Goodwill Store Trip and Fall Injury Attorneys

Next to slip and falls, trip and fall accidents are the most common source of bodily harm in retail settings. Tripping over something may not seem like a serious event, but there are many serious injuries you can end up, which include:

• Broken nose and other bones in your face
• Traumatic brain injury
• Fractures in the shoulder or collarbone
• Torn ligaments and tendons (soft tissue injury)
• Patellar fracture (broken kneecap)
• Neck and spinal cord damage
• Back injuries
• Disfigurement from cuts, scratches, and other injuries
• Joint dislocation
• Broken tailbone
• Permanent nerve damage
• Chronic pain
• Death

Thrift stores and consignment shops are crammed full of merchandise, and you have probably walked into at least one of these stores and noticed how chaotic and cluttered they are. It’s essential for staff members to keep up with cleaning and organizing duties, and ensure that hazards are taken care of immediately. This includes areas outside the store that are still the company’s property, like the parking lot and sidewalks.

Conditions that can lead to a trip and fall incident at a Goodwill store include, but are not limited to:

• Merchandise that’s fallen off racks and shelves
• Loose cords and wiring
• Broken concrete
• Uneven or missing pieces of flooring
• Tools, ladders, and step stools left out by workers
• Poor lighting
• Bunched up areas on rugs and carpets (especially corners on rugs)
• Exposed rebar in the parking lot
• Debris on the sidewalks

Yes, you can file a lawsuit for monetary compensation if there was a condition at the store that caused you to trip and fall down. The business owner’s liability for your accident is based on premises liability, a legal concept where owners are responsible for injuries to others on their property. Of course, a property owner can’t be at fault for every type of accident that can hurt someone. But there are many precautions that can be taken to keep people safe, like regular cleaning, inspecting the premises, and making timely repairs.

In the above section, we covered some of these hazards that can result in a trip and fall accident. Failure by the store owner to resolve these conditions means they were negligent in their duty of care to you as a guest or visitor. A company, by the way, can also be sued if their employee’s conduct causes someone to be injured, as long as the cause of injury happened within the scope of employment.

For example, a sales associate at Goodwill is asked to change a lightbulb by their manager, but they get distracted and forget to replace the bulb. This is the section of the store that leads to the bathrooms, and the corridor is quite dark without proper lighting. Because of the employee’s carelessness, a customer heading to the bathroom trips over an item on the floor that was dropped by someone else.

Since the employee’s actions occurred during the course of their job duties, you can file a lawsuit against Goodwill according to the principle of vicarious liability. For a more detailed discussion on liability and how it affects your right to sue for injuries at store, please give us a call.

The value of a trip and fall lawsuit is around $300,000 to $2,500,000 for the majority of cases that are handled by our attorneys. However, there are many factors that play a role in what these lawsuits are worth, which are different for each and every victim. How badly you were injured is a crucial factor, along with liability by the store, i.e., their role in causing or contributing to the accident. That’s why a Goodwill store trip and fall lawsuit can range greatly in value, starting from around $15,000 to over $5,000,000 for disability and other severe injuries. Those who are suing on behalf of a deceased slip and fall injury victim may receive anywhere from $1,500,000 to $5,000,000 from a wrongful death lawsuit.

If you’re wondering about the costs that will be covered by a trip and fall personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit, here are the expenses that can be recovered by victims or their loved ones:

• Medical expenses 
• Pain and suffering
• Funeral costs
• Lost wages or loss of expected income / benefits
• Mental anguish
• Loss of consortium
• Property damage (lost or destroyed belongings)
• Punitive damages 
• Attorneys’ fees

Accident claims for trip and fall incidents at major retailers are usually settled within 8 to 10 months, though the actual timeline will vary on many issues that are beyond our control. If your injuries are relatively minor and there are no permanent complications, it can take less than 6 months to get paid from a Goodwill store trip and fall lawsuit. But the vast majority of our clients end up with serious bodily harm, like traumatic brain injury or loss of function in the limbs. This is why trip and fall settlements can sometimes take over 2 years to recover.

During a free consultation, we can go over the issues that will affect the amount of time to reach a settlement if you tripped and fell at a Goodwill store. Contact us today and schedule a time to speak with a fall injury accident lawyer.

As an injury victim, you are allowed 2 years from the incident date to sue Goodwill for a trip and fall accident. Since the statute of limitations kicks in from the moment you are injured, please don’t wait to contact a Goodwill trip and fall injury lawyer.

Please be aware that the courts rarely allow extensions for those who miss the 2-year deadline to initiate a claim. There are a few exceptions, like the delayed discovery of harm that resulted from an accident. If, for example, you are diagnosed with a health condition that was not discovered for several years after you fell down at a Goodwill location, you have 1 year from the discovery date to file a lawsuit.

Since these are rare exceptions, we advise that you call us right away and begin the process of seeking payment from Goodwill for the harm you’ve suffered.

Those who have been injured by someone else’s negligence or misconduct should not have to worry about the cost of hiring a personal injury lawyer. Here at DTLA, our attorneys work on contingency, which means the only way we get paid is by winning your case. Instead of charging you for legal fees, we include our expenses in the settlement demands, so it’s actually Goodwill that pays us for the cost of representing you. And if we don’t win your lawsuit, the Zero Fee Guarantee is our promise that you won’t receive any bills from us.

We look forward to educating you on your rights and legal options, so contact our law firm to schedule a free case evaluation.

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