This year’s Black Friday has come to pass, as we head into the last few weeks of 2012. Black Friday has always been known for hours in line waiting for doors to open across the nation at midnight to get some of the best deals of the year. So what does a Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer have to do with Black Friday?
Thousands wait in line for their moment to get their hands on a product that has been marked down to almost a ridiculous price. However, it is known that the numbers of items is limited. With so many people in line, and so many people rushing for the same deals, there’s almost always is an issue with people getting injured or even trampled on.
Who exactly is responsible for these injuries?
As expected this year, again, injuries have been reported at stores across the country because of the Black Friday madness. In Covington, Washington a couple was struck by a man in an SUV. Both were airlifted to Harborview Hospital in Seattle.
In L.A. shoppers stormed into a Urban Outfitters, breaking glass and injuring 5 people.
"Around midnight, at least 100 people had lined up for Urban Outfitters' Black Friday deals, which offered up to 50% off on some items. When the 12-foot all-glass double doors opened, the crowd pushed toward the doors and broke the left one.
Police officers were assigned to the general area but the store did not have its own security, Fine said.
An Urban Outfitters store manager declined to comment. (Good move)
The store, which, ironically, features a stylized broken glass look to either side of the doors, was closed for a few minutes as injuries were treated and glass shards were swept away."
In the law, we use words like “reasonably foreseeable”. If an actor’s conduct is such that it can be “reasonably foreseeable” that injury might occur to innocent people, then the law may prescribe a duty to act in a manner that requires more caution and more safe measures with regard to the class of persons that may be put in harms way.
What does that mean, in English?
That means that if you are a store owner, giving awesome Black Friday deals which you know people will line up for and possibly “charge” the store, then you should probably be thinking about the safety of your customers.
Think of providing security officers, or perhaps, a safer process for people to enter the store to get what they want
Shouldn’t FIRST in line be the FIRST one to get? I mean, if some Black Friday nut is going to pitch a tent and camp out for 3 days to make sure he/she is standing there when the doors open, then I say ”Go ahead dude, you earned it!”
Why does it have to be a foot race to the back of the store to get the new GI Joe with the Kung Fu Grip? Or that 42” TV for $3?
The law says if you know people are going to act like morons, and innocent people could get hurt, then you have a duty to control the morons.
If you don’t, and people get hurt, can the store owner be held responsible? In my opinion, ABSOLUTELY. No one should be injured due to others negligence. As an Injury Lawyer in Arizona, there is nothing more bothersome than someone not willing to be accountable for their actions.
