Clearwater Premises Liability Claim Requirements
There are three requirements for cases to be considered a premises liability: 1) an injury occured, 2) a dangerous condition caused the injury, and 3) an obligation on the person controlling the premises to have either known about the condition, repaired it, or somehow warned people about its existence. A Clearwater premises liability lawyer can help you determine if your case qualifies as premises liability.
Important Information for the Attorney
The standard requirements of examination vary depending on the type of premises liability the case is. However, for the most part, the attorney, and eventually the court, will be asking three questions:
- Is the injury caused by a defect in the property?
- Is the injury foreseeable?
- Is the cause of the injury something that the person controlling the property knew, or should have known, existed and had taken reasonable steps to correct it?
The attorney will need to know how the injury occurred, where it occurred, and at what time. Additionally, the lawyer will want to know what shoes people were wearing if it is a slip-and-fall case. Additionally, the lawyer will likely want to know the purpose of the visit, if there was any signage, the type or lack of lighting, weather conditions, and if there was anything else that would have distracted the individual from recognizing the dangerous condition.
Property Types
Depending on the type of property, it will dictate what the level of care that a premises owner has to afford those people around a person. A person’s home is a residential responsibility and type of case. A person’s business requires a commercial level of care. There are also industrial applications, such as factories, foundries, and things like that. Finally, public lands which care is governed by a completely different statute.
Damages
A person who is injured in a premises liability action has the right to collect pain and suffering, lost wages, lost ability to earn, and, potentially, their loved ones may have the right to collect consortium, which is the loss of services or affection of a particularly injured person.
A wrongful injury or death in a case will dictate how an attorney is going to be able to help a particular client or that client’s family based on the circumstances surrounding the loss and the specific details of the particular individual that was injured.
Risks of Handling A Case Alone
Unless a person is very well versed in the statute that controls premises liability cases in Florida, a person is most likely apt to miss deadlines and lose valuable information.
In addition, people that are not lawyers sometimes do not recognize the nuances of contractual obligations between owners and the people that run the property. When filing a suit, it is very important to make a claim against the correct party, whoever’s responsible and sometimes, that is not easily ascertainable.
Having a local lawyer is always good because an individual has a person that has local knowledge, understands what the places are, may be aware of other injuries that have occurred in the same place, and have an ability to investigate locally.