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Many people in Florida are at risk of being injured by hazardous conditions at a property.
At Eltringham Law Group, our Boca Raton premises liability lawyers can help you review the circumstances of your accident and assess the strength of a possible premises liability case.
How Do You Know If You Have a Premises Liability Case?
There are several things you must demonstrate to have a strong case. An injury attorney from our team may be able to help you review the facts of your situation and determine if it is worthwhile to move forward.
To have a valid premises liability case, four things must hold true.
The property owner had a duty of care
How much of a duty of care a property owner owes you depends on whether you visited the property as an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser. Typically, property owners owe the highest duty of care to invitees, followed by licensees. Rarely do property owners owe any duty of care to a trespasser.
The property owner failed to uphold that duty of care
You also have to prove that the property owner failed to maintain a safe property and in doing so, failed to uphold the duty of care.
The failure resulted in your accident
You must demonstrate how the property’s owner’s shirking of his or her duties caused you to get hurt. To prove this, you may need to rely on eyewitness statements, video surveillance footage, or similar forms of evidence.
The failure resulted in you suffering genuine harm
Finally, you have to show how the property owner’s failure to recognize or rectify a hazardous condition caused you to suffer genuine harm. You may need to furnish photographs depicting your injuries or medical records describing their extent.
If you are not sure whether your case has merit, our premises liability attorneys can help you determine if it has all the elements that are necessary to make a formal claim.
Who Is an Invitee, Licensee, or Trespasser?
When you visit someone else’s property, your presence there puts you into one of three categories: invitee, license or trespasser.
Invitees
If a property owner invites you to his or her property and you have permission to be there, you become an “invitee.” This holds true regardless of whether your permission to be there is direct or indirect in nature. If you are a friend, family member, or neighbor of the property owner, this typically places you in the “invitee” category. As an invitee, you expect the property owner to maintain a space that is safe for you to visit.
You also maintain “invitee” status if you visit a commercial business as a customer such as a mall, grocery store, restaurant, casino, or amusement park. Owners of these businesses have a duty of care to keep their properties safe and free from potential harm. They also have an obligation to inspect their properties periodically and warn you of any hazardous conditions that exist that owners have not yet fixed.
Licensees
“Licensees” fall into two distinct categories: invited and uninvited licensees. If the owner of a property invites you there for social reasons, you become an invited licensee. As an invited licensee, you have most of the same rights as an invitee, with one notable exception. There is no expectation that the property owner is going to conduct periodic inspections to ensure safety when he or she invites you to a home for social purposes.
If you are an uninvited licensee, this means you visited someone’s property for your own reason, without the property owner’s permission. For example, maybe you had to deliver a package to a particular address, or perhaps you were working as a roofer or contractor and traveling door-to-door to try to make sales. In these scenarios, the property owner still has a duty of care to keep the property safe for use, but the threshold for ensuring your safety is much lower.
Trespassers
“Trespassing” means visiting a property without permission from the property owner. In most cases, a property owner has no duty of care to a trespasser. However, there may be certain exceptions to this rule, such as if the person who trespasses and suffers an injury is a child.
Whether you were an invitee, a licensee or a trespasser when you fell and injured yourself helps determine the strength of your case and what duty the property owner had to protect you during your visit.
How Does an Attorney Help You Navigate a Premises Liability Case?
Having one of our premises liability attorneys in Boca Raton review your case helps you figure out whether you were an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser and whether you have the four primary elements that make a strong personal injury case. In addition to assessing the strength of your case, our premises liability attorneys may also help you gather medical records, video surveillance footage, and other forms of evidence you need to strengthen your claim.
Our experienced premises liability lawyers can help you figure out what types of damages might be available from a property owner. Depending on the facts of your case, you may be able to secure compensation to help cover current and future medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. You might also be able to secure damages for long-term care, emotional distress or diminished quality of life. If someone you love died after suffering an injury or fall on another’s property, you may be able to pursue compensation for wrongful death.
Common Legal Questions About Premises Liability
What is premises liability?
Premises liability is a legal principle that applies to your case if your injuries were the result of unsafe conditions or property defects. Under Florida law, the owner of a property or the party responsible for the maintenance of the property could be liable for your injuries if they were caused by a dangerous condition on the premises.
What are the most common types of premises liability?
Unfortunately the list of types of premises liability is endless, but the most common cases our personal injury attorneys have encountered include:
- slip and fall cases due to inadequate maintenance of the premises
- trip and fall cases due to inadequate maintenance of the premises
- water leaks or flooding
- defective conditions on the premises
- elevator and escalator accidents
- amusement park accidents
What do I do if I am injured on someone else's property due to the negligence of a third party?
If you have been injured on someone else’s property due to the negligence of their inadequate safety measures/property maintenance, you must immediately report it to the proper channels.
If you are in a commercial or retail store, it should be reported to the on-site manager. If it is on public property, you can call the local authorities to file a report. Document the incident and your injuries with photos of the scene and witness statements and contact information.
Seek medical attention for an evaluation and then call the personal injury attorneys at the Eltringham Law Group to help you file your claim.
How long do I have to file a premises liability claim?
In Florida, usually you have two years from the date of the incident to file a legal claim. However, it is best to immediately report the incident and seek legal consult from our attorneys to evaluate your claim. This may also differ depending on the details and location of your incident.
Reach Out to a Boca Raton Premises Liability Lawyer
If you think you have grounds for a premises liability case, our premises liability lawyers in Boca Raton may be able to help. Call us or contact us online to speak with one of our attorneys at Eltringham Law Group and discuss your options.
