Your business may be facing a lawsuit if a customer was injured on the premises. For instance, maybe someone slipped and fell in your store. They hit their head on the tile floor and suffered a brain injury. They now want to sue you to seek compensation for their lost wages, medical bills and other costs.
However, you believe that your store is generally a very safe environment and that you didn’t do anything to cause this person to get injured. Are you really responsible for their costs just because they were in your store when the accident happened?
Were you negligent in some way?
There are four basic things that have to be shown if your business is to be held responsible. First, you had a duty to the customer. Second, you breached that duty. Next, your breach caused the injuries. Finally, the costs related to the incident came from those specific injuries.
You do have a duty to make the space safe for a customer, so the case will probably hinge on whether or not you breached that duty.
One of the most important things to ask is if you were negligent. This can be shown if you knew about the dangerous condition and did nothing to fix it, or if it existed for so long that you should have known about it.
For example, if a customer drops a glass jar full of liquid on the tile floor and then slips, there was clearly no way for you to know that the dangerous condition existed or to rectify it before the accident. You were not negligent. On the other hand, if the wet spot on the floor was caused by a leaking pipe that you haven’t bothered to fix for two months, the customer will argue that you were negligent and you allowed the dangerous condition to exist.
If you find yourself facing these accusations, they can seriously impact the future of your business. Be sure you know what legal options you have.