Fast Food Restaurant Injuries Lawyer in Indiana
Slip and Falls at McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Wendy's &Other Fast Food Restaurants
Today, fast food restaurants are everywhere. And each of them has unique problems when it comes to keeping customers safe -- both outside and inside.
Most of the slip and falls or falls on liquid substances cases I've encountered against McDonald's or other fast food restaurants include other customers being careless and spilling soda pop or other drinks on the tiled floors of the restaurant. Oftentimes, employees are seen frequently mopping the area. This can lead to a lack of warning signs upon mopping for other customers or poor placement of warning cones or signs.
Contact our office at (260) 777-7777 to get started on your claim today.
Notice
The idea of "notice" comes into play in most fast food slip and fall cases. The idea is that if the store did not cause the spillage itself, then it must have adequate "notice" that the spill is there. The idea is that notice allows the business time to clean up and remedy the situation. After all, a fast food restaurant is not required to have a perfectly clean floor like a pool table -- it must only use reasonable care to protect customers from falls. This means if the fast food restaurant has an adequate amount of staff and reasonable, timely, periodic inspections, an injured party might not win compensation for an injury if he or she fell on a drink spilled by another customer or slipped on a leaf of lettuce that fell from another customer's plate.
The restaurant owner will often give inspection sheets showing timed inspections (every 10 minutes to 30 minutes) of the soda machine location and assert more frequent inspections are not reasonable for a restaurant trying to serve the public. Additionally, some restaurants will try to avoid liability by always placing a yellow caution sign near the soda machine.
The owner will argue the warning sign provides the customers on alert to watch his or her step near that area and to be careful in that area for spilled drinks and beverages. Remember, this caution warning sign is always placed in the same area --regardless of whether any spill exists or not. This defense might seem to be unethical, but it has been successful for many restaurant owners. (Convenience stores do this same thing with warning signs near entrances during snowy or rainy weather. Look next time! This warning is much easier to perform than regular mopping of the melted snow or ice brought in on the feet of other customers or changing the soaking wet mats near the door).
This defense is not valid.
Shaw Law has destroyed this defense in court numerous times by showing that "false" warning signs have the opposite effect upon customers by making them feel there is no danger due to human factors. A warning or caution sign that is present inside a restaurant or convenience store during all times leads customers to ignore the warning when the danger is real. Our attorneys have argued it is more reasonable to expect the restaurant (or store) perform timely inspections and clean up liquid on floors than trying to trick the customer.
Offering Aggressive Legal Representation
When you are injured at a restaurant by a slip and fall on melted ice or snow, or by the spilled drinks near the soda machine, or by mopping in the restrooms, call an experience lawyer like Shaw Law and Attorney Jeff JJ Shaw.
That's why it is so important to call Shaw Law anytime you are injured at a fast food restaurant. Shaw Law has years of experience in determining whether inspections and staffing were adequate in an injury situation by use of requests for production and court subpoenas to get those documents during an investigation.
Additionally, Shaw Law can take "depositions" (sworn statements outside of court in front of a court reporter) to ask questions about that restaurant's policies for inspection, cleaning, and staffing.
