Slip and Fall at Mcdonald’s

“The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

This popular quote, attributed to the legendary author Mark Twain, can also apply to the world’s leading fast-food chain, McDonald’s. For more than 50 years, industry analysts have written off the burger behemoth as a chain that has seen better days. Whether Burger King seemed like the next best thing or Taco Bell appeared poised to ascend the throne as the most popular chain, the reports of McDonald’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, McDonald’s restaurants remain as busy as ever, even after taking a huge financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Busy McDonald’s restaurants translate into a financial windfall for investors, but it also creates a costly problem that every quick service restaurant faces. Slip and fall accidents are a common occurrence at fast-food restaurants. From wet floors in bathrooms to slick surfaces located next to beverage stations, fast-food chains like McDonald’s experience a higher-than-average number of slip and fall accidents for businesses operating in the hospitality industry. In addition to the sheer volume of customers, fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s also deal with an acute labor shortage, which makes it difficult to stay on top of monitoring the safety hazards that cause slip and fall accidents.

If you experienced a slip and fall at McDonald’s, you should take immediate action by meeting with an experienced personal injury attorney who specializes in handling cases that involve slip and fall accidents. An experienced lawyer knows how to obtain the type of persuasive evidence that helps you get an insurance claim approved, as well as file a successful civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. To file a successful personal injury lawsuit, your attorney must prove the four elements of negligence, which are duty of care, breaching a duty of care, causation, and financial losses.

Since 1988, Morgan and Morgan has represented clients that sustained injuries as the result of another party’s negligence. We have recovered more than $20 billion in monetary damages for our clients from a wide variety of personal injury cases. A substantial percentage of the compensation recovered from clients has come from winning cases involving slip and fall accidents. Our team of highly-rated personal injury lawyers has extensive experience litigating cases that concern a slip and fall at McDonald’s

Get the compensation that you deserve by scheduling a free case evaluation with one of the personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan.

What Are the Most Common Causes of Slip and Fall Accidents at McDonald’s?

To prove the four elements of negligence, the personal injury lawyer that you partner with from Morgan and Morgan must determine what caused your injuries. Although slick surfaces represent the most common cause of slip and fall accidents at McDonald’s, the location of the personal injury incidents is an important factor in determining cause and thus, negligence.

Beverage Station

Like other fast-food restaurant chains, especially burger-focused businesses, McDonald’s operates a large beverage station where customers fill and refill their beverages. Although convenience is why McDonald’s and other quick service chains offer beverage stations, convenience can quickly turn into a safety hazard. Customers often overfill beverage cups, with excess beverages spilling onto the floor. Moreover, melting ice quickly accumulates next to fast-food restaurant beverage stations as well.

McDonald’s employees are responsible for maintaining a dry floor surface around each store’s beverage station.

Bathrooms

When you walk into a public bathroom, you might see a sheet of paper sitting in a plastic storage bin attached to the bathroom door. The sheet of paper is an inspection schedule, which typically runs once an hour for restaurants. This means an employee at McDonald’s—or any quick service restaurant for that matter—is assigned the duty to check on the safety and cleanliness of the bathrooms. If an employee discovers a wet floor, the employee is supposed to place a Wet Floor sign over the click surface and then dry mop the wet area.

Play Area

Most McDonald’s include a play area for kids to burn excess energy. Although a play area is a popular amenity, it also is a popular location where both parents and children slip/trip and fall. McDonald’s assumes legal liability for maintaining safe play areas. However, failing to respond quickly to spills and objects that pose tripping threats can make the burger giant liable for causing a slip/trip and fall accident. If you or your child sustained injuries caused by an object or a wet floor, take photographs of the accident scene for your personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan to review.

How Should Our Clients Respond to a Slip and Fall Accident at McDonald’s?

The primary goal of your personal injury lawyer is to help you recover all financial losses that are associated with a slip and fall at McDonald’s. Although your attorney assumes most of the responsibility of getting you the compensation that you deserve, you can contribute as well by knowing how to respond the right way after sustaining injuries.

