Premises LiabilitySupermarket Fall Lawyers

Bowie supermarket fall lawyer, George Patterson filed suit in Prince George’s county for a Montgomery county client that fractured her knee cap in a fall at a Germantown supermarket. The customer slipped and fell on a wet floor near a cooling unit. An independent witness established that the cooling unit had been leaking water days before the supermarket fell. This evidence established that the supermarket was on notice of this dangerous condition. The supermarket failed to place a wet floor sign near the unit or fix the cooling bin. George Patterson also hand delivered a letter to the store’s manager within 24 hours of the fall notifying the store to preserve video footage of the fall. Most video footage is lost or recorded within days of a supermarket fall. If a store is placed on notice to preserve video the party that requested the video may seek a jury instruction from the Court that the jury may infer that the video would have hurt the case of the party that destroyed the footage.

Most stores also maintain sweep logs where the time that an area was last checked for hazards may be documented. Supermarkets will often present these logs as proof that they complied with their duty to conduct a reasonable inspection to prevent supermarket falls. These sweep logs can be used to identify gaps in checking areas and document that an employee simply failed to see a hazard that was present. Some stores do not maintain sweep logs due to concerns that the sweep logs may help establish their liability. The absence of sweep logs with testimony that employees are constantly looking for hazards is an approach taken by some stores.

The store denied liability but the testimony of the independent witness, the request for the preservation of video evidence and strong medical demonstrative evidence resulted in a favorable outcome. The supermarket fall case was resolved shortly before trial for a settlement of $140,000 based on medical bills of about $14,000. George Patterson and Maria Patterson have also successfully obtained verdicts and settlements after filing suit against many of the supermarkets in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The lawyers at Patterson law have recovered over a million dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients injured in falls at supermarkets.