Who’s to Blame When You Are Injured on Someone Else’s Property?
We have all heard crazy stories about burglars sustaining injuries during the commission of their evil doings and then turning around and filing a premises liability claim against the poor, beleaguered homeowner for not adequately maintaining their property. While a travesty of justice similar to this one has surely occurred somewhere in the world, let’s take a step away from the criminal element a take a look at when your injuries are legitimately the fault of the property owner.
Landlords, homeowners, city governments and businesses all have a legal responsibility to ensure that their properties are reasonably safe for their intended use. If you have been injured on someone else’s property and are able to prove that the injury you received was the direct result of the property owner failing to maintain reasonably safe conditions then yes, you may very well have a good case for negligence.
If you have been injured on someone else’s property it is best to contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Some common examples of injuries that are often the result of such negligence are slip and fall accidents, and burns.
Slip and Fall/Trip and Fall
The most common reason for this type of injuries is due to wet floors in businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, and office buildings. According to the National Floor Safety Institute, 85{88e349d5decac9e367401df59c8a5daea38c8be20f3485723a835d333268b5d9} of all claims for worker’s compensation are attributed to employee’s slipping on wet floors.
In order to prove negligence in a slip and fall accident, you would need to show that an employee or the owner knew about the wet spot but did nothing to clean it up, or showing that they were not even aware of the wet spot when they should have been.
Another way in which a slip and fall accident would be the fault of a property owner, let’s say a homeowner, would be if someone who lived in the home called and ordered a pizza during the wintertime when everything is covered with snow and ice. When the delivery guy heads up your front stairs he slips and falls and injures himself because you did not take reasonable care to make sure that the stairs were safe for him. Shoveling your stairs and/or walkway in this situation is considered reasonable because you knew the pizza guy was coming to your front door because you ordered the food. You could have easily foreseen and prevented the slip and fall accident.
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident for which you believe another party to be liable it is in your best interest to contact a respected Las Vegas slip and fall accident lawyer right away.
Burns
In most cases, burns are the result of either fire or extremely hot water. In most places, there are laws requiring property owners to install temperature control devices that ensure the temperature of the water does not go over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Reasonable precautions against burns would be installing devices such as smoke detectors, fire resistant linens (in the case of hotels) and easily accessible fire extinguishers.
If you have been injured on someone else’s property due to one of these items being malfunctioning or completely unavailable, then you and your Las Vegas burn injury lawyer may have a case for negligence against the hotel or other property owners.
Property owners who do not maintain their property in such a way as to prevent harm to those who use it can possibly be held liable in a court of law if a personal injury attorney can prove their negligence. These kinds of cases can often be tricky to navigate and in order to successfully win your claim, you are going to need the services of a qualified premises liability attorney with prior experience in this field.
The attorneys here at The Cottle Firm have the knowledge and the diligence to put your case together from the ground up and ensure that you are able to collect any damages you are entitled to under the law. If you would like to discuss a case that you feel you may have in a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our Las Vegas premises liability attorneys, then please reach out to us by calling 702-722-6111 today.
