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Home Depot

Home Depot Claimshomedepot

Home Depot is a huge “big-box” chain of over 2,000 stores that sell home improvement and construction materials. Almost all of us have been in a Home Depot or Lowe’s. It is a great store when it comes to price and selection for home improvement. The typical store is filled with activity. Not surprisingly, this company faces more than its fair share of lawsuits by customers injured because of the negligence of the business and its employees.

Customers can never be 100% safe in any store. But retailers have an obligation to maintain its premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn consumers of any potential dangers or hazards.

Home Depot is the defendant in a lot of premises liability lawsuits. Is this because it is a bad company? We don’t think so. But the very nature of these big box stores is that there are a lot of employees with little experience making significant safety decisions. Most make the right decisions. But many don’t.

We recently represented a doctor in Maryland who suffered an injury at a Home Depot that damaged his career as a physician. He received a successful settlement in his case. Our take on this company is while they are certainly not going to pay on frivolous claims; it will pay reasonable value on legitimate claims that are properly presented to them if it suggests a lawsuit may be imminent if the case is not settled.

Types of Claims Against Home Depot

Here are some examples of the types of civil actions that have been filed against Home Depot:

  • Slip and falls
  • Excessive force from security
  • Negligent security
  • Defective Products
    • Defective Husky/Tri-Cam ladders
    • Defective Gorilla/Tri-Cam ladders
    • Defective O-Cedar brand push broom sold at Home Depot
    • One World Technologies/Ryobi Technologies/Ridgid table saws

Getting a Lawyer to Fight Home Depot

Here is a summary of some Home Depot verdicts and settlements around the country. Please keep in mind this is not a representative sampling or necessarily a good indication as to the value of your or your client’s case, even if you have similar facts.

  • 2017: $4,527,799 Verdict in Oregon. Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against Tricam and Home Depot. The suit alleged the rivets on a Husky brand stepladder bought at Home Depot failed without warning. The jury found Tricam/Home Depot 70% responsible for the harm that was caused. The verdict was later reduced by the trial judge to $1.9 million. Apparently, the trial judge believed the plaintiff’s lawyer did not put on sufficient evidence of the man’s future lost wages given his prior unrelated injuries.
  • 2017: $101,000 Settlement in California. A little girl had permanent scarring after a display cabinet fell down on top of her when she opened the cabinet doors. The case settled with $100,000 going to the girl and $1,000 going to the father for his emotional distress/bystander claim.
  • 2013: $624,472.45 Verdict in California. Plaintiff, a 27-year-old correctional officer, is at a California Home Depo when a palm tree for sale fell and struck her left shoulder and upper back area. She files suit alleging that Defendant failed to maintain properly the area resulting in a dangerous condition. After a year and a half of conservative therapy, surgery was recommended. Plaintiff elected to continue the conservative treatment and not undergo surgery, therefore, requiring future medical expenses. Defendant claimed that the tree merely glanced Plaintiff, and she did not fall or lose her balance. They further argued the Plaintiff’s claim that she was no longer able to work as a correctional officer. Plaintiff asked for $1.1 million including compensation for future wage loss and loss of household services. The jury awarded $624,472 – broken down to include $100,000 in future medical costs and $100,000 in future lost earning capacity.
  • 2012: $425,000 Settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. Plaintiff is a welder going down a ladder while on the job. While going down the ladder, one of the ladder’s top rungs detached from the side rails. Plaintiff suffers head, back, and most notably, a rotator cuff shoulder injury that requires two surgeries. He sued the ladder’s manufacturer, Tricam, and HD where the ladder was purchased.
  • 2012: $809,241 Verdict in Tennessee. A Ford F-150 pickup driven by an HD pickup driver came across the center line and hit the 43-year-old Plaintiff head-on. Plaintiff’s neurosurgeon diagnoses a degenerative condition at C5-6 that was aggravated by the truck accident, necessitating a fusion surgery. Plaintiff incurs $ 36,241 in medical bills. Home Depot’s settlement offer was $200,000. Plaintiff also rejected a $500,000-$150,000 high-low.
  • 2011: $975,000 Verdict in New Jersey. A 44-year old man is in a Home Depot parking lot and is waiting near his vehicle for a propane tank delivery. The wind dislodges a stocked cart, and it rolls down a hill, hitting the man. He has a back injury requiring a laminectomy and has a partial vertebral fracture, requiring a spinal fusion. He sues Home Depot and the owner of the cart, arguing that the owner of the car should have secured it safely, and Home Depot should have been more cautious as to how and where the carts were parked. The jury found HD 80% responsible and the cart owner 20% responsible.
  • 2011: $159,125 Verdict in New Jersey. A 57-year-old electrical contractor is walking near the entrance of an HD and falls after slipping on a patch of ice, suffering a torn quadricep requiring surgery. The defense claims the area was inspected two hours before plaintiff’s fall and that even if the ice did form, the store did not have sufficient notice of the condition, and not under a duty to correct it.

