Premises Liability Attorney
Any time you are injured on someone else’s property as a result of a dangerous condition, you should reach out to an attorney to see if the owner could be held responsible. A successful premises liability claim allows you to recover all of the money you have spent on medical care for the injury, as well as other losses like missed work income.
Proving that a property owner is liable is rarely easy, and it can involve some complex legal questions and very specific findings. When you work with an experienced Long Island premises liability lawyer at TonaLaw, you can feel confident knowing we are looking into every possible avenue to ensure you receive compensation for your injuries. We fight on behalf of our clients so that they can avoid debt and return to as normal of a life as possible.
What is Premises Liability Law?
The legal doctrine of premise liability deals with injuries caused by dangerous defects in property. This type of civil action expands upon the common-law theory of negligence. Note that for a property owner to be liable for an injury under the doctrine of premises liability, the injured party must have been on the property legally.
To recover damages after being injured by a dangerous property condition, the injured party must establish the following:
- You were legally authorized to be on the property in question, whether you were invited on the property to perform work, to shop at a store or restaurant, or any other form of invitation. Alternatively, it may also be possible to recover for unlawful presence on the property if the property owner was aware that you were on the property.
- The property owner knew or should have known about the dangerous condition and failed to take action to either fix, warn or otherwise prevent the property condition from harming other people.
- The dangerous condition on the property caused your injury, leading to medical costs and other damages.
Types of Premise Liability Accidents
There are a wide variety of ways that individuals can be injured due to an unsafe property condition, but the most common ways this occurs are through the following:
- Slip-and-falls;
- Trip-and-falls,
- Retail store and restaurant liability;
- Dangerous conditions on property;
- Foreseeable accidents to children; and
- Dog bites
These are extremely broad categories that could occur under numerous circumstances. For example, a slip-and-fall could take place from a wet floor in a store, or it could be from an icy surface on a sidewalk. A person can trip on numerous types of surfaces, such as an uneven sidewalk or a hidden step.
Attractive Nuisance
Moreover, under the legal doctrine of attractive nuisance, a property owner could be found liable for other things on their property that attract children to them. The most common of these incidents involve swimming pool accidents. If the landowner does not have proper safety precautions in place, such as a fence around the pool, then they could be liable in the event that a child wanders into the pool and becomes injured. Another common condition on a property that has the potential to harm children is a trampoline. If necessary and appropriate safety precautions are not taken, children can be seriously injured and the property owner could be liable for damages.
Constructive notice
While a case for premise liability is more straightforward if the property owner is actually aware of the dangerous defect on their property, it is still possible for them to be found liable for an accident if they should have known that the dangerous condition exists. This legal concept is known as constructive notice.
A common example of constructive notice would be if the floor in a refrigerated aisle of a supermarket is wet due to the refrigerators’ tendency to cause condensation to leak onto the floor. The management of the store might not know that there was water on the floor at a particular time, but the store could be found liable if that causes an accident if the floor was wet for a sufficiently long amount of time.
Although the store may not have had actual knowledge of the wet floor in the above scenario, the law imposes liability because the condition would have come to the store’s attention if they were doing their due diligence to maintain a safe environment. However, the application of this concept is very fact-specific, so make sure to contact an experienced attorney to discuss the important details of your case.
Damages
To succeed in a lawsuit based on premises liability, you need to establish that your injuries were a direct result of the accident.
If you become aware of an injury immediately after an accident, do not hesitate to go directly to an urgent care facility or emergency room depending on the severity of the accident. It is fairly common for injuries to become apparent in the days following an accident. If this occurs, visit a doctor as soon as possible.
Receiving medical help as-needed after an accident is extremely important. It allows you to receive treatment for your injury and to prevent any further injuries. Additionally, the medical documentation created during the visit is vital for proving that your injuries were caused by the accident itself, as opposed to a preexisting condition or an incident unrelated to the dangerous condition on the property in question.
One thing to be mindful of when injured somewhere is waivers of liability and release from liability forms. These are most often present during sports events, or at facilities where activities may involve some sort of risk, such as trampoline parks or other amusement facilities. If you sign one of these before or after participating and obtain an injury, you may not have cause to go after compensation for your damages. Even though you can never predict how the court will rule, you should contact an attorney and take every precaution to avoid being barred from bringing a claim.
Statute of Limitations
To receive compensation for your injuries arising under premise liability in New York, the lawsuit must be filed within three years of the date of the accident. Some cases allow for an extension of this deadline based on when the injury victim first discovered their condition, but this is an extremely case-specific occurrence.
In any case, do not wait until the last minute to file a claim. After the accident occurs, reach out to the experienced and trusted attorneys at Tona Law. We can assist you with going over the details of your case and determining the most appropriate legal strategy for pursuing all available forms of compensation.
If you or someone close to you has been hurt, it is vital to begin investigating your case as soon as possible. Call a premises liability attorney on Long Island to discuss your case and start working on your potential claim. TonaLaw offers free, confidential case evaluations with no obligation to continue working together afterward. Furthermore, we never charge upfront when clients arrange a contingency agreement, so there’s no risk to you when you get a lawyer to fight alongside you on your case.
Schedule your 100% free, no-risk case review today when you call 833-866-2529 (833-TONA-LAW) or contact us online.