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Can you sue someone if you fall victim to an injury on their property? It depends on several factors, including the circumstances of the accident that resulted in your injury, whether you had permission to be on the property, and whether the property owner had reason to know that a hazard existed that could cause guests to become injured.
Premises liability is an area of personal injury law that deals with injuries resulting from a property owner’s negligence. Property owners or possessors have a legal responsibility to ensure that their property is free from hazards that can cause injuries to guests.
This responsibility is two-fold, in that the property owner or possessor must:
To seek compensation for your injury through the personal injury claims process, you must show that a hazard existed. Beyond that, you must prove that the property owner knew or had reason to know about the hazard, that they were negligent in mitigating the hazard, and the hazard resulted in your injury.
Several different types of accidents can take place on a private, commercial, or public property and give rise to a premises liability lawsuit, including:
The reasonable actions that a property owner takes to prevent guests from being injured on their property is known as a duty of care. However, the amount of care a property owner or possessor must give depends on several factors, including the type of guest that has suffered the injury.
Generally, a property owner or possessor does not owe any duty of care to trespassers-those on the property without the owner’s knowledge or permission.
However, three other types of guests fall under the duty of care.
If you have experienced an injury due to a hazardous property condition, you can seek compensation through the premises liability claims process. This process generally begins when you seek the assistance of an attorney who can evaluate the details of your claim and help you determine the source of liability and the associated insurance policies that can compensate you. Next, your attorney will likely submit your claim as a demand to the at-fault party’s insurance provider.
Upon receiving the demand from your attorney, the at-fault party’s insurance provider will generally assign a claims adjuster to the claim. The adjuster is someone who works for the insurance company and evaluates the claim on their behalf to determine how much compensation (if any) they need to pay the claimant.
The insurance adjuster does not work for you and their interests are not yours. Their job is to find ways to reduce or eliminate claims.
Once the adjuster has had the opportunity to analyze the claim, they can either pay the demand in full, deny the claim and provide you with a reason for the denial, or offer a settlement. Do not be surprised if the settlement offer for your premises liability claim is far below the claim’s established value. Your attorney can negotiate with the adjuster to get them to increase their offer.
If the insurance company fails to pay your claim in full or offer fair compensation, your attorney can file your claim in civil court and let the court (either a judge or jury) hear the details of the claim and decide.
For a successful claim outcome, you must prove:
In addition to showing that the hazardous property caused your injury, you must document the financial and psychological impacts you suffered or will likely suffer due to your injury.
Individuals injured by an unsafe property condition at a residence, commercial business, or even a public property can seek economic and non-economic damages.
Commonly claimed expenses in premises liability cases include:
While the state where you live may have established a process to seek compensation after an accident resulting from someone else’s negligence, it doesn’t make these cases easy. The insurance company will often use several defenses to avoid a large payout on this type of claim.
Some of the common defenses to premises liability claims include:
A premises liability lawyer brings experience and familiarity with the law to your claim. They understand the evidence needed to show that the property hazard existed and that the at-fault party knew or should have known about it.
Additionally, an experienced premises liability lawyer understands the tactics and defenses that insurance companies commonly use to avoid paying out on this type of claim, and how to work with adjusters to garner a fair settlement offer.
Finally, the attorney can tell you the value of your case and what constitutes fair compensation so that you can make the important decisions about your claim.
If you need more information about your case, contact a premises liability lawyer near you.
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