Slip and Fall & Premises Liability

I do slip and fall cases, premises liability cases, collapsed cases, where for instance parts of building collapse. Parts of buildings collapse and somebody is badly hurt. They’re difficult cases.

The core of my practice has always been auto litigation, but I’ve certainly have tried slip and fall cases. I think I tried the biggest rotator cuff case in a slip and fall case in the state.

I had a older woman, a 71 year old, who was hurt in Loveland, Colorado at King Soopers.

A young man was pushing boxes, a stocker, and he pushed a box into this very nice older lady and he hurt her. And she went down and she had a torn rotator cuff.

The insurance company offered her $30,000. The jury gave her over $700,000.

When that happens, you know something is, one, somebody is very badly hurt. She did have surgery, she was very badly hurt.

That was a premises liability case. You know, water on floors. I just finished a case and it was a settlement case.

I really, I’ve been talking about trial cases, and I want to accentuate that virtually, well, 85% of the cases that I handle, settle. But to get that settlement and to get the highest amount of money, the case has to be prepared for trial.

I just settled a premises liability case, again, a nice lady was on Colorado Boulevard and went in and you know, we all know that in a floral section, there is water.

Well, she went in and the water had come spilling out on the floor and she hurt herself badly and that just settled.

What do we expect as people that are shopping in these places like Walmart and like King Soopers? You know, we want them to be careful with us. We want to be kind to them. But we want them to be careful with us.

Do you know if you think about what you’re doing when you go into a super market, is what are you looking at? As soon as you walked in the door, you’re looking at all the wonderful merchandise they have and if you think about it for a second, and you walk in and what do you see, you see a sale, and you go gosh you know, that’s a pretty good deal. You know, the last thing you’re looking is right there.

There’s law in Colorado, that actually, it’s a Smith vs Safeway case, and in that case it’s established that mass merchandising is actually a dangerous activity. Because, if you think about it, what are we doing?

And you know, falling merchandise at Walmart, certainly had those cases. You know, Walmart has made quality of life, maybe a little better. I disagree with, you know, outsourcing all of our jobs to China, certainly, but we can go get a good deal at Walmart.

But, if you think about how Walmart and Home Depot and Lowes works. They pile merchandise right to the ceiling. And sometimes when that merchandise falls on somebody that’s looking here, and something comes down and hits them. I can tell you some of the worst injuries in the state have taken place in kind of these innocent places like Walmart.

Next thing you know, you end up having neck fusions and I’ve certainly handled those cases. Virtually, all of those, every one of those mass merchandisers, I’ve had people that were hurt in those places.