Falls are consistently the leading cause of injury-producing accidents. They account for more than 1 million injuries each year in the United States.
What is the cause of so many of these falls? In a great majority of cases…. Dangerous & Hazardous conditions.
Dangerous conditions such as torn carpeting…. changes in flooring, poor lighting, narrow stairs, or a wet floor can cause someone to slip and hurt themselves inside a building.
Other instances of slip and fall accidents can occur when people trip on broken or cracked public sidewalks… or trip and fall on stairs or escalators.
In addition, a slip and fall case might arise when someone slips or trips and falls because of rain, ice, snow or a hidden hazard, such as a pothole in the ground.
There is no precise way to determine when someone else is legally responsible for your injuries if you slip or trip.
Each case turns on whether the property owner acted carefully ……so that slipping or tripping was not likely to happen, and whether you were careless in not seeing or avoiding the condition that caused the accident.
In this Insider Exclusive, “JUSTICE IN AMERICA” Network TV Special, our news teams “Goes Behind the Headlines” in Atlanta, Georgia to visit with Lloyd Bell of the Bell Law Firm to examine how they successfully won a $2.3 million dollar verdict against Kroger in one of those “slip and fall” accidents that could have happened to anyone of us.
While the accident itself was not strange as far as slip-and-falls go….. After Craig Walters slipped in the store in 2008…. at least one Kroger employee decided to get rid of the evidence.
The spoliation of evidence is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding
So, a common everyday “slip & fall” accident morphed into “significant corporate cover-up by a major Fortune 500 company, Kroger Company, that ranks #15 on the Fortune list, and generates $122 Billion dollars a year
WHY? …. So, Kroger, this $122 Billion-dollar corporation could escape legal liability for the significant injuries caused to one of their customers, Charles Walter who today bears the scars, permanent disabilities, and nightmares of this accident.
Unfortunately for Kroger, the trial judge found that the company had “Spoliated” the evidence by destroying the tapes. He then held the company had been negligent and was liable for Walters’ injuries. A jury awarded the Walters $2.3 million.
Lloyd Bell can be contacted at The Bell Law Firm, https://www.belllawfirm.com/ and 404 249 6768