Premises Liability

Accidents at Florida Wawa Stores

August 18, 2017 | Wolfson & Leon

Like any other gas station or convenience store, Wawa may be liable for accidents resulting in personal injury. If you or a loved one is seriously injured while visiting any of the 90 plus Wawa stores in Florida, you are strongly urged to speak with a Florida Wawa accident lawyer as soon as you can. A prompt investigation and early legal advice can often make the difference between a contested claim and a successful recovery.

Wawa Moves into Florida

The first Wawa store in Florida was opened in the Orlando area only four years ago. In less than five years, Wawa has opened more than 92 stores. In addition, the corporation as very aggressive plans for expansion in Florida.

Restaurant Sued for Swallowed Broken Shell – The Reasonable Expectation Test

February 6, 2017 | Wolfson & Leon

A Buca di Beppo restaurant was sued by a customer who was seriously injured when he swallowed a broken mussel shell. The trial court in Broward County initially granted the defendant Buca’s motion for summary judgment which was reversed by the Fourth District Court of Appeal based on the application of the “reasonable expectation” test to the facts of the case.

Now the customer is entitled to a jury trial and our personal injury lawyers at the Miami office of Wolfson & Leon firmly believe the 4^th DCA got this one right.

Linguine Frutti di Mare with the Broken Mussel Shells

Walmart Chooses Profit over Customer Safety

September 5, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

Miami premise liability lawyers know that Walmart measures everything. They know their numbers. Consider this:

Sales per Walmart employee is $236,804 – a 23% increase over the last decade
It has more than 1 million retail workers on full-time and part-time shifts.

Target’s Wet Look Floors Are an Accident Waiting to Happen

August 16, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

What is the one thing you notice when you go shopping at any Target store? The shiny floors and it isn’t a coincidence. At the highest corporate levels of Target, a decision was made to sacrifice consumer safety in favor of bright clean look that would entice customers to shop at Target.

Target home offices are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are more than 1700 Target stores in the United States. In a recent case in South Florida, Target’s procedures and policies were placed under a microscope and the results are disturbing.

The documents and testimony in the commercial premises liability case against Target conclusively demonstrated that Target instituted a company-wide policy of maintaining “WET LOOK” floors. In furtherance of this policy, Target specifically choose certain types of tiles and mandated specific waxing/cleaning procedures. In addition, Target incorporated lighting choices to enhance the bright shiny look of the stores.

The Chinese Menu Defenses In Premises Liability Trials

June 12, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

stairs-a18941 Most of us have ordered the specials at our favorite Chinese restaurant. You get to pick and choose from a variety of choices. Usually you pick a soup from column A. Then another choice for appetizer from Column B. Then yet another choice for the main course from Column C. You get to pick and choose. In a premises liability trial, the defense will usually present a Chinese menu of defenses and offer the jury a variety of ways to deny the injured person a full, fair and complete recovery. The Miami Premises Liability Lawyers at Wolfson & Leon deal with these defenses everyday.

A premises liability trial is usually filed against a property owner for injuries and damages. The types of premises liability cases can include slip and fall, trip and fall or negligent security. The defenses are stated in the defendant’s answer to the complaint. These defenses often include:

The plaintiff was intoxicated and therefore he/she cannot recover

How to Represent Yourself in a Slip and Fall Injury Claim

May 20, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

Filing a Slip and Fall Claim in Miami without an Attorney

First things first. You are not required to have a Miami slip and fall attorney to file a claim for injuries from a slip and fall case. You can represent yourself. You cannot represent someone else unless you are licensed attorney in that jurisdiction. If you do try to represent someone else, you could be criminally liable for practicing law without a license.

Next, you need to decide if you want to represent yourself. If you do, you need to understand what you are up against. If you were injured in a slip and fall accident, there are certain things you should know about slip and fall accidents including what to do after a slip and fall accident in Miami. If you were injured on a business owner’s property such as a mall, retail store, restaurant, boutique or supermarket then you need to think it through. Business owners are not likely to just give you money because you might have been hurt on their premises.

