A cart loaded with lumber tips over in a crowded aisle, or a gallon of paint rolls off a high shelf and lands on a shopper reaching for something else. Home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s stock heavy merchandise, forklifts, and busy aisles inside the same building, and when that combination fails, Pasco County shoppers can end up seriously hurt with no clear sense of who should pay for their medical bills and lost wages. Florida law gives injured shoppers a path to hold a store accountable when carelessness, not bad luck, caused the fall or the falling object that hurt them.
McPherson & Thomas, P.A. helps Pasco County shoppers who get hurt at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other retail stores throughout New Port Richey and the surrounding area pursue the compensation they may be owed. Attorneys Ian Thomas and Jack McPherson build these premises liability claims by pulling store surveillance footage, incident reports, and maintenance logs to show when a store knew about a hazard and failed to fix it.
Common Hazards Inside Home Depot and Lowe’s Stores
Home improvement stores load their shelves near the ceiling with paint cans, tile, and lumber, then send forklifts and pallet jacks through the same aisles customers use to shop. When an employee stacks a shelf incorrectly or leaves a pallet only partially secured, gravity does the rest, and a nearby customer can be struck by falling merchandise. Federal workplace safety guidance on materials handling calls for heavier loads to sit on lower shelves and for stacked items to be blocked or interlocked so they cannot slide free, precautions many injury claims show a store skipped.
Wet floors create a separate hazard. Garden centers track in water and mulch, entryways collect rain, and spilled paint or cleaning products can sit unmarked for long stretches during busy hours. A shopper who slips and falls near the register or in the flooring aisle may have a premises liability claim if the store knew about the spill and did not clean it up in time.
Florida’s Legal Standard for Store Liability
Florida treats shoppers as invitees, the highest legal status a property owner owes a duty to protect under premises liability law. Home Depot and Lowe’s must inspect their aisles regularly, clean up hazards within a reasonable time, and warn customers about dangers employees cannot immediately fix. A shopper who can show the store knew or should have known about a hazard, such as a spill that sat for an hour or a pallet that had been leaning for days, has a stronger case that the store fell short of that duty.
Florida also uses a modified contributory negligence standard in these cases, so a shopper who is partly at fault may still recover compensation as long as they are not found more at fault than the store. Injured shoppers also need to move quickly. Florida’s statute of limitations gives most personal injury victims two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit, and waiting too long can end a valid claim before it starts.
Proving the Store Failed to Keep Its Aisles Safe
Building a strong claim against a national retailer means gathering the type of evidence a store cannot easily dispute, and the following records often make the difference in these cases:
- Surveillance footage: Store cameras often capture the hazard forming and how long it sat before the accident.
- Incident reports: Employees typically fill out a report after a customer falls or gets hit, and that document can reveal what staff already knew.
- Maintenance and inspection logs: These records show whether staff followed the store’s own safety checks on the day of the accident.
- Witness statements: Other shoppers or employees nearby may confirm how long a spill or fallen item sat before someone got hurt.
Ian Thomas and Jack McPherson gather this evidence quickly, often before a store’s surveillance footage cycles out or gets deleted.
How McPherson & Thomas, P.A. Can Help After a Store Accident
A fall or a falling object at Home Depot or Lowe’s can leave you facing medical bills, missed work, and a long recovery while a national retailer’s insurance team works to pay as little as possible. McPherson & Thomas, P.A. has spent decades helping Pasco County injury victims, and Ian Thomas and Jack McPherson meet personally with every client instead of handing cases off to an intake specialist. The firm charges no fee unless it wins your case, and its 60 day guarantee lets a new client walk away with their file at no cost if they are not satisfied with the service they receive.
Every Home Depot and Lowe’s claim moves faster when evidence gets collected early, so shoppers who were hurt in a Pasco County store should reach out as soon as they are able. Contact McPherson & Thomas, P.A. today to talk about what happened and find out what steps may be available next.
