In your home, it is likely that you address potentially dangerous situations to ensure the safety of you and your loved ones. This is because your home is your responsibility, and in this way, you have control over your environment to some extent. But as soon as you leave your property and head out into the world, you are less in control.
When you visit a mall, a restaurant or a grocery store, you do not have control over the safety of the environment, but you enter the environment with a level of trust, believing that the owners of the premises are fulfilling their duty to keep the premises reasonably safe.
However, this may not be the case. If you or a loved one has become injured on a premises because of a hazard, the following is an overview of how the law might apply to your situation.
Premises negligence may have occurred
The owner of any premises has the legal duty to keep the premises reasonably safe to the public. For example, even if you are not a paying customer of a restaurant but you are legally frequenting the premises, the premises owner has a duty to prevent you from becoming injured.
Negligence could occur when a premises owner knew or should have known about a hazard, and someone became injured as a result. For example, if the bathroom of a restaurant flooded and someone slipped and injured themselves because nothing was done to make the area safe, this is an example of negligence occurring on a premises.
What should I do if I believe that I have a premises liability claim?
If you believe that your injury on a premises occurred because of the premises owner’s negligence, you should try to gather as much evidence as you can in the form of doctors’ reports and photos of your injury.
Make sure that you take action to gain back damages after an injury on a premises.