Mʏᴇʀs & Cᴏᴍᴘᴀɴʏ
Client Trips Over Root In Planting Strip
We represented a very nice woman who tripped and fell while she was walking from her car to the grocery store.
I'm sure some parking lots have designated pedestrian routes. But most don't. Depending on where you park you walk through empty parking spaces, along driveways designed for cars, etc.
Our client's route took her over a planting strip. (Planting strips are often used a dividers between rows of parking spaces and double as wheel stops.)
All trip and fall cases are tough. But this one was especially challenging because she was walking somewhere she wasn’t supposed to walk. That was the centerpiece of the supermarket’s defense.
We argued that even though the planting strip wasn’t designed as a walkway (or even a pass-through between sections of the parking lot) that’s how it was used.
And the supermarket knew it was used that way by its customers because of wear patterns.
The supermarket never agreed with our position–but it recognized the risk that a jury would. This had a big impact on its decision to settle the case.
We learned quite a bit about planting strips and parking stops in this case. But what really stood out was the evidence provided by the "trail" that ran through the planting strips.
There's a dissonance between what people say they do/are supposed to do and how they really live. That's why social scientists go through people's garbage. The garbage paints a much more accurate picture than what people tell them (or post on IG).
Same thing with evidence like pathways running over planting strips or oil stains on pavement. That kind of evidence shows the true nature of human behavior.
Two claps in this case not only for getting a just result but also for figuring out the importance of the trails people leave to show actual versus theoretical behavior.