How Do You Prove Premises Liability?

How Do You Prove Premises Liability?

Premises liability law holds property owners accountable when their carelessness causes harm. But proving these cases isn’t as simple as showing you got hurt at someone else’s business, home, or other type of premises. Proving premises liability hinges on proving the owner’s legal duty to protect you, gathering compelling evidence of negligence, building an ironclad case, and convincing liable parties to pay a fair settlement or winning a court judgment.

If you think that this sounds easy, think again. While every victim of slip and falls, dog bites, workplace accidents, and other premises liability incidents deserves justice, securing fair compensation is far easier said than done. That’s why you should contact the proven premises liability attorneys at Presley and Presley Trial Lawyers today for a free, no-risk consultation about how we successfully resolve these complex cases.

Key Takeaways involving Premises Liability

• Different visitors are entitled to different protection levels: Customers and guests enjoy substantial legal safeguards, while trespassers receive minimal protection.
• The “notice” rule controls most cases: Property owners may escape liability unless they knew about dangers or should have discovered them through reasonable inspections and maintenance.
• Evidence collection must happen fast (or perhaps not at all): Security footage can get wiped, repairs may take place overnight, and witnesses might forget crucial details within days of accidents occurring.
• Insurance games may start immediately: Property insurers deploy seasoned claim fighters whose value lies in protecting the company’s financial interests—even if it means trampling on yours.
• Hire a premises liability attorney right away for the best results: Every hour of delay can make it more challenging to build a successful case, so you should not wait to complete your free consultation.

Proving Premises Liability: The Essential Elements 

Winning premises liability cases requires assembling four puzzle pieces that together paint a clear picture of property owner responsibility. The absence of any single piece can cause a case to crumble, so our premises liability attorneys are diligent in proving:

Duty of Care

Property owners have a duty of care to anyone implicitly or explicitly invited to their property. Whether it’s a customer (who assumes they can enter an open business), a delivery person (who also reasonably assumes they can be on a property), a guest invited over for dinner, or an employee or contractor asked to perform a job, property owners have a duty to eliminate hazards that might leave these parties injured.

Does a property owner have a duty of care to someone who trespasses on their property? That’s a more difficult question to answer without more information. Our lawyers would be happy to answer that question during your consultation, as we can then provide a more reliable answer based on more specific information.

Breach of Duty

Breach of duty occurs when property owners fail to meet the required standard of care. Ignoring customer complaints about broken steps, letting spills sit without cleaning them up, failing to salt icy walkways during winter storms, or allowing an aggressive animal near a visitor are all examples of breaching one’s duty of care.

The key question becomes: what would a reasonable property owner have done differently than this property owner did? Would a reasonable person have taken greater measures to protect me?

If the answer is “yes,” then the at-fault property owner likely breached their duty of care. When we prove such a breach, we generally prove the property owner’s negligence at the same time.

Causation 

Proving causation means connecting the dots between negligent conditions and your specific injuries. We might prove the direct link between the property owner’s failures and your injuries using:

• Medical records that show when your injury happened and substantiate our claims about how your injuries happened 
• Expert testimony supporting our claims about how your injuries happened 
• Direct evidence of the incident, such as video footage and witness testimony

A common defense in premises liability cases is to claim that the injuries in question pre-existed the incident. Yet, pre-existing conditions alone don’t prevent someone injured on a dangerous premises from getting a financial recovery.

Damages 

Damages refer to every way the accident has impacted your life, from the cost of medical care to the daily anguish you experience because of pain, physical limitations, and other injury-related challenges.

The list of damages in premises liability cases can be lengthy, and we pride ourselves on recovering fair compensation for all of our clients’ damages.

Some Basic Responsibilities Every Property Owner Must Honor

Property owners can’t just throw up their hands and claim ignorance when visitors get hurt on their premises. The law imposes specific, enforceable duties that property owners must honor:

• Commercial properties operate under the strictest liability standards because they invite the public in for profit. Stores, restaurants, hotels, and office buildings must actively hunt for hazards rather than simply reacting to problems after they cause injuries.
• Residential property owners don’t avoid responsibility simply because their properties aren’t businesses. Homeowners who invite guests over assume legal duties to warn about known dangers, whether a leaking hose or an aggressive dog.
• Landlords carry enhanced responsibilities toward tenants who depend on them for basic safety in their homes. From maintaining common areas such as stairwells to installing adequate security measures, removing mold, and providing sufficient lighting so tenants can avoid hazards, landlords have a duty to protect their tenants (and their tenants’ visitors).
• Government property liability involves complex immunity doctrines that often protect municipalities from lawsuits, but important exceptions exist. Cities can’t ignore dangerous conditions in parks, broken sidewalks, inadequate lighting at public facilities, or other hazards without facing potential liability.

If you or a loved one suffered an injury anywhere, it’s worth speaking with our team. A personal injury lawyer’s perspective is priceless when determining if you have a case, so let us lend our perspective to you.