Keep in mind these are all plaintiffs’ verdicts. Home Depot wins the vast majority of cases that go to trial. Is this because they rarely harm consumers? Is it because they have the best lawyers in the world? No and no. Home Depot looks to settle cases it might lose at trial. It is trying the cases that are slam dunk winners for them.

Identity Theft Lawsuits

Home Depot has been hit with a class-action lawsuit after a stunning data breach that has left credit card information for millions of customers.

The case, filed in federal court in Illinois, alleges that Home Depot failed to protect its customers’ private data.

This is an important lawsuit. Our firm is not involved in these cases.

Can you sue Home Depot?

If you are a customer who has been injured a Home Depot, you can sue the company if they do not offer you a satisfactory settlement. If you are a Home Depot employee, you can sue the company for such things as sexual harassment. But if you were injured on the job, you likely remedy in most cases is a workers’ compensation claim.

Will Home Depot make a reasonable settlement offer to settle my home case?

Unlike Walmart, Home Depot will often make a reasonable setlement offer if they fear litigation. The driving force behind the settlment value of a Home Depot claim is the type and severity of the injuries and how easy it will be for the victim to prove the company was negligent.

Who do you sue when you sue Home Depot?

When bringing a negligent claim against Home Depot, you sue the company and the employees who negligently caused your injuries. To sue Home Depot, you have to sent the lawsuit to the company’s resident agent. In Maryland, you bring send the summons and complaint to the resident agent:

HOME DEPOT U.S.A., INC.
2455 PACES FERRY RD SE
ATLANTA GA 30339-4024:

Serve: CSC-Lawyers
Incorporating Service Company
7 St. Paul Street, Suite 820
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Getting a Lawyer to Fight Home Depot

Our law firm is handling Home Depot physical injury cases. We handle only very serious injury and wrongful death cases. If you have been injured as the result of the negligence of this company or by one of its products, call 800-553-8083 to speak to a lawyer or get a free Internet consultation.

  • Sample Lawsuit Against Home Depot
  • Overview of Premises Liability Claims
  • Sample Slip and Fall Complaint
  • Similar Defendant: Wal-Mart
  • Real Information on the Value Your Home Depot Case?
  • Home Depot was sued in 2018 for allegedly bungling its employees’ retirement fund
  • Home Depot was sued because the lumber the company sold as 4×4 inches was actually 3-1/2 by 3-1/2. The federal judge overseeing the case correctly dismissed the claim because it was ridiculous.
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They quite literally worked as hard as if not harder than the doctors to save our lives. Terry Waldron
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Ron helped me find a clear path that ended with my foot healing and a settlement that was much more than I hope for. Aaron Johnson
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Hopefully I won't need it again but if I do, I have definitely found my lawyer for life and I would definitely recommend this office to anyone! Bridget Stevens
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The last case I referred to them settled for $1.2 million. John Selinger
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I am so grateful that I was lucky to pick Miller & Zois. Maggie Lauer
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The entire team from the intake Samantha to the lawyer himself (Ron Miller) has been really approachable. Suzette Allen
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The case settled and I got a lot more money than I expected. Ron even fought to reduce how much I owed in medical bills so I could get an even larger settlement. Nchedo Idahosa
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