Slip and fall cases can be expensive to the companies being sued, but they can be even more so when the offending company is found to have tampered with crucial evidence.
A man from Douglasville, Georgia, has won a $2.3 million lawsuit against the Kroger Co. grocery chain. The plaintiff had slipped on crushed fruit in the deli area of a Kroger store and fell onto his back. As a result, his lawyer said that the man suffered a spinal injury, requiring multiple surgeries totaling $135,000 and losing his ability to work.
What especially got Kroger into hot water was their apparent destruction of crucial video evidence of the slip in question. Kroger lawyers claimed that tapes are only saved for 17 days and the tapes from that day had been erased. They also provided sample images to prove that the camera did not even point in the direction of the fall.
However, a demonstration of the cameras proved that the camera was actually centered on the spot where the fall took place. The judge found that Kroger had destroyed the critical video evidence, and a jury came back with the $2.3 million verdict.
As a personal injury lawyer in Riverside, I’ve dealt with a number of slip-and-fall cases. Being able to provide the proper evidence is all-important in such cases. If you’re ever involved in an unfortunate accident, keep track of everything that happens, and a Riverside personal injury lawyer like myself will hopefully be able to help.
