Rockaway Beach Premises Liability Lawyer
Premises liability is an area of the law that attempts to ensure individuals going about their daily lives can expect a reasonable level of safety while visiting other people’s property. Whether on public or private property, the law imposes obligations on landowners to keep their premises in reasonably safe conditions.
If you have been injured on property that is not your own, you should understand that the landowner might be liable for your damages. In addition, other people who are responsible for the care and upkeep of the property could also bear potential legal liability for your losses, including managers, business owners, landlords, tenants, caretakers, landscapers, dog walkers, and maintenance companies. A Rockaway Beach premises liability lawyer could help you sort through the legal complications that might arise throughout your case, so reach out to our dedicated injury attorneys today to learn more.
Common Injuries in a Premises Liability Case
Premises liability cases typically involve injuries that occur on private or public property as a result of certain action or inaction by the property owner. Given the broad array of dangerous conditions that can exist on a property, the potential for injury is equally vast. However, certain types of accidents and injuries are common in premises liability cases, including:
- Slip and fall injuries resulting from icy/wet sidewalks
- Bite injuries resulting from animal aggression
- Head injuries or broken bones resulting from unsafe construction zones
- Burn injuries resulting from fires or unsafe chemicals
- Injuries suffered in violent attacks on the property due to broken locks, inadequate lighting, or other evidence of negligent security
In a standard premises liability case, landowners might be held responsible for these and other injuries if they had an obligation to remedy the dangerous circumstances. A premises liability lawyer in Rockaway Beach could help individuals injured by the neglect of landowners pursue compensation for their injuries.
Proving Premises Liability
To hold a landowner liable for the injuries in question and receive compensation in a premises liability case, a lawyer will have to prove that certain circumstances existed. For instance, a skilled attorney generally must show that the landowner either created the dangerous condition themselves or had notice of the condition and did not take the proper steps to remedy it. According to New York law, this notice can be “actual” or “constructive.”
Actual notice means that the landowner actually knew about the dangerous condition on their property and did nothing to fix it. Meanwhile, liability through constructive notice refers to when the landowner did not necessarily have actual notice of the situation, but the circumstances suggest that they should have known about it through routine property inspection, maintenance, and upkeep.
Timeframes for Resolving Dangerous Conditions
Landowners cannot simply ignore a dangerous condition on their property and claim that they did not have actual knowledge. However, a property owner cannot face legal responsibility for failing to repair a dangerous condition on their property that they did not actually know about or have a reason to know about. For instance, if a customer fell in a grocery store seconds after another customer spilled something, the store’s management would not likely be deemed liable because they would have had no way of knowing about or cleaning up the spill in such a short time period.
However, if the second customer fell an hour after the spill occurred, the grocery store would likely be liable because they had sufficient time to have learned about and cleaned up the spill in that hour.
Once a landowner has actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition, they must take steps to remedy the situation and leave the premises in a reasonably safe condition. Therefore, if the landowner took some steps to fix the danger in question, a premises liability case might argue that those steps were not enough to completely fix the hazard. When a landowner takes some but not all the steps they should have, a premises liability case can become riddled with complex legal questions that an experienced attorney in Rockwell Beach could help answer.
What Kind of Damages Could You Potentially Recover in a Premises Liability Claim?
New York law allows injured people to pursue recovery of financial damages after suffering injury due to a property owner or caretaker’s negligence. These damages are categorized as follows.
Economic Damages
You could seek monetary compensation to reimburse you for your actual economic expenses from your injury. You might be able to recover for your past and future medical expenses, lost wages, caregiver expenses, and renovations to your home or vehicle if necessary because of your injuries.
Non-Economic Damages
You could also seek compensation for the intangible impacts that the injuries have had on your life. You might be able to pursue a claim that includes damages for:
- Disfigurement
- Mental anguish
- Pain and suffering
- Mobility impairment
- Diminished enjoyment of life
Our compassionate and knowledgeable Rockaway Beach attorneys would work closely with you to uncover the full impact the premises liability accident has had on your life to seek a full and fair damages award or settlement.
Could You Still Pursue a Lawsuit Even if You Were a Trespasser?
Not everyone who suffers harm due to a property hazard is eligible to receive damages. To be successful in your Rockaway Beach premises liability lawsuit, you and your lawyer must be able to establish that you were legally allowed to be on the property where the accident happened. Generally, you must show that you entered the property as an invited social guest or for the purposes of doing business with the property’s owner.
If you unlawfully trespassed onto the property, the owner would not likely be responsible for any damages you suffered. However, you might have grounds to pursue a legal claim if the property owner somehow lured you onto the property for the purposes of harming you, or they knew that you regularly used their land as a cut-through and intentionally set out a boobie trap, or commanded their dogs to attack you.
Additionally, if the trespasser was a child who wandered onto the property because they were curious about some feature there, such as a swimming pool, an abandoned refrigerator, an unfenced trampoline, or other attractive nuisance, the property owner might be liable if the child was too young to fully understand the risk posed by the attractant.
A determined Rockaway attorney could carefully review the circumstances surrounding the accident to determine if you have potentially viable grounds to pursue a premises liability lawsuit.
Call a Rockaway Beach Premises Liability Attorney Today
Premises liability cases can be challenging and involve complicated issues like visitor status and what duty of care a landowner might have owed to a plaintiff. Consulting an attorney on the specifics of your case could paint a clearer picture of what you will need to prove in a lawsuit.
If you were injured on public or private property and believe the landowner might be responsible, reaching out to a Rockaway Beach premises liability lawyer could be your first step toward receiving compensation for your injuries. Call us today to schedule an initial consultation.
