What is Premise Liability?
Premise liability arises from the failure to safeguard guests, customers, workers, and children who come onto the property. Liability occurs when conditions on the property itself are unsafe or when other people on the property create a danger to guests, such as another customer becoming violent in a bar and harming a customer.
If you frequently have guests or customers on your property and don’t understand your responsibilities, a risk manager or premises liability lawyer can help you understand the risks so you can prevent problems before they occur.
What does Premise Liability include?
The most common type of premise liability cases are slip & fall accidents where a customer or guest on the property slips and falls because the flooring was uneven, torn or slippery or because a handrail wasn’t secure and failed when they attempted to use it.
Deterioration of a deck or steps due to exposure to the elements or age can cause them to fail and injure someone who has a right to be on the property. Elevators that malfunction and improper covers on subterranean areas that fail can cause serious falls that cause disabilities or death.
Injuries can also occur when something falls on someone such as merchandise that was stored on a high shelf or materials fall off a roof that is being worked on. If something like this has happened to you, a premises liability lawyer can help.
Duty of care: visitors or trespassers
Property owners and those who assume the responsibility to maintain a property in a safe manner under a lease can be liable under premises liability for damages that occur on their property. It is their responsibility to maintain it in good and safe working order.
People who come onto the property are divided into four categories and each requires different levels of care from the property owner.
Children Attracted to an Attractive Nuisance
Even if they are trespassing, if a child comes onto your property as the result of something that is called an attractive nuisance, you can be liable. If you have an attractive nuisance on your property, you have a duty to prevent children from accessing the attractive nuisance. Swimming pools, trampolines, construction sites, discarded appliances, especially refrigerators and freezers that could entrap and suffocate a child, playground equipment and anything else that might attract a child are attractive nuisances.
Invited Guests and Customers
Your highest duty of care is owed to invited guests and customers on your property. You owe people invited onto the property safe premises and you are required to warn them about any dangers that you have not been able to eliminate. When a business opens its doors to the public, they become liable to customers at the level of an invitee.
If an invitee is injured on your property, you will need a premises liability attorney to defend you. If you are an invitee who is injured, you should contact a premises liability lawyer to help you recover your damages.
Hired Workers
When you hire someone to work on your property such as a cleaning or maintenance company or an appliance repair person, your obligations are not as extensive. You are required to warn them about any dangers that exist, including dogs that bite. If they are injured, they are held to a higher standard of proof. They would have to prove that you were aware of a danger and did not warn them about its existence.
Trespassers
You do not owe adult trespassers a duty of care and won’t be liable if they were not intentionally
harmed. If you know that they are trespassing on your property and set a trap that injures them, you can be held liable. But if they are injured because of unsafe conditions on the property, you won’t be liable as long as they are adults.
How an attorney can help
A premises liability lawyer will help you sort out what type of case is involved and develop the best approach. If you’ve suffered an injury due to the dangerous conditions of someone’s property, contact an experienced Las Vegas personal injury attorney to help you with your case and protect your rights. Call Nevada Legal Group for a free consultation.
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