Premises liability law is a subset of personal injury law, and it includes a wide variety of claims. Generally speaking, an injury suffered on public or private premises stemming from the property owner’s negligence is compensable based on premises liability law.
Negligence
All property owners owe a duty of care to the persons who are lawfully present on their property. Property owners must maintain their buildings in a safe condition at all times. If unsafe conditions develop, the owner must fix them promptly. Property owners must also regularly inspect and maintain their premises.
Even if the owner is not present on the property, the owner can still be held liable. The owner is responsible for properly training employees to meet these duties of care to the public. They also must provide adequate supervision of employees at all times.
Failure to meet this duty of care is negligence. Negligence opens the property owner to liability, which is financial responsibility for injuries that result specifically from the negligence.
Types of negligent incidents
There are many types of incidents that can be caused by a property owner’s negligence. These include:
- Failure to treat/remove ice after a snowstorm, causing a customer to slip and fall
- Failure to clean up a spill within a reasonable period of time inside a store, causing a customer to slip and fall
- Failure to provide adequate and appropriate security, leading to a fight in which a customer is injured
- Failing to replace a carpet with a lifted end, causing a customer to trip and fall
- Knowingly allowing a vicious dog on the owner’s premises, resulting in the dog biting a person.
A person who is injured as a result of a landlord’s negligence can recover multiple types of damages. These damages include:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Impairment of earning capacity
- Loss of enjoyment of life’s activities
- Pain and suffering.
If you are injured due to the negligence of a property owner, you should take the following steps to the best of your ability in order to document your case. These steps include:
1. Reporting the incident to the owner or owner’s employee;
2. Taking photographs and/or video of the injuries and area where the injury occured; and
3. Seeking medical attention.
Generally speaking, the more documentation you have for your case, the stronger your case will be.