When you walk into a department store, your mind probably goes immediately to the item or items you came to buy. Besides facing the threat of overspending, you likely do not see yourself as being in any real danger.
However, whether you are shopping for clothes or household goods in New York, you could unfortunately suffer injuries as a result of hazardous property conditions. In this situation, you have the right to seek to hold accountable the property owner responsible for the injuries you have suffered.
What kinds of injuries can happen at a department store?
A shopping-related injury refers to any injury that occurs while you are visiting a retail establishment, such as a store or shopping mall. Although many of these types of injuries happen to be minor, not all are. In the right situation, you may suffer serious harm, such as the following:
- Spinal cord injury
- Neck injury
- Head trauma
- Severe sprain
- Broken bones
Suffering these types of injuries is especially a possibility during extremely busy shopping times and during adverse winter weather when store managers may have failed to adequately attempt to remove dangerous ice and snow from the premises.
What types of store-related accidents may lead to your injuries?
Below are the main types of shopping accidents that may take place on a retail company’s property:
- Parking lot injury: can be a result of an improperly designed or cracked parking lot, or due to the failure to eliminate snow or ice
- Overcrowding injury: due to trampling or other overcrowding hazards
- Shopping cart injury: due to cart’s tipping over
- Body or head injury: can result because of mishaps such as objects that are out of reach, or falling objects or retail displays
- Slip-and-fall injury: can result from a wet floor, an escalator malfunction, poor lighting or torn carpet
Your rights following the suffering of an injury at a store
If a store-related accident has caused you to suffer injuries, you are entitled to seek monetary compensation for your injuries. A financial award from a successfully litigated premises liability claim may help you to cover your medical bills and even the loss of income if your injury barred you from returning to work right away. The compensation might also help to address emotional distress as well as pain and suffering resulting from the store accident.
Monetary compensation cannot undo the events leading to injuries stemming from hazardous property conditions. However, it may help you to experience a sense of justice following the accident and thus more easily move forward from it.
