Premises Liability

Every property owner owes some duty to persons invited onto their property, whether a neighbor hosting a dinner party, a public park maintained by your city, or your local grocery store. All property owners owe a duty to warn or make safe known dangerous conditions and a duty to take reasonable care of the property. However, property owners who invite patrons onto their property to confer a commercial benefit owe an additional duty to conduct reasonable inspection to discover non-obvious dangers and cure. For example, your local grocery store must conduct reasonable inspections of its aisles to discover non-obvious dangers, such as leaking water from the freezers in the frozen foods aisle, and cure the problem. Moreover, these duties are generally non-delegable- meaning that regardless of whether the property owner hires a third party to perform maintenance and repairs, the property owner is still responsible for injuries. Furthermore, property owners may even need to perform additional steps to maintain the property, such as additional lighting or security for poorly lit parking lots or skid-resistant flooring in areas known to be slick. Some injuries resulting from a property owner’s failure to maintain, warn, or inspect include sexual assaults, assaults, batteries, slip and falls, traumatic brain injuries, and wrongful death. Our firm has handled numerous cases involving persons seriously injured as a result of property owners failing to properly maintain their premises. If you have been injured in an accident involving a residential or commercial property owner, call us to see whether we can assist you.

Property owners have a non-delegable duty to use reasonable care in maintaining their premises. This means that regardless of whether the property owner hires a third party or company to perform maintenance and repairs, the property owner is still legally responsible for injuries resulting from the other company’s negligence. The duty applies to all owners of real property, including commercial and residential landlords, owners of commercial shopping centers, parking lots and garages, shopping malls, office buildings, and owners of other public spaces. What is reasonable under certain circumstances might not be reasonable under others. Depending on the type of premises and the nature of the activities performed on it, the property owner might have a duty to take extra steps to maintain the premises, such as providing extra lighting or security. They also might have a duty to make sure that trees and other obstructions are removed to avoid injuries involving visibility. Since many property owners hire property management companies or private contractors to maintain their premises, these companies may also be independently liable for injuries occurring on a premises. Our firm has handled numerous cases involving persons seriously injured as a result of property owners failing to properly maintain their premises. If you have been injured in an accident involving a residential or commercial property owner, call us to see whether we can assist you.