Injuries which were suffered on someone else’s property may mean you have the basis for a premises liability lawsuit. According to the law, you have the right to assume that you will be safe from harm while you are on someone else’s property. Common incidents for personal injury lawsuits include slipping and falling, debris falling, and even dog bite injuries.
Slip and Fall Accidents
A slip and fall accident can happen just about anywhere and anyplace. Some of the more common places for a trip and fall accident are in restaurants and grocery stores with spilled foods or liquids. Uneven surfaces, or a hole in the floor or defective or poorly maintained floors and stairs can also cause a potential hazard.
Other places like driveways, parking lots, sidewalks, banks and even hospitals are commonly found to be involved in a premises liability lawsuit settlement case. It is the responsibility of a business to have procedures and policies in place for preventing slips trips and falls in their establishment if there can be found to be a lack of care or procedure, they will be found to be liable for any injuries suffered while on their property.
Other Premises Liability Examples
Premises liability lawsuits settlements include more than just slip and fall incidents. Improper lighting can cause also cause a liability. For instance, if you are heading down a stairwell with the lights out, you may not be able to see sufficiently, and put your foot down wrong, thus falling. Both the building owner and management companies would be liable in this case. Other situations such as an inadequate amount of security, or unsafe building design or construction may contribute to an incident that causes injury to someone who is legally on the premises. While shopping in a store and something such as an item on a shelf or broken ceiling tile falls on you, causing injury, you may have a premises liability lawsuit. Anything which happens and ends up to cause some type of harm would fall under the category of a premises liability lawsuit, and the owner or the occupier of the property where you were injured may be held liable for those injuries.
Other types of premises liability lawsuits may include a very serious a dog bite attack, or something as complicated as asbestos exposure, mesothelioma, or lead paint exposure. Things such as inadequate security measures which resulted in an assault, sidewalk or road defects, falling debris or merchandise, carbon monoxide leaks, slippery or obstructed floors, or electric shock due to exposed electrical wiring can all be causes of a personal injury accident which results in an injury.
Who Is At Fault?
If you fell and were consequently injured on someone else’s property, it might to complicated to figure out who is at fault. who is to blame. You might have a personal injury lawsuit if you were injured while shopping in a store and something fell off of the shelf and resulting in an injury. Other situations such as construction sites can be very dangerous, hence; contractors wear hard hats while on the job. If you were injured by something like falling debris while just walking by a construction site? You may be able to hold the business owner or property owner liable for your injuries, but they may argue it’s the construction company that is at fault.
In these situations, a premises liability claim might involve the property owner’s or occupant’s failure to properly maintain their property in a safe condition. In addition, such a claim may involve the failure to fix a known dangerous condition on the property. This means that they either knew or should have known about the dangerous situation and the potential for causing harm.
Establishing who is liable in a particular situation can be very complex. Sometimes there are even multiple parties who are equally or partially liable. A landowner has a legal obligation to exercise reasonable care for the safety of people on their premises. That duty includes an obligation to protect against the risks of a dangerous condition existing on the premises, provided the landowner knows of, or by the exercise of reasonable care would have discovered, the dangerous condition.
If you have been injured on private property, it is imperative that you contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to help you navigate the treacherous waters of a personal injury lawsuit. Professional legal help will get you the best possible settlement.
It is advisable that if you have been injured while on someone else’s property you should seek out proper legal help. An advantage of hiring a personal injury attorney is that he or she will be there to guide you through the complicated maze of Drs. and treatment and recovering for your losses. Hiring an attorney does mean that there is an additional expense out of the settlement proceeds. However; statistics clearly show that personal injury lawyers generally settle cases for a larger amount than in cases where someone just settles themselves with the insurance company involved. Don’t risk not getting everything you are entitled to, contact a qualified premises liability lawyer immediately after your slip and fall injury accident.