BJ’s Personal Injury Claims

BJ’s Wholesale Club has become a familiar name in Maryland, with ten locations across the state serving thousands of members every day. These warehouse-style stores offer bulk shopping at discount prices, but the same features that make them appealing to customers also create real risks. Aisles stacked high with merchandise, forklifts and pallet jacks in constant motion, and large crowds of shoppers can all lead to accidents.

When someone is hurt in a BJ’s store, the legal questions that follow are straightforward:  was the accident preventable, and could BJ’s have done more to keep its customers safe? Slip and falls, falling products, and other hazards in these big-box environments are the foundation of many premises liability lawsuits filed against warehouse chains like BJ’s.

This page examines the history of BJ’s, the common types of accidents and injuries that occur at its Maryland locations, and the legal claims that often result. We also review how settlement amounts in BJ’s accident lawsuits are determined, what factors influence case value, and what injured shoppers in Maryland can expect if they pursue a claim.

The attorneys at Miller & Zois have extensive experience in premises liability lawsuits. If you or a loved one has been injured due to BJ’s negligence, call us at 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.

BJ’s

BJ’s Wholesale Club is a membership-based warehouse chain where customers buy products in bulk at lower prices. Like other warehouse-style stores, shoppers must join before they can shop. Maryland currently has ten BJ’s locations, including stores in Baltimore, Capitol Heights, Pasadena, Westminster, Owings Mills, Columbia, Lexington Park, Bowie, Bel Air, and Waldorf.

The company began in 1984 and was named after one of the founders’ daughters, Beverly Jean. Since then, BJ’s has grown into a major retail player with more than 200 stores in 15 states and roughly 25,000 employees.

These stores are busy, high-traffic environments with large amounts of merchandise, heavy equipment, and employees working under pressure. That combination can create hazards. Slip and falls, falling merchandise, and other preventable accidents are common sources of personal injury claims against BJ’s. While the company is not intentionally unsafe, the nature of warehouse shopping means that accidents are more likely to occur when safety measures are not properly followed.

Accidents at BJ’s

BJ’s warehouses are busy, crowded spaces. Almost everyone reading this is familiar with the insanity at these stores.  Shoppers move quickly through large aisles while employees stock shelves, operate forklifts, and build displays that sometimes stretch dangerously high. The environment is built for efficiency and bulk sales, which is why we are all there, but that efficiency often comes at the expense of safety.

These are not small corner stores. They are massive operations with constant activity and tight margins that can lead to shortcuts in training or maintenance. Over the years, certain patterns show up again and again in injury cases:

• Overcrowded aisles: Customers struggle to avoid hazards when carts, pallets, and spilled items block their paths.

• Falling merchandise: Pallets and shelves stacked high above eye level can shift and topple, injuring shoppers below.

• Heavy equipment use: Forklifts, pallet jacks, and motorized carts move through areas where customers are walking. Even a small mistake can have major consequences.

• Unprepared employees: Turnover is high, and many staff members lack the training needed to handle dangerous situations or prevent them in the first place.

• Unsafe exterior conditions: Parking lots and sidewalks with cracks, uneven pavement, or poor drainage lead to serious trip-and-fall claims.

Every one of these situations is preventable if the store makes safety a priority. The law requires BJ’s to keep its premises reasonably safe, which means more than just reacting to accidents after they happen. When customers are injured because hazards were ignored or handled poorly, the company can be held responsible through a premises liability lawsuit.

Slip and Fall Lawsuits at BJ’s

Slip and fall accidents are the most common type of calls our lawyers get from victims against BJ’s. These cases usually come down to simple but preventable hazards: a spill that was not cleaned up, water tracked in from the entrance without mats, or a leak from refrigeration equipment. Shoppers expect a warehouse to be busy and crowded, but they also expect the floors to be safe.

BJ’s has a duty to identify these hazards and either fix them promptly or warn customers. When that does not happen, people are injured. We have seen claims where a wet floor caused a back injury that required surgery, where leaking pipes left dangerous puddles that management ignored, and where employees failed to put up basic warning cones. These are not unusual events in a warehouse club setting, but they are the kinds of lapses that make BJ’s legally responsible.

Common slip and fall hazards in BJ’s stores include:

• Spilled liquids in aisles without immediate cleanup

• Wet or icy entrances with no mats or warning signs

• Leaking freezers or pipes that create hidden puddles

• Improper cleaning methods that leave surfaces slick

Every slip and fall case is fact specific, but the pattern is familiar. The store is put on notice, fails to act in time, and the customer pays the price with injuries that can last for years. That is why these lawsuits matter. They hold BJ’s accountable for problems that are entirely preventable with reasonable safety practices.

Lawsuits Against BJ’s

BJ’s is a large corporation, and that reality shapes how these cases are fought. The company has insurance carriers, defense lawyers, and procedures designed to limit payouts. When a customer gets hurt in one of their stores, BJ’s rarely concedes responsibility. Even clear hazards like wet floors, broken pavement, or falling merchandise are often met with arguments that the danger was obvious, that the customer was at fault, or that the injuries were unrelated.

To succeed in a case against BJ’s, an injured customer must show:

• The accident happened on BJ’s property.

• The injury was caused by a dangerous condition that BJ’s created or failed to fix in time.

• BJ’s negligence directly led to the harm.

These cases turn on proof. Did employees know about the spill? How long was the broken curb in the parking lot left unrepaired? Was safety training ignored? BJ’s will not answer those questions for you without a fight, which is why going up against them usually requires experienced legal help.

Contributory Negligence in Maryland BJ’s Cases

One obstacle that comes up in Maryland premises liability cases is the contributory negligence rule.  This rule kills cases that would otherwise have real value in other jurisdictions.

Maryland is one of the few states that still follows this strict doctrine. If a jury finds that an injured shopper was even one percent at fault for the accident, they cannot recover any damages. BJ’s lawyers know this and will argue that a customer should have watched where they were walking, noticed a warning sign, or avoided an obvious hazard. These defenses can be powerful, but they do not apply in every case.

The law still holds BJ’s fully responsible when the danger was hidden, when employees ignored problems, or when the customer had no reasonable way to avoid the hazard. This is why it is so important for lawyers suing BJ’s to build a case that clearly shows the store’s negligence was the true cause of the injury.

Hiring a Maryland Lawyer for Your Claim

The attorneys at Miller & Zois have extensive experience in premises liability cases. If you have been seriously injured due to a mistake made by BJ’s,  call us at 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.