Seek Medical Attention

Slip and fall accidents produce a wide range of injuries, from minor cuts to significant brain trauma. If you sustained a serious injury caused by a slip and fall at McDonald’s, you must act with a sense of urgency by receiving emergency medical care. Even if you feel well enough to remain at the restaurant, you should eventually ask a healthcare provider to run a series of diagnostic tests to detect an injury that develops delayed symptoms. For example, you might not feel the effects of concussion until a few hours or a couple of days after a slip and fall at McDonald’s

Getting medical care also generates a paper trail of medical bills that demonstrates the extent of your financial losses.

Notify Management

Unlike big box retailers like Target and Walmart, McDonald’s stores are relatively small venues. The beverage stations usually are located just a few feet from where customers place their orders. However, you should not take for granted that McDonald’s employees witness all slip and fall accidents at their stores. You should inform management about your injuries, as well as describe what happened before, during, and after the slip and fall incident.

According to company policy, a McDonald’s manager must complete an incident report that is sent to the corporate office, as well as to the personal injury that you hired from Morgan and Morgan.

Partner With a Personal Injury Attorney From Morgan and Morgan

Even if McDonald’s did not commit one or more acts of negligence. which led to you sustaining an injury caused by a slip and fall incident, you should still hire an experienced lawyer to help you file a persuasive insurance claim. Insurance companies prefer to deal with claimants that do not retain legal counsel because of how easy it is to take advantage of a claimant’s lack of knowledge about the claim process.

By hiring a state-licensed personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan, you can expect to receive a fair compensation offer submitted by the insurance company representing McDonald’s 

Gather Evidence

The sooner you hire a personal injury lawyer who specializes in litigating cases involving slip and fall accidents, the sooner your attorney collects and organizes the physical evidence you need to file a convincing insurance claim and a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. You should show your lawyer the photos taken at the scene of the slip and fall accident. In addition, your attorney requests security camera footage that captured everything that happened during a slip and fall at McDonald’s.

Obtaining witness accounts provides legal support for the physical evidence collected at the scene of the slip and fall incident.

What Are the Four Elements of Proving Negligence?

The key to receiving a favorable legal judgment for a slip and fall at McDonald’s is to show the judge hearing your case that the store where you sustained your injuries committed at least one act of negligence. Proving negligence requires your lawyer to demonstrate the presence of four elements.

Duty of Care

The duty of care doctrine places legal liability on another party to protect you from getting hurt. McDonald’s owes you a duty of care to implement safety measures that prevent you from slipping and falling at their properties. Proving the first element of negligence is the easiest element to prove for a case that involves a slip and fall at McDonald’s

Breaching the Duty of Care Doctrine

Breaching the duty of care doctrine is a legal term that means the same thing as another party committing one or more acts of negligence. For cases involving slip and fall accidents, attorneys must submit overwhelming physical evidence that verifies the charge that McDonald’s breached the duty of care doctrine. For example, if you slipped and fell on a slick surface that did not have a Wet Floor sign placed over it, McDonald’s has violated the duty of care doctrine.

Causation

Causation represents the legal term that links your injuries to a slip and fall accident at McDonald’s. You can expect the legal team representing McDonald’s to argue that you sustained your injuries as a result of another type of accident. For example, let’s assume you got involved in a car accident a few weeks before the slip and fall at McDonald’s. McDonald’s legal team might claim you sustained your slip and fall injuries because of the car accident.

The personal injury lawyer you hire from Morgan and Morgan submits a written statement from your healthcare provider that confirms the slip and fall incident caused your injuries.

Financial Losses

When your attorney gets to the fourth element of proving negligence, the submission of copies of all medical bills should be more than enough evidence to demonstrate how much money you lost. Diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions can exceed $10,000, which means proving you suffered financial losses becomes a critical part of winning a favorable legal judgment that awards you compensation.

Act With a Sense of Urgency

According to state law, you have a limited amount of time to take legal action against McDonald’s. Do not hesitate to move forward with your case by scheduling a free case evaluation today with a personal injury attorney at Morgan and Morgan.