Divorce Law and You

People often joke about suing the grocery store after they slip and fall on a wet floor. But this joke is only funny until it happens to you. When you're sitting in the grocery store with a broken bone or another serious injury, you realize just how much you really do deserve to be compensated for your injuries. While you may indeed have a good case against the grocery store, collecting evidence to support your case is up to you. So when you find yourself the victim of a slip-and-fall at a grocery store, make sure you follow these tips.

Report the accident immediately.

If the grocery store has no record of the accident, it will be all too easy for their lawyers to claim that your injuries were sustained elsewhere. So once you fall, make sure you alert someone at the store and that they take down a written report. If you're in too much pain to get up right away, flag down the nearest customer and ask them to find an employee and bring them to you.

Get the names of any witnesses.

Did someone watch you slide to the floor? Did another customer turn around in surprise to the sound of your body hitting the floor? If you can help it, don't let these people leave until you get their contact information. Their names and phone numbers should suffice. If your case does go to court, having eye witnesses who can say that they saw you fall and who can attest to the conditions of the floor at the time of your fall can be very helpful.

Make note of the conditions surrounding the wet floor.

In order to win your case, you and your lawyer--someone from a place like Trump & Trump--will ultimately need to prove that the grocery store acted negligently, and that the negligent act led to your fall. A slippery floor in and of itself does not always equal negligence. For example, if the store put up a wet floor sign and an employee was on their way to mop up the spill when you fell, the judge may feel that the store was doing everything that they could have done about the spill -- or in other words, they were not being negligent and so the fall was essentially your fault.

The conditions around the place where you fell will go a long way towards proving negligence. Write down whether you saw a wet floor sign, whether or not it was placed in a very visible location, if it was easy to read, how large the puddle was, and whether you saw any employees attempting to clean up the mess.

Seek medical attention immediately.

If you slip and fall but only bruise your leg a little or scrape up your arm, there's really not much to compensate you for, so you really don't have a case. In order to file a personal injury lawsuit, which is what a slip-and-fall case, is, you need to have actually been injured. So, if you have reason to believe that you're hurt, head to the doctor right away after having fallen.

Your doctor will not only make sure any injuries are treated properly, but visiting also establishes a record of your injuries. Showing medical reports that confirm you did, indeed, suffer a concussion, sprain, or other injury from the fall will be central to your case. Make sure you save all of your receipts for anything medical -- including over-the-counter drugs -- so you can seek compensation in your lawsuit.

In addition to completing these steps, make sure you contact a personal injury lawyer. They will help you gather the evidence you need and form a case to seek compensation from the grocery store.