Grocery Store Slip & Falls In Florida

Grocery stores and supermarkets are some of the most common locations where slip-and-fall accidents occur, both in Florida and elsewhere. If you slip and fall in a grocery store in Florida, you may be able to seek compensation for the injuries you suffered. However, Florida law may make it difficult to prevail in your case. Enlisting an experienced attorney to help can make all the difference.

Specific Law Sets Parameters

Supermarkets and grocery stores see close to constant activity on a normal business day. Customers are coming and going, product is being put on the shelves and removed, and other adjustments are being made as quickly as possible. However, all this activity can and does create injury hazards. Slip-and-fall accidents happen due to spills, squashed produce like grapes, condensation, and several other ordinary occurrences in every supermarket – but in general, they are only actionable if the condition has existed for longer than it should.

Florida Statute 768.0755 says that if someone slips and falls on a “transitory foreign substance” in a “business establishment,” they must prove that the (1) establishment had actual or constructive knowledge of the substance’s presence, and should have taken appropriate action to fix it; or (2) that the substance’s presence was foreseeable. In other words, if you slip and fall on a substance that is not normally on the floor, you must establish either that the store or market knew – or should have known – it was there, or that its presence was foreseeable to the average person.

“Actual Or Constructive Knowledge”

When injured people read the statute, many of them give up in despair, thinking recovery impossible because there may be no way to conclusively show that the store had “actual or constructive knowledge” about the substance on the floor. (Constructive knowledge is when someone ought to have known something, or can be assumed to have known about something.) While many markets do have security cameras, it is not unheard of for the store to not have the right angle, or to simply not hand over the correct video to establish your case.

Alternatively, you may fear that the store or market will argue that you should have been more careful and noticed the hazard. In reality, while every case is different, recovery in these matters is difficult, but not impossible. Florida observes a doctrine called pure comparative negligence, which states that even if the plaintiff is ruled to be partially at fault, they can still recover, just minus their percentage of fault. In other words, if you are ruled to be 30 percent at fault, you should still, at least in theory, be able to recover 70 percent of your costs.

Call An Orlando Slip-and-Fall Accident Attorney

Slip-and-fall accidents are easy to write off as one’s own carelessness, but if someone’s negligence caused your accident, you have the right to seek compensation. The Orlando slip and fall attorneys from the Hornsby Law Group have handled these cases before, and can offer knowledgeable and compassionate representation at what can be a hard time for you and your family. Call our offices today for a free consultation.

Sources:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0768/Sections/0768.81.html

leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0768/Sections/0768.0755.html