What to do regarding a fall in a store parking lot?
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What to do regarding a fall in a store parking lot?
Last night around 7:30-8:00 pm, I was leaving a drugstore and took a step down from the curb to the parking lot and just went down. I was wearing sneakers and wasn’t running or playing around. I was simply waking to my car in a dark parking lot. Apparently, I had stepped down into an indentation in the asphalt. It wasn’t a giant hole or anything and because it was an indent, it blended in with the asphault and wasn’t noticable to me, especially in the dark While on the ground, I noticed there were many indents in the parking lot. New Link Destination
be honest, that parking lot is in some serious need of repair. Most of which are large indents not visable to a shopper leaving the store at night in the poorly
lit parking lot. Theres no way the property owner doesnt know it’s that bad in the parking potbelly. I had to crawl to my the car due to pain.
Asked on September 21, 2018 under Personal Injury, Massachusetts
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
First, even if you were in pain, unless you have some significant and very long lasting life impairment or disability (something lasting at least months and, as stated, having a major impact on your life), or alternately incurred very large out-of-pocket medical bills or lost significant wages (thousands of dollars) from not being able to work, there is no point in legal action. For a personal injury suit, you must hire a medical expert (e.g. doctor) to write a report and testify, and they do not work cheap; you'd also be well-advised to hire a lawyer rather than try to bring the case yourself. (You need the medical expert because you, as a layperson, do not have the training, eduction, etc. to testify about the nature of any injury, its effect, its prognosis, etc.) But at the same time, you can only sue for compensation for your actual costs and losses, and related to the effect on your life. Without a significant, long-lasting impairment or disability, or major financial losses, you'll spend more on the suit than you get back.
Second, even if you have enough "damages" to justify a lawsuit, you'd have to convince a court that it is more likely than not that 1) the indentations were "unreasonably dangerous"-parking lots, walkways, etc. do not need to be perfectly smooth, and only unreasonably dangerous irregularities give rise to liability; and 2) that the property owner must logically have been aware of them, in order to win any case.
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