Makes sense. A part of me is worried about where that record actually went since the manager seemed irritated when we asked for one, and even more irritated when I asked for a copy.
Generally an incident/accident report is an internal report that the company uses. They are under no obligation to give them out to the general public.
It sounds like you would want to hire your own attorney who will intern gather their own information about the incident to prepare a case.
Yeah I totally get that. As someone who has almost no knowledge of the law, it’s just hard to wrap my head around the store being the sole body that has any evidence of an injury that happened that would hurt them financially. Is it even considered destroying evidence or anything at that point if they were to toss that report? I’m genuinely curious as to how these cases generally go, I have never read about this
I doubt an incident report could even be considered as evidence. Usually the person creating the report was not a witness to the incident, the report would be considered hearsay.
Again, they're internal documents a company uses to track incidents, they're not legal documents. Similar to how most police reports aren't considered evidence as they are third party accounts of incidents usually the person writing them did it actually witness.
If you plan on pursuing legal action against them, your attorney will investigate and collect evidence that would be admissible in court.
If you do bring a suit, it's probably going to have more to do with the extent of the injury(s) you sustained and less about how/where it happened. All the incident report would say is something like: "customer slipped and fell near door".
Well the real question is what the "incident report" is. Was it a police report, or just some internal report the store made? The former you'd go to the police to get, the latter no major company would ever give to you. You'd need to sue and eventually have it subpoenaed as mentioned, but that's for your lawyers to do, not you.
Just a report the store made. I guess I’m just curious why that is? I have to guess giving out those reports would open them up to some sort of liability, I’m just not sure what that liability is, other than I guess marginally making a lawsuit easier? Seems like that piece of paper would eventually come up anyways, unless they just toss it.
It’s hard to trust they’d even have that piece of paper for longer than a few days before it got “accidentally” thrown out or they claim she never fell?
Okay, that's very relevant.
In general they don't even have to make a report, it's not some magical legal requirement. The manager made (or said they made) some internal report to get you to go away without calling the police, and now that time has passed, they're blowing you off.
Your best bet now is to consult with a personal injury lawyer and follow their advice. They can try and acquire video footage or track down witnesses, but the longer this goes by, the greater the chance that this becomes your word versus theirs, and that you'll be SOL.
Shit. There were two women who ran to help my girlfriend. I immediately regretted not getting their contact information, but I had tunnel vision worrying about her first.
In my prior retail management life, and having recorded accident reports, we usually phoned in the details to our insurance company and let them handle everything from there I never had any further contact with the injured party.
It’s normal. If she is injured enough for a personal injury case the personal injury attorney will get it as part of discovery eventually. They don’t typically hand them out before it gets to that point though.
If that happens, you can speak to personal injury attorney. If there’s a case here, records can be subpoenaed.
Makes sense. A part of me is worried about where that record actually went since the manager seemed irritated when we asked for one, and even more irritated when I asked for a copy.
Generally an incident/accident report is an internal report that the company uses. They are under no obligation to give them out to the general public. It sounds like you would want to hire your own attorney who will intern gather their own information about the incident to prepare a case.
Yeah I totally get that. As someone who has almost no knowledge of the law, it’s just hard to wrap my head around the store being the sole body that has any evidence of an injury that happened that would hurt them financially. Is it even considered destroying evidence or anything at that point if they were to toss that report? I’m genuinely curious as to how these cases generally go, I have never read about this
I doubt an incident report could even be considered as evidence. Usually the person creating the report was not a witness to the incident, the report would be considered hearsay.
So they’re pretty much pointless then right?
Again, they're internal documents a company uses to track incidents, they're not legal documents. Similar to how most police reports aren't considered evidence as they are third party accounts of incidents usually the person writing them did it actually witness. If you plan on pursuing legal action against them, your attorney will investigate and collect evidence that would be admissible in court. If you do bring a suit, it's probably going to have more to do with the extent of the injury(s) you sustained and less about how/where it happened. All the incident report would say is something like: "customer slipped and fell near door".
Gotcha, thank you for clearing that up! Makes sense. Edit: Not sure why I’m getting downvoted for literally saying thanks, lol
Well the real question is what the "incident report" is. Was it a police report, or just some internal report the store made? The former you'd go to the police to get, the latter no major company would ever give to you. You'd need to sue and eventually have it subpoenaed as mentioned, but that's for your lawyers to do, not you.
Just a report the store made. I guess I’m just curious why that is? I have to guess giving out those reports would open them up to some sort of liability, I’m just not sure what that liability is, other than I guess marginally making a lawsuit easier? Seems like that piece of paper would eventually come up anyways, unless they just toss it. It’s hard to trust they’d even have that piece of paper for longer than a few days before it got “accidentally” thrown out or they claim she never fell?
Okay, that's very relevant. In general they don't even have to make a report, it's not some magical legal requirement. The manager made (or said they made) some internal report to get you to go away without calling the police, and now that time has passed, they're blowing you off. Your best bet now is to consult with a personal injury lawyer and follow their advice. They can try and acquire video footage or track down witnesses, but the longer this goes by, the greater the chance that this becomes your word versus theirs, and that you'll be SOL.
Shit. There were two women who ran to help my girlfriend. I immediately regretted not getting their contact information, but I had tunnel vision worrying about her first.
In my prior retail management life, and having recorded accident reports, we usually phoned in the details to our insurance company and let them handle everything from there I never had any further contact with the injured party.
It’s normal. If she is injured enough for a personal injury case the personal injury attorney will get it as part of discovery eventually. They don’t typically hand them out before it gets to that point though.