Premise Liability and Slip-and-Fall Cases | William Rawlings & Associates

The world of personal injury is a wide one within the law, covering everything from vehicle accidents (some of the most common cases) to numerous other situations that might involve injury. One such situation is the slip-and-fall scenario, which can take place in a variety of locations and might be due to negligence or lack of warning by a business or property owner in some cases. At the offices of William Rawlings & Associates, we can help with all personal injury cases, including these situations. When it comes to slip-and-fall incidents, we’ve found there’s some confusion among those who use the term “premise liability” interchangeably – the two terms are very similar, but are not the same. In fact, premise liability is actually more of an umbrella term that refers to several personal injury claim types. Let’s look at the basics of premise liability, plus several examples that include slips and falls.

Basics of Premise Liability

Premise liability, as the name suggests, is related to an individual or business’s responsibility to maintain safe, reasonable conditions on their property. If they fail to do so due to negligence, and someone sustains an injury due to these conditions and/or this negligence, it’s possible that the injured party will have a personal injury case falling under the category of premise liability.

For a successful premise liability case, you have to be able to prove specifically that the owner’s negligence caused the unsafe condition that led to your injury. Just being injured on another’s property isn’t enough, nor is the fact that the property was unsafe – if either of those conditions takes place independently of the other, you have no case. You have to prove that a hazard existed, the owner was aware of it, and did not do enough to remedy it.

Premise Liability Examples – Including Slips and Falls

Some examples of broad situations that would fall under premise liability include:

Inadequate maintenance to facilities
Snow or ice accidents
Inadequate security for certain building types
Improperly maintained elevators leading to accidents
Swimming pool accidents
Dog bite incidents
Toxic chemicals
Amusement park liability issues
Slips and falls with outside liability

It’s important to note that in any premise liability case, just like with many issues of liability and personal injury, it’s possible for more than one party to have some fault in an injury or accident. This is particularly true in the cases of slips and falls, where it might indeed be true that a business or property owner was negligent – but where you also may have had liability for being in the area to begin with.

Perhaps there was no good reason for you to be there, or maybe there were warnings posted that you missed due to being distracted. Shared liability is possible in these cases, as is you simply being found fully liable if your own negligence is actually what caused the fall.

For more on separating premise liability from slips and falls, or to learn about any of our personal injury attorney services, speak to the staff at the offices of William Rawlings & Associates today.