Premise Liability

Property owners have a legal obligation to ensure their premises are reasonably safe for visitors and to address any potential hazards that may arise. However, property owners are not liable for all injuries that occur on their property. For example, if you are trespassing on the property, the property owner may not be liable if you are injured. To pursue a premise liability case, the injuries must have been sustained in an accident, and the cause of the accident must have been an unaddressed hazardous condition on the property. An unaddressed hazardous condition can be shown if the property owner had prior notice of the condition or if the property owner took too long to address or remedy the condition. In other words, if someone were to drop a container of liquid in front of the victim, causing them to slip minutes later, the property owner may not be liable: it is not reasonable that they would be aware of the spill immediately. However, if the spill occurred sometime earlier and no steps have been taken to clean it or warn of its presence, the property owner may be liable for injuries it causes.