All commercial property owners are liable for any injuries that may occur from unsafe conditions on their property. They are responsible for maintaining safe conditions, making the necessary repairs and warning visitors of any hazardous or potentially hazardous conditions on their premises.

Potential Department Store Injuries

In New Hampshire, a person injured in a slip and fall accident can file a personal injury claim if they are injured in a department store or on its premises for a variety of accidents including falls due to:

• Icy, snowy or wet parking lots;
• Broken or cracked sidewalk or pavement in front of the store;
• Wet or obstructed floors;
• Poorly lit or dark stairwells;
• Loose floor tiles or carpeting;
• Falling merchandise.

Whether your injuries are severe or minor, you should seek the advice from a New Hampshire personal injury attorney to see what rights you have, if any. New Hampshire attorneys, such as Ryan Russman, offer free consultations to help you determine if you can recover from your slip and fall accident.

What Should You Do If You Are Injured

Department store injuries occur everyday and tend to peak during the holiday shopping season. Giant department stores like Walmart experience nearly 1,000 customer injuries every day. Determination of liability for a department store injury is based on three criteria. One of the following situations must be true for a department store to have potential liability.

1. The owner of the premises or an employee must have caused the spill, tattered or torn spot, or other slippery or dangerous surface or item to be underfoot;
2. The owner of the premises or employee must have known of the dangerous surface or loose hanging merchandise but failed to correct it; or
3. The owner of the premises or an employee should have known of the dangerous condition because a “reasonable” person taking care of the property would have discovered, removed and/or repaired it.

Slip and fall accidents and department store injuries are both negligence actions and can be difficult to prove. The burden is on the injured party to show the owner of the premises either knew or should have known about the conditions that caused the injury. This is how you establish their standard of care. You then must show they breached their standard of care and that their breach is what caused your injury.

The importance of hiring an experienced New Hampshire personal injury attorney as soon as possible is important not only because of the difficulty of the case itself, but also because there is a three year statute of limitations to file a claim in New Hampshire. This means you have three years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. All injuries are actionable.

Compensation for Your Department Store Injury

Compensation for your injury includes payment of all:

• medical bills
• lost wages
• pain and suffering
• emotional distress
• the value of loss of any activities you enjoyed prior to your injury
• any other costs or losses which are a direct result of your injury.

If you are injured, you should never delay seeking medical help. In addition, never accept a settlement offer from an insurance company until you have spoken with a New Hampshire personal injury attorney because settlements are usually final.

If you have been injured on the premises of a department story in New Hampshire, you should request a free case review with an experienced attorney like Ryan Russman, who practices in Manchester, NH, and has offices in Exeter, NH and Portsmouth. He can help determine whether or not you can recover from your injury.