Protecting Your Small Business

Without proper planning, a divorce or liability lawsuit could severely disrupt or bankrupt your business.
You have a duty to maintain your store, office building, or other place of business that is open to the public in a reasonably safe condition. This duty requires you to take the following steps:

• Regularly inspect your premises to ensure that there are no hazards to the safety of your customers or clients. This is especially important if slippery conditions are created by customers coming in from rainy or snowy weather or your floors have recently been washed or waxed.
• Post warning signs if any unusual conditions exist.
• Doors, floors, aisles, steps, lighting, and displays of merchandise should be properly maintained.
• Entrances and exits should be properly lighted.

If you fail to meet your duties, a customer who suffers an injury on your business premises may have a right to sue your business if it can be proven that

• an unsafe condition existed on your premises;
• the customer's injury was caused by the unsafe condition; or
• You knew of the unsafe condition, or the condition had existed for so long that you should have discovered it during the course of regular inspections.

The applicable law will depend on the particular state and the particular facts involved. For example, a woman who was shopping in a New Jersey produce market slipped and fell on a vegetable leaf on the floor. The court determined that the leaf was a hazard to customers and that the fall was caused by the vegetable leaf. However, the market was not liable because there was no proof that the management knew the leaf was there or that the leaf had been on the floor so long that the management should have discovered it. However, a Pennsylvania storekeeper was found liable when a customer slipped on an oily substance on a staircase because the substance had been on the staircase for two hours before the accident.

Additional Information
Personal Injury Legal Survival