Injured in a shopping mall accident? Learn Your right and how to make an injury claim for compensation!
Whether it’s back-to-school shopping or Christmas shopping, shopping malls are great places to find everything you need in one place. Shopping centres are visited millions of times every year. During some of those visits, shopping mall accidents occur. When you are hurt in an accident because of someone else’s mistake, you may have a right to be compensated for your medical bills, pain, and suffering missed work, and even your ruined clothes or other economic losses.
Facts About Shopping Mall Accidents
Corporations own most shopping malls. The corporation will then lease out spaces in the mall to stores. Each store is responsible for keeping its spaces clean and safe. The corporation that owns the mall is responsible for all of the common areas such as the parking lot, the mall walkways, elevators, and escalators.
The property owners have a duty to warn customers about hazards such as wet floors, malfunctioning equipment, or places where the floors are uneven. When property owners fail to meet this duty, and customers are injured and suffer damages, the customer has a right to pursue an injury claim.
When a mall patron is hurt because of the negligence of another person, not associated with the shopping center, the injured patron will most likely not have a claim against the shopping mall owners but instead will have one against the other individual. This is usually the case when there is a car accident in the parking lot.
However, sometimes, even when another person is responsible for your injury at a shopping mall, the mall owners may still have some liability. If the mall doesn’t provide adequate security and you are injured as the result of a robbery or an assault, the mall may owe you damages.
Shopping mall accidents are premises liability issues. Only an experienced personal injury lawyer familiar with shopping mall accidents can evaluate your case and help you understand your rights.
Types of Accidents
There are many different ways people can get hurt at a shopping mall. Shopping mall accidents happen in the parking lot, in the individual stores, in the common areas, and even in the restrooms.
Some of the most common types of shopping mall accidents are:
- Slip and falls from spills
- Trip and falls on uneven floors
- Falling merchandise
- Falling equipment
- Ceiling Collapse
- Poor lighting
- Assaults, including sexual assaults
- Elevator accidents
- Escalator accidents
- Stairway accidents
- Food poisoning from the food court
With any accident, there may be several different responsible parties. But, the owners of the mall are usually ultimately responsible for making sure all the areas of the mall are safe and that mall employees do not harm mall guests.
Types of injuries
Not every mall accident will lead to an injury. Many times people will slip and fall, and only injure their pride. But, other times even minor falls can cause major injuries. Some injuries take days to fully recover from. Other injuries may require surgery and take weeks or months to fully recover from. Sometimes people are already sick or injured and a shopping center accident leaves them permanently disabled.
Here are the most common types of injuries in shopping mall accidents:
- Torn strained ligaments and muscles
- Back and neck injuries
- Burns
- Sickness from food poisoning
- Lacerations
- Fractured bones
- Traumatic head injuries
- Twisted knees
- Major eye injuries
Some people are particularly sensitive to injuries. If someone has osteoporosis they are much more likely to break a bone in a fall than someone with healthy bones. Personal injury law has a principle that you take the victim as you find them. This means that if someone is hurt more severely because of a condition they had before the accident, and they are hurt because of someone else’s negligence, the one who is negligent has to pay for all the damages of the victim, even if they are more severe than would be the case in a healthy person.
Special Issues When Making Injury Claims in Shopping Mall Accidents
Businesses that own shopping malls are often wary of being sued. Sometimes when you have been injured in an accident the mall employees will want you to fill out an incident report and they will want you to list your injuries. Common sense would show that you might not know about your injuries immediately after the accident, but that won’t stop the mall and its insurance company from trying to use your incident form against you later on if you later develop serious injuries.
Insurance adjusters will often try to get you to settle your claim quickly and for very little money, even if your claim is worth more. You should never take an insurance adjustor’s word about the value of your case. You need to have your case evaluated by a personal injury lawyer.
Thousands of people are hurt in shopping mall accidents every year. If you have been hurt because of someone else’s mistake, let us help you find the right attorney to handle your case.
