Walmart Injury Claims and the Challenges Involved in Establishing Liability
Personal injury claims depend a lot of medical record review and analysis to prove the injuries sustained and treatments undergone. Here is a look at why Walmart injury claims are so challenging.
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Any medical chart review company providing medical record review for attorneys will be familiar with the fact that Walmart is the target of thousands of lawsuits every year. The company is very popular; however, many people are injured in Walmart stores each year. Accidents happen when employees at these stores fail to maintain the store premises safe to shoppers. A customer who slips and falls in a store or any business can expect to receive compensation for losses caused by the accident if he/she can show documented and reliable proof of the injuries sustained. In settlement negotiations involving slip and fall accidents, the point of focus will be whether the store should have maintained safe premises or whether the customer should have noticed the hazardous condition and avoided it. This will also be an important deciding factor when it comes to the size of the settlement award. What Are Issues Particular to Walmart Injury Lawsuits? Walmart is the largest company in the world as per its revenue in 2016. It is estimated that at least 20 lawsuits are filed against this company every day. These lawsuits include those filed by its employees for employment claims such as wage and hour and discrimination suits, business disputes and many personal injury cases. When Walmart becomes the defendant, there are some distinctive issues in personal injury lawsuits that most people may not have to deal with when they sue other companies. What are the common personal injury cases filed against Walmart and how does the law apply in this regard? Most personal injury cases filed against this company are premises liability claims – slipping and falling in water or spills, injured by falling merchandise that was not properly stocked, lack of security that leads to robberies and assaults, falling over items left in aisles and so on. By law, business and property owners owe a duty of care to people who are legally on their premises. Any dangerous conditions about which they knew or should have known must be corrected. Business owners have the duty to warn customers about the existence of known hazards. If Walmart is found to have breached its duty of care, and its negligence in doing so leads to an accident in which a customer is harmed, the company may be found to be liable to pay damages for all of the injured person’s losses. Unlike other companies and businesses, it is more challenging to bring a personal injury claim against Walmart. Some reasons for this are:
It is the biggest retail company in the world and has all the resources required to hire investigators and attorneys who would focus on disproving claims filed against it.
The company may refuse to turn over documents in discovery.
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They may file motions for summary judgment, to dismiss claims on the merits.
They may hire experts to testify on their behalf regarding liability involved. Most often, these experts may testify that the plaintiffs are responsible for their own injuries.
The company may request to remove the cases from state to federal court.
They may object to discovery requests such as video footage of the incident.
The store managers are given training to act quickly so as to limit their exposure to liability. They clean up all evidence of accidents immediately, pull away witnesses and prohibit photographs.
Fighting a suit against Walmart is made even tougher because:
This company does not choose to quietly settle claims.
It adopts an aggressive approach in each case.
It adopts this attitude to may be discourage other injured people from initiating litigation.
Walmart Does Lose Cases Notwithstanding its power, size and forcefulness, Walmart does lose cases when people have been injured by its or its employees’ negligence. In November 2011, a Colorado jury awarded $15 million dollars to a plaintiff in a Walmart slip and fall injury case. The fall had caused her to become disabled and lose her job as a truck driver. In yet another case, a 55year-old woman who was working as a product demonstrator in a Walmart store in California slipped and fell on a wet concrete floor and suffered serious injuries. She was awarded economic damages of $8000 and non-economic damages of $150,000. She was found 5% liable for her accident and her net award therefore was $150,100. Though Walmart appealed, the appellate court agreed with the woman’s argument that she be paid the costs of the appeal because it was frivolous, and ordered the store to pay the woman’s costs in the appeal that was baseless.
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