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What Injuries Fall Under premises Liability?
One of the more common personal injury issues people suffer from is the frequent occurrence of premises liability. The name can be confusing, but premises liability is simple to explain: when someone is injured on someone else’s property, and the injury results from an issue that could and should have reasonably been prevented by the owner of the property, it becomes an issue of premises liability.
The injured party can sue the property owner to get compensation for the injuries and recovery they require because of the injury. According to the law, if the owner is found to be responsible for the issue that caused the injury and reasonable repairs or prevention could have prevented it, then the owner is responsible for covering the cost of the injuries and recovery.
While that sounds like a straightforward and simple process, there can be several complicated factors involved in proving that the owner is responsible for the injury. From filing the suit to finding the evidence to putting forth the best case to the court, there are many elements that the average injured person is not equipped to do effectively. That’s why your best option is to find a trusted attorney with extensive experience working on premises liability cases, like the legal team at Ruy Mireles Law Firm, PLLC.
Can Anyone Bring a Premises Liability Case?
While it is technically accurate that everyone has the right to bring a premises liability case, it’s important to remember that not everyone has the same protection afforded to them by the law regarding their injury on someone else’s property. For instance, the level of “duty of care” (the term describing the property owner’s requirement to provide safe conditions) changes on a property based on the nature of the party present.
For example, invitees and licensees. These are categories of people who have open access to the property. In the case of invitees, they have specifically been invited or encouraged to come to the property, such as customers in a store. In the case of licensees, this would be anyone who has permission from the owner to be on the property but is not there as an employee. An example of this would be a friend or visitor. In these cases, the property owner is responsible for keeping the property safe and warning them of any issues that could lead to injury.
However, the same is not true for a party who trespasses onto the owner’s property in Texas. Owners have considerably lower responsibilities to trespassers, essentially only being legally liable if they intentionally attack or harm the trespasser, or create purposely dangerous situations for them.
What Evidence Proves a Liability Case?
Because properties can be vastly different and there are numerous varieties of safety issues, there can be many ways in which evidence of a premises liability case can present itself. However, a few categories that are effective ways of clearly showing proof of the owner’s lack of duty of care tend to pop up frequently.
One of the most valuable types of evidence is a medical record. Medical records show that an injury has been sustained and treated, thus providing evidence that a premises liability issue led to an injury. Of course, medical records do not tell the whole story on their own. Additionally, it’s good to have eyewitness testimony, if available. This would be anyone on or near the property during the sustained injury who can speak to the circumstances they witnessed that led to the injury. This helps to prove that the injured party’s story is true.
Photographic or video evidence is equally as powerful as eyewitness testimony and sometimes even more effective in proving a case. Clear photographs that show the dangerous conditions of the property that led to the injury can be compelling evidence, and the same is true for video footage that captures the injury as it happened. Unlike eyewitness testimony, which can be weakened in cross-examination, video and photo evidence are mostly unimpeachable.
Official documentation is also excellent evidence. If an incident report has been created, whether by a police officer called to the scene or by human resources (if it happened on a job or work site), you’ll want to get a copy of those reports to have in your evidence. They prove that the incident occurred and that professionals have put it on the record. Maintenance and service records are another type of documentation evidence. This will show the frequency and necessity of repair for the property where you were injured. If, for example, you were injured by malfunctioning elevator doors, and maintenance and service records show that the elevator was not serviced as frequently as legally required, that is clear proof that the owner was not providing a duty of care.
Do I Need an Attorney for My Premises Liability Case?
Like most aspects of the law in Texas and the United States, the court does not require an attorney to work with you on your premises liability case. However, it’s crucial that you know the difference between a choice not being legally required and a choice being the best option you have for a successful case. In most cases like this, as we have seen from the information in this article, many intricate details are required to prove that a property owner is financially responsible for a premises liability suit.
The average person is not trained and educated in the processes and procedures for finding evidence, petitioning the court, handling the case paperwork, and ensuring that everything is submitted on time and proceeds according to schedule. Trained and experienced attorneys, however, do this for a living, and they know exactly what you need to do and when. If you’ve been through an ordeal that ended with injury because of something a property owner should have taken care of, don’t risk the possibility of not getting the compensation you deserve by trying to handle the case on your own.
The Ruy Mireles Law Firm, PLLC, legal team is here and ready to help. Call us at 956-923-4472 today so we can work with you to start building a strong case and get you the compensation results you need.
