Fort Lauderdale Gas Station and Convenience Store Accident Attorney

Customers who have been hurt can turn to this Fort Lauderdale Gas Station and Convenience Store Accident Lawyer. In South Florida, gas stations and convenience stores are plentiful. They can appear to be on every corner. Nevertheless, gas stations and convenience stores can be dangerous places.

For example, slip and fall and trip & fall accidents frequently occur at gas stations and convenience stores. Customers may fall on liquids (water, soda, or juice) or objects located on the floor/ground of gas stations or convenience stores. If you fall over a liquid or object located on the floor/ground of a gas station or convenience store, you will need to prove that the gas station or convenience store had notice (i.e., knowledge) of the dangerous condition in order to pursue a case. Such notice can come in the form of actual notice (i.e., an employee either created the dangerous condition or knew about and did nothing to correct it) or constructive knowledge (i.e., the dangerous condition existed for long enough that the store should have known about it). You can prove that the dangerous condition existed for some time by using circumstantial evidence (e.g. dirt or tracks in water on the ground/floor).

If your fall was caused by a “fixture” (i.e., something permanent in the gas station or convenience store), then the question will be who owned the property where the fall occurred/where the gas station or convenience store existed. After all, if the company that owned the gas station or convenience store was only renting/leasing the property, then it can’t really be held liable for the dangerous condition as fixtures can typically only be changed by property owners (not lessees). If there was a landlord, then the landlord will typically be responsible for any injuries caused by fixtures. On the other hand, if the gas station or convenience store itself owned the property where it existed, then it will be the gas station that will be responsible.

Merchandise may also fall off of the “rack” in gas stations and convenience stores and injure customers. If you’ve been injured by a falling object, you may have a personal injury case against the gas station or convenience store.

If you’ve been harmed at a gas station or convenience store in Florida (including in Miami, West Palm Beach, Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County), call Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 to talk about your case for free. This Fort Lauderdale Gas Station and Convenience Store Accident Law Firm can help you to recover compensation for your injuries.

Once in a while, gas station or convenience store employees will themselves cause customer’s injuries. For example, employees may assault customers. Such assaults can include hitting or shooting customers. If this occurs, then the gas station or convenience store will typically be liable for the injuries caused. In this case, it will be important to see the gas station or convenience store’s insurance policy. After all, in such a case, the insurance company may try to deny coverage. This is because most insurance policies include exclusions for intentional torts. That is, if an insured/covered person under an insurance policy intentionally injures somebody, then the insurance company will typically deny coverage because it doesn’t want to reward bad behavior.

Moreover, in the case of an assault & battery on the part of one of the employees, the gas station or convenience store itself may be able to escape liability. Employers are typically “vicariously liable” for their employees’ actions under a theory of “respondeat superior.” However, typically, employers will only be liable if their employees acted in the scope of their employment (that is, if the employee’s actions were something he or she was supposed to do as part of their job). For example, if an employee commits a crime while working, the employer won’t typically be responsible for the crime. So, if a gas station or convenience store employee assaults a customer, the gas station may be able to escape liability because assault was not one of the employee’s job duties.

The exception to this is if the gas station or convenience store knew or should have known of the employee’s dangerous propensities. For example, if the employee had been arrested multiple times in the past and the gas station or convenience store knew or should have known about this at the time of hiring, then the gas station can be liable. The gas station may also be liable under a theory of “negligent retention” if it became aware of the employee’s dangerous propensities during the employment and retained the employee (i.e., didn’t fire him or her) as a result. The gas station or convenience store may also be liable for any negligent supervision of the employee.

If the crime that hurt you at a gas station or convenience store was committed by another customer or an outsider, then you may have a negligent security case against the gas station if it didn’t provide proper security for its customers – and the crime was allowed to happen as a result. This will be especially true if the crime occurred in a high crime area because, in that case, the need for security will have been even stronger. In order to prove that the gas station or convenience store was located/the crime happened in a high crime area, Mr. Quackenbush will likely get the area’s “crime grid” – which shows the history of crime in the area.

Gas station and convenience stores typically have surveillance cameras on their premises. As such, if you’ve been injured at a gas station in any way, you should attempt to get any possible footage. After all, your accident could have been captured on the videotape.

Nevertheless, if your accident was captured on surveillance videotape, you may only have a limited amount of time to retrieve the footage. This is because many surveillance tapes are on “loops.” This means that the surveillance videos “tape over themselves” every so often (e.g., 3 days, 30 days, etc.). If you don’t retrieve the surveillance video within that amount of time, it could be lost forever.

If you contact Mr. Quackenbush, he will attempt to retrieve the videotape immediately. Moreover, he will likely send a “preservation letter” to the gas station or convenience store instructing the business to preserve, hold onto and not get rid of the video. If the gas station or convenience store does dispose of the video after receiving the letter, then there can be severe consequences in Court.

Gas stations and convenience stores in Florida include:

• Amoco
• BP
• Chevron
• Circle K
• Citgo
• Exxon
• Hess
• Mobil
• RaceTrac/Raceway
• 7-Eleven
• Shell
• Speedway
• Sunoco
• Texaco
• Valero
• Wawa
• Kwik Stop.

Should you be hurt at a Broward County gas station (including those located in Coconut Creek, Cooper City, Coral Springs, Dania Beach, Davie, Deerfield Beach, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Lighthouse Point, Margate, Miramar, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Pines, Plantation, Pompano Beach, Southwest Ranches, Sunrise, Tamarac, West Park, Weston and Wilton Manors), contact Mr. Quackenbush for a free consultation today at 954-448-7288.