You Can Bring a Claim if You Have Been Injured at a Store in Waldorf, MD

Under Maryland laws of negligence, if you have been injured at a store, gas station, shopping mall, grocery store, or any sort of merchant’s premises, you can bring an insurance claim and/or start a civil lawsuit to recover compensation for your injuries. To have a right to compensation, there must have been some defect at the store or on the property, like a hole in the floor, an uneven floor surface, a puddle of liquid, broken concrete on the sidewalk, falling merchandise, or something falling from the ceiling, etc. If you have been injured, call us here at the Law Office of Robert Castro for a no-obligation assessment of your case. Our number is (301) 870-1200. We are top-tier Maryland personal injury lawyers for Waldorf, Maryland, La Plata, MD, Clinton, Maryland, Bowie, MD, Greenbelt Maryland, and Landover, MD. Here is a brief discussion of the law of premises liability here in Charles County, Maryland.

Under Maryland law, the owner of a store — either the property owner or the company that operates the store — has several duties that it must maintain in regard to customers. These are:

• To keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition
• To warn customers of known hidden dangers
• The duty to inspect the store, property, premises, etc.
• The duty to take reasonable precautions against foreseeable dangers

If a defect, hazard, or danger causes an injury to a customer, then the shop owner (and, potentially, the owner of the property) can be held legally liable to compensate the injured victim. The types of compensation that can be recovered include things like recovering the costs of medical bills, medical treatment, lost wages and earnings, pain and suffering, emotional distress, mental injuries, and more.

Injuries occurring in shops, stores, and merchant premises are legally complex because they are almost always deeply factual in nature. That is, each case is unique, and each element of liability is largely dependent on the facts. For example, store and property owners often argue that a defect was “open and obvious” and the customer should have avoided the danger. Indeed, this is consistent with the general rules that store owners “… are not insurers of their customers’ safety…” and that customers have a duty to exercise reasonable care for their own safety.

But, it is easy to see that all of these questions depend on the facts of the case. Was the hazard truly open and obvious? Did the customer act reasonably under the circumstances? These questions are never obvious, which is why it is important to have a legal consultation with experienced Maryland personal injury lawyers.

As another example, the store owner’s duty to inspect is based on reasonableness. That is, the store owner is not expected to continually inspect the store for dangers every minute. Thus, if the injuries were caused by a spill or some other hazard falling to the floor, a factual investigation is needed to determine when the hazard first appeared and how long it persisted before the injury.

We, here at the Law Office of Robert Castro, emphasize the factual nature of these cases so that you DO NOT assume that you do not have a case or claim. Do NOT think: “It was my own fault.” Let us evaluate your case.

Contact Waldorf, MD Personal Injury Attorney Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions, contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland personal injury lawyer at (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD, Personal Injury lawyers. Our address is 2670 Crain Highway, Waldorf, MD, 20601.