Philadelphia Premises Liability Lawyer
Every landowner has a duty to keep visitors on their land safe from harm. This involves maintaining their property in a way that prevents accidental injuries from slips and falls. However, a property owner’s obligations go far beyond this bare minimum.
Injuries may result from inherent defects in the land that contribute to many types of injuries. Something as simple as insufficient lighting may cause a person to suffer an injury or embolden an attacker. If you can point to a landowner who fails to provide safe surroundings that contributed to an injury, you may have the right to compensation. A Philadelphia premises liability lawyer may be able to help you to collect payments to cover your losses. A well-versed attorney could help you collect compensation for medical bills, lost earnings, and mental anguish. En Español.
Demonstrating a Right to Enter
All plaintiffs in premises liability cases should be able to demonstrate that they had a right to be on the land at the time of the injury. Usually, this means that a plaintiff had an express or implied invitation to enter the land. An express invitation may include receiving a text message to visit a neighbor’s house of a party. Implied invitations apply when a business holds itself open to the public during normal hours.
All property owners have an obligation to keep their land reasonably safe. This includes obligations to remove any hazards that may arise on a temporary basis and work towards general maintenance that may render the land generally unsafe. A Philadelphia premises liability lawyer could help evaluate a visitor’s rights and examine steps taken by a landowner to provide protection.
Examples of Premises Liability Claims
A common example of a premises liability case is a slip and fall claim. Since landowners have a duty to protect their visitors from foreseeable harm, a failure to notice and fix temporary slippery patches of ice or water may indicate liability. However, the obligations of landowners stretch far beyond this limited example.
Other prominent examples of personal injuries that may result from property owner negligence include:
- Failure to provide adequate security in the forms of lock or personnel
- Failure to provide adequate emergency exists during disasters such as fires
- Failure to fix reported dangers in apartments or common areas for tenants
Philadelphia’s courts use a modified contributory negligence theory of the law in accident cases. According to PA Gen. Stat. §7102, plaintiffs who are more than half to blame for an incident cannot recover any compensation. If a plaintiff carries less than half the blame, a jury must reduce their award by the percentage of blame that they carry. A Philadelphia premises liability lawyer could help to press a plaintiff’s claim for damages and rebut any assertion by a defendant that a plaintiff contributed to their own injuries.
Reach out to a Philadelphia Premises Liability Attorney
If you have suffered an injury while visiting another person’s property, you may have the right to compensation. However, this may only apply if a landowner failed to take appropriate action to provide protection and if you had permission to be on the land. These failures could result in slips and falls, injuries that result from structural failures, or even poor security that may embolden an attacker.
A Philadelphia premises liability lawyer could help you to pursue your claim for appropriate compensation. This may include payments for medical bills, lost earnings, and even mental anguish. The law limits the time that you have to file a claim so do not hesitate to contact an experienced attorney today.
