Shopping at a grocery store may not seem like an unsafe activity, yet, somehow, tens of thousands are Americans manage to sustain injuries in grocery store accidents all across the U.S. each year. Regardless of where you prefer to shop – at Walmart, Target, or other grocery stores or supermarkets – you are equally at risk of getting injured. When that happens, call a Philadelphia grocery store injury lawyer.

On average, an American spends at least 40 minutes at a grocery store per a shopping session, so it makes sense that something may go wrong within those 40 minutes even if the vast majority of your trips to a grocery store have been uneventful so far.

Injuries at a grocery store

When you are strolling through the grocery store, pushing the grocery cart from one aisle to another, reading labels to buy only organic stuff, and then carrying those heavy bags to your car in the parking lot, it does not seem that any of these activities can cause injury.

“However, during those up to 70 hours at a grocery stores that an average American spends per year, accidents and injuries are bound to happen, especially when the grocery store fails to exercise reasonable care by maintaining the premises in a safe condition,” says our Philadelphia grocery store accident attorney at Dan Doyle Law Group.

Can you sue the grocery store for your injury?

Accidents at a grocery store can range from slip and fall and trip and fall accidents to escalator accidents and food poisoning caused by consuming spoiled, expired, or unsafe foods sold at a grocery store, and many others.

While Pennsylvania law entitles you to sue a grocery store for causing your injury, you will be required to prove liability in order to recover damages. What you need to understand is that a grocery store cannot be held liable for all types of injuries to their customers.

Our experienced grocery store accident attorney in Philadelphia explains that you have the right to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit against Walmart, Target or any other grocery store in your city only if there’s evidence that the store failed to take reasonable steps to prevent harm.

The owner of a grocery store and his or her employees are exposed to liability in personal injury cases when the grocery store:

  • Fails to fix or eliminate a dangerous condition on the property that the store knew or should have known about (through regular inspections or complaints from other customers) or
  • Fails to warn customers of non-obvious hazards that a reasonable person would not have noticed or reasonably expected on the property.

Causes of grocery store injuries

In most cases, grocery stores and their defense attorneys deny personal injury claims filed by injured customers by arguing that the store’s employees could not have been reasonably expected to remedy the dangerous condition to prevent harm. However, if you are represented by a skilled grocery store liability lawyer, you may be able to prove that this condition existed on the property for an unreasonably long time or the store was warned about the condition by others prior to the accident (and, thus, failed to address the issue).

Causes of accidents at grocery stores vary from one case to another and can include but are not limited to wet and slippery floor, cracked, uneven, and loose flooring and pavement, falling objects and merchandise, defective grocery carts, food poisoning by spoiled, expired, or otherwise unsafe foods, and inadequate security measures.

Consult with our Philadelphia grocery store accident attorneys at Dan Doyle Law Group to discuss your particular case. Call our offices to schedule a free consultation.