Jury Divides Fault on Shopping Cart Injury Accident in Miami

May 5, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

personal-injury-lawyer-300x168 A Miami jury split the fault in a Miami premises liability personal injury case involving a shopping cart. The plaintiff claimed Home Depot was negligent because it allowed a threshold to exist which caught a shopping cart the plaintiff was pushing. When the cart got stuck, it jerked back and struck the plaintiff . He seriously injured his neck and back as well as his shoulder. The jury awarded approximately $328,000 which was reduced by the 50/50 finding of the jury.

Generally, a property owner owes two duties to an invitee. First it owes the duty to use reasonable care in maintaining the property in a reasonably safe condition. Second, the property owner has the duty to warn of concealed or latent hazards or dangers which the owner knows about, or should have known about. The hidden dangers must also be unknown to the invitee. Finally the concealed hazard is not discoverable through the exercise of due care. A property’s owner may be discharged of the duty to warn when the hazard is open and obvious. But even with open and obvious hazards the landowner continues to have the duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition.

The injured plaintiff must generally prove that the property owner had constructive or actual notice of the dangerous condition. A property owner, like Home Depot, can be held liable for injuries and damages if the hazardous condition existed for a sufficient period of time to charge the premises owner with constructive knowledge. Constructive knowledge can be inferred, or assessed, if a hazardous condition existed for long enough that in the exercise of reasonable care the concealed or latent hazard should have been known to the premises owner.

BROKEN STAIRS, BROKEN DREAMS

January 11, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

You have to take the stairs. You have no option. The stairs are damaged and you try your best. You fall and you are seriously injured. You aren’t sure what happened or even why. You just know that you are really hurt and don’t know what to do. Is the building owner responsible? Even if you cannot testify to exactly what made you fall? The answer is yes.

Accident report

In the premises liability case of Christakis v. Tivioli Terrace LLC, the Fourth District Court of Appeal held that it was an error for the trial court to enter a directed verdict in favor of the defendant where there was conflicting evidence as to causation. In this case, the plaintiff could not testify to what made her fall. However she did produce evidence in the form of photographs and expert testimony that the stairs were damaged. The Court ruled that the plaintiff was not building inference upon inference because the damaged stairs were proven fact through the photos and testimony. As such there was a conflict in the evidence which should be left to a jury to decide.

stairs2

If you are injured on public or governmental property or private property, you should contact a qualified personal injury lawyer. It will be vitally important to secure critical evidence to support your claim including but not limited to:

HOW CAN I GET THE VIDEO OF MY SLIP AND FALL?

November 9, 2015 | Wolfson & Leon

If you slip and fall at Publix, Target, Walmart or most large retailers, chances are your fall was videotaped by a store surveillance system. You probably think this is a good thing because then everyone can see what happened. Not so fast.

Most major retailers have closed circuit video surveillance systems for two main reasons. First is theft prevention. The second, and equally important to the retailer, is to defend against premises liability claims. Under the current law, these stores typically object to producing the video until AFTER the claimant has testified under oath and that decision rests with the trial judge.

The decisions on the issue have evolved over the years. Originally the Florida Supreme Court said that defendants could withhold video surveillance tapes until after the plaintiff testified. The video in question was taken after the accident occurred and while the claim was pending. This is the type of video taken by the private investigator hiding in the bushes.

Something Fell on Me – Can I Sue?

October 6, 2015 | Wolfson & Leon

If something fell on you, and you got hurt, it might be hard to prove someone else’s negligence caused that problem. For example, maybe someone stocked a shelf and then left an item really close to the edge, too close. Then, when someone lightly bumped the shelf, it fell on you. But how do you know they stocked the shelf wrong? Now this may or not be an instance where this applies, but, sometimes, the thing speaks for itself. And this is called the legal doctrine of “res ipsa loquitur”.

Danger Falling Objects Warning Sign Isolated, black drop triangle over yellow, large macro