options when facing this type of litigation.