Some Common Types of Premises Liability Accidents (to Give You an Idea What We’re Talking About)

Legal jargon can be confusing, so let’s provide you with a few concrete examples of incidents that might lead to a premises liability case:

• Slip and fall accidents remain the most common premises liability claims, but they extend far beyond simple wet floors. 
• Dog bites and animal attacks create some of the most traumatic injuries, often leaving victims with permanent scarring and lasting psychological trauma (in addition to posing a high risk of infection).
• Industrial accidents, which often involve multiple responsible parties and complex regulatory compliance issues. 
• Workplace injuries may allow injured workers to pursue premises liability claims against third parties beyond their employers, although workers’ compensation claims are often the path to compensation for injured employees.
• Fire-related injuries may result from building code violations, electrical system failures, or other symptoms of negligent behavior.
• Security failures arise when property owners fail to protect visitors from foreseeable criminal activity.
• Elevator and escalator accidents might result from negligent maintenance or defects, each of which can be grounds to file a lawsuit or claim.
• Amusement park accidents often spark questions about complex mechanical systems, large crowds, inherently risky activities, and property owner liability.
• Water damage and toxic exposures can include mold-related illnesses that develop when water damage isn’t addressed quickly, while chemical exposures require appropriate warning systems and adequate ventilation. 
• Swimming pool accidents such as drowning, diving injuries, chemical burns, and equipment malfunctions. 
• Snow and ice accidents resulting from a property owner’s failure to anticipate or quickly address the dangers posed by ice and snow.

When property owners don’t rise to their duty of care, much can go wrong. If you suffered an injury or lost a loved one in one of these circumstances, or in a circumstance not listed here, don’t wait to reach out to our team.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: An All-Too-Common Reason to Pursue a Premises Liability Case 

Let us take some time to address a hazard that we see far too often. Carbon monoxide poisoning represents one of the most dangerous premises liability hazards because the gas provides no warning before causing unconsciousness, brain damage, or death. Many victims of this poisoning don’t realize they have a legal case, but they often do.

Property owners bear significant responsibility for preventing these exposures through proper equipment maintenance, adequate ventilation, and functioning detection systems. There is a notable risk of carbon monoxide poisoning in:

• Hotels and motels, particularly those with faulty heating systems, blocked ventilation, improperly installed appliances, or inadequate detection equipment. 
• Rented properties where tenants have fundamental rights to safe living environments that don’t expose them to preventable health hazards—including carbon monoxide.
• Homes in which residents can be severely injured or even killed because product manufacturers, contractors, handymen, or others take actions (or fail to take actions) that expose the residents to carbon monoxide.
• Businesses such as restaurants, retail stores, warehouses, and office buildings where the use of gas appliances, inadequate ventilation, or other hazards cause guests, employees, contractors, or other victims to be poisoned.

Carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms can range from mild headaches and dizziness to permanent brain damage, memory problems, cognitive impairment, and death. About 28,000 victims die annually, and even more see their lives forever diminished due to others’ negligence.

The Price of Negligence: Recoverable Damages in Premises Liability Cases

Whether someone suffers an acute injury (like a broken bone), is poisoned by a toxic hazard, loses a loved one, or is harmed in another way due to a dangerous property, they likely have several damages. Our premises liability attorneys overlook nothing when detailing our clients’ damages, which can include:

• Medical expenses encompass all treatment costs related to accident injuries, from emergency room visits and initial surgery to ongoing rehabilitation and projected future medical care.
• Lost income and earning capacity address both income losses and long-term impacts on the victim’s professional ambitions and earning potential. 
• Pain and suffering, such as physical discomfort, emotional trauma, disfigurement, depression, anxiety, and reduced quality of life.
• Disability-related costs and challenges, such as permanent physical limitations, home modifications, specialized equipment, rehabilitation, and long-term medical care.
• Wrongful death damages, including but not limited to grief, depression, pain and suffering, funeral costs, loss of consortium, and lost financial support.

We know our clients are suffering. Our job is to find out how they’re suffering, then secure a financial recovery that reflects that suffering.

How Premises Liability Attorneys Fight for Justice

A premises liability attorney will lead your case from start to finish. The process in premises liability cases is designed for success, and you should expect your lawyer to:

• Secure and preserve all relevant evidence, such as professional photographs of accident scenes, video documentation of dangerous conditions, witness interviews, and relevant maintenance records and inspection reports.
• Leverage our expert witnesses, as you can trust our experienced attorneys to know precisely which specialists your case can benefit from, whether it’s an engineer, doctor, or some combination of experts.
• Demand fair compensation from liable parties, whether an insurance company, a property owner’s attorney, or any other party—our demands will be fair, detailed, and designed to provide you with long-term financial security.
• Be ready for court, as we never take for granted that liable parties will offer a fair settlement, so we are always prepared for trial.

Premises Liability - Frequently Asked Questions

Our firm has handled premises liability cases for many years, and some of the questions we hear most often from those injured on dangerous properties are:

Take Action Now: Protecting Your Rights After a Premises Liability Accident

You will want to hear what our attorneys have to say about your premises liability case. The legal arena is our home turf, and we go all-out in pursuit of fair compensation for our clients. We are a boutique firm offering personalized attention, and our history of securing life-changing recoveries for clients speaks for itself.

Call Presley and Presley Trial Lawyers today at (816) 931-4611 or contact us online to complete your free consultation about a premises liability attorney.