Premises Liability Claim Lawyer
If you were injured because of dangerous conditions on somebody else’s property, then you should consider pursuing a premises liability claim. Premises liability is a broad term that can include a variety of legal claims. An example is if a store owner doesn’t clean up a slippery substance on the floor, and then a customer slips and injures themselves. Most premises liability claims are for slip-and-fall incidents.
Let’s go over the elements of a premises liability claim. It’s important that your personal injury lawyer is an expert in Washington State law, and has extensive experience in helping victims like you obtain compensation. There are four things outlined in Washington State law for a case to qualify as premises liability.
1- The first is that the owner of the property knew about the dangerous condition, or didn’t discover it because they failed to properly maintain the property. They should also realize that the dangerous condition poses an unreasonable risk of harm to visitors to the property.
2- The property owner should have expected that visitors to the property would not realize the danger, or would be unable to protect themselves against it.
3- The property owner failed to exercise reasonable care to protect people from the danger.
4- Lastly, the dangerous condition was located in an area of the property that invitees could be reasonably expected to use.
To successfully win a premises liability case, your lawyer will have to prove that there was a dangerous condition on the property, that the person in control of the property was negligent, and that someone was injured because of that negligence. The most difficult elements to prove are that there was a dangerous condition and that the person in charge of the property was negligent.
There are many examples of dangerous conditions that could cause an injury. Some examples include dangerous substances such as chemicals, improperly designed/built buildings, violent activity, criminal activity, aggressive or otherwise dangerous animals, substances left on the floor, or weather-related conditions such as sleet, snow, or ice left in parking lots or on sidewalks.
When it comes to inadequate building security, property owners may have a duty to provide security. This is especially true for places where people have been injured before by violence or criminal activity. (Examples of property security could be having locked entrances for apartment buildings, and hiring security guards for parking lots and shopping malls.)
Although animals are living creatures, they can qualify as a dangerous condition. Even if a property owner has a dog that’s mostly harmless, if they know that it may have an aggressive outburst, then they need to warn visitors or put up a sign. Pet owners have a responsibility to make sure that their animal does not injure others. If an animal injures you on someone else’s property or premises, you can file for a premises liability claim.
Liability Claim Law Firm
Just because there is a dangerous condition, doesn’t necessarily mean that you can file a premises liability claim. The dangerous condition has to exist because the property owner or the person who controls the property is negligent. Examples of this are if they created it, didn’t fix it or remove it, didn’t warn visitors about it, and/or didn’t inspect the property to find it in the first place. Negligence means that a person failed to act in the way a reasonably careful person would. Property owners owe a duty of reasonable care to people who enter their property.
Another factor is that your lawyer will have to prove that the defendant either owned or controlled the property where the injury happened. In most premises liability cases, it’s usually pretty easy to prove this. The property’s occupier, owner, or manager has a legal duty to keep it in reasonably safe condition. They also have to take steps to fix or minimize possible dangers.
Premises liability claims can also happen when the property owner intentionally or recklessly causes a dangerous condition on their property. Most premises liability injury claims arise from negligence, but sometimes the property owner has done intentional wrongdoing. An example of this could be if a homeowner rigs a door to make a gun go off when someone opens it. This type of conduct can make the owner of the property liable for injuries that happen because of their misconduct.
Usually, property owners do not have to make their property safe for trespassers. Trespassers are not supposed to be on the premises, and so the owner shouldn’t have to anticipate that they will be there and encounter a potentially dangerous condition. The exception to this is if a child was injured after trespassing, which complicates things. In general, property owners are not allowed to create dangerous conditions that could injure a trespasser.
Another type of visitor to a property is an invitee, which is a person that was invited to enter the property. Usually the reason that a person is invited to enter premises is for business reasons, such as customers at a store or people visiting a professional office building. Invitees must be warned about dangerous conditions, even if they aren’t likely to come across them. In fact, in Washington, landowners might still be liable if an invitee was injured after knowing about the dangerous condition.
If you were injured on another person’s property, then you should reach out to Seattle Injury Law to find out more about potentially filing a personal injury claim. You need to have experienced attorneys by your side to gather evidence and fight for you. Seattle Injury Law knows how to navigate the complicated world of personal injury law. We will help you recover the compensation that you need to go on with your life and live it to the fullest. Reach out to us as soon as possible so that we can get started on your premises liability case. Our experts have helped many injury victims with similar situations to yours, so we know how to win your case.
