A 60-year-old woman who slipped and fell while shopping in a Dollar General Store in Alabama was recently awarded a $1.725 million verdict after a trial. Unfortunately, she still remains severely injured from her fall, and has not achieved the full recovery that she was hoping for.
Senior Citizen Slips and Falls in Dollar Store
The incident occurred on July 9, 2012, in the Dollar General Store in Mobile, Alabama. Deborah Revette, then 60, was casually shopping in the store when she slipped and fell in a clear puddle of liquid laundry detergent on the floor of the chemical cleaners aisle. Her fall was a terrible one – she severely broke her leg and fractured her shoulder. Over the course of the next few years, she underwent eight surgeries and no fewer than 395 doctor’s visits. All told, she spent over $470,000 in medical bills. However, despite the medical attention and effort, Ms. Revette remained permanently disabled from her injuries.
Poor Safety Inspections to Blame
Over the course of the trial, it came to light that Dollar General Stores, despite being open for 14 hours every day, only require employees to spend 10 minutes conducting safety inspections. These inspections include looking for and cleaning up dangerous conditions in the aisles, like fallen merchandise that can trip people, liquid spills that can make people slip or slide and fall, like Ms. Revette.
Preventing these conditions from happening should be a priority for stores that are open to the public, and which create business by inviting people inside to buy things. No shopper should have to worry about hazards on the floor while looking where marketers want them to look – at the shelves.
Premises Liability Law Protects Shoppers
This is why premises liability law exists. By allowing injured people to sue the stores where they slipped and fell, and by holding those stores accountable for not taking necessary precautions to keep their patrons safe, premises liability lawsuits pressure businesses to keeping their patrons safe.
Dollar General, by choosing not to require its employees to keep the store safe from these hazards – therefore allowing them to hire fewer workers and save money – put its patrons into harm’s way. Unfortunately for Ms. Revette, that choice led to her fall in the store in Mobile, Alabama, which resulted in her severe injuries.
Georgia Personal Injury Attorney
If you fall and get hurt while in someone else’s store, it is often the case that the store’s policies or layout had something to do with the incident. Whether the workers failed to clean something up in an appropriate amount of time, or whether the design of the store contributed to the injury, you should be compensated for what was not your fault.
That is where Williams Elleby Howard & Easter comes into play. Cobb County attorney Joel Williams understands all of the ways that businesses can contribute to an unfortunate accident in their store. Contact Joel at 833-LEGALGA if you are interested in your legal options and want to talk to an attorney.
