Roosevelt Field Mall Accident Lawyer

If you were injured at Roosevelt Field Mall as the result of a storeowner’s failure to keep a store safe or warn you of dangerous conditions, you are entitled to compensation. For help determining fault and filing a claim, contact a Roosevelt Field Mall accident and injury lawyer at Goldstein & Bashner today. Experienced injury attorneys are available to assist you in recovering damages and holding the negligent party responsible for their actions.

Common Types of Accidents at Roosevelt Field Mall

Accidents occurring at a retail location like Roosevelt Field Mall can range from minor bumps and bruises to serious injuries like broken bones or even death. Shopping can become particularly dangerous during the holiday season, especially on days like Black Friday when more customers visit the mall than normal. Common types of shopping-related accidents that occur at Roosevelt Field Mall include:

Slip and Falls

Slip and fall injuries in shopping malls can be the result of multiple situations. Common causes of slip and fall injuries that may warrant contact with a Roosevelt field mall injury attorney include:

• Spilled liquids on the floor, especially near food courts
• Wet entranceways from rainy or snowy weather
• Aisle or walkway obstructions
• Torn or roughly-worn carpeting
• Dimly lit areas
• Overreaching or climbing for items placed too high on shelves or racks

Elevator, escalator, and staircase accidents

In multiple story shopping malls such as Roosevelt Field Mall, traveling between floors is necessary. Poorly maintained or improperly designed elevators, escalators, and staircases can cause serious injuries to those who use them.

Head injuries caused by falling objects

Shopping malls can be hectic places. Through no fault of your own, heavy objects such as merchandise or store signage, could come loose and fall on you. Depending on the size and weight of the falling object, injuries could range from just a small bump to serious brain damage.

Injuries caused by other customers

Other shoppers and visitors at the shopping mall may steal from you or even deliberately assault you on mall premises.

Other times, other shoppers could injure you during busy shopping sales and events. Such injuries are more common during Christmas shopping events like Black Friday, where hurried shoppers may collide with or trample other mall guests. For both accidental and deliberate injuries caused by other guests, the shopping mall has a duty to provide security for a safe shopping experience. If that duty is not met, a Roosevelt field mall injury attorney should be consulted.

Parking Lot Injuries

Even outside the shopping mall, the property owner has a duty to keep the grounds reasonably safe. This means removing snow and ice from the parking area and sidewalks to avoid slips and falls in the parking lot. The property owner must also provide adequate lighting and repair any cracked pavement, potholes, or uneven sidewalks.

Liability for Injuries

In certain situations, it is possible for the individual store, Roosevelt Field Mall in general, or both to be liable for your shopping injuries. Determining who is at fault may be difficult, but largely depends on where your accident occurred. A Roosevelt Field Mall accident attorney can help you determine who is liable for your injury and assist you in recovering damages for your injury.

Injuries Inside Individual Stores in the Mall

The individual storeowners and managers at Roosevelt Field Mall owe a duty to customers in and around their stores to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.

As such, if your accident took place inside of one of the mall’s retail stores, then most likely, that individual store will be primarily liable for your injuries.

Under New York law, the tenant in possession (in this situation, the individual store) is liable unless the property owner (Roosevelt Field Mall) has a contractual obligation to keep the property maintained and in good repair.

It is more likely that each individual store at Roosevelt Field Mall is contractually responsible for maintaining its own property. As such, the individual store will have primary responsibility for your injury and the Mall will be secondarily liable.

Injuries Just Outside Individual Stores in the Mall

If your accident takes place directly in front of a store’s entrance, then either the store or the Mall will be responsible for your injury. The law also states that even when a property owner takes responsibility for area maintenance, the tenant may still be liable for a dangerous or defective condition on the premises it occupies.

For example, even it says in the lease that the owner is responsible for keeping the floors in the common areas and directly outside stores clean and dry, tenants are still responsible for ensuring the areas outside their stores are safe from hazardous conditions.

Injuries in the Common Area of the Mall

When an injury occurs in an area unrelated to a specific store, such as the dining area of a food court or park bench along a walkway, the mall itself may be liable for your damages. However, third-party contractors such as maintenance workers and cleaners could also be responsible for failure to maintain the premises under their contractual duties.

As you can see, depending on where your accident occurred and who maintains control over the premises, one or more different parties could be liable for your damages. When in doubt, talk to a Roosevelt Field Mall injury lawyer to find all liable parties.

Steps to Take Following An Accident

The first thing you need to do after an injury at Roosevelt Field Mall is report the injury. If you do not report it immediately, the store can argue that you fabricated your injuries or that they occurred elsewhere.

Next, you can begin your claim. In order to prove the retail store, Roosevelt Field Mall, or third party was at fault for your injury, you must prove that the liable party had a duty and obligation to keep the premises safe and that it failed to exercise reasonable care in the performance of that obligation.

To make your case, you will need to collect evidence, including:

• Surveillance video from the store
• Eyewitness testimony and contact information from those who saw the accident
• Medical reports detailing your injuries
• If possible, photographs of the dangerous situation that caused your injury

A Roosevelt Field Mall injury attorney can assist you with gathering this evidence, particularly the surveillance video.

Be prepared to respond to the store’s excuses. For example, the store may claim that:

• No dangerous condition existed or that the condition was so obvious that you should have reasonably been able to avoid it
• You were negligent or that you assumed the risk of injury through your actions
• It had no knowledge of the dangerous condition or that it took reasonable steps to fix the condition
• You suffered no actual damages

You may want to let an attorney handle communication with the store.

Let the Roosevelt Field Mall Injury Attorneys Help You

If you were injured at Roosevelt Field Mall due to someone else’s negligence, you are entitled to damages. Get help today valuing and proving liability and determining the value of your damages. Our Roosevelt Field Mall accident lawyers are here to help you.