St. Petersburg Premises Liability Requirements 

No one expects to slip and fall when they enter a property. It is even worse when that fall occurs as a result of the property owner’s negligence. Depending on the severity of the injuries someone sustained when they fell, they can pursue damages. However, before they can start their case, an individual must make sure that their case meets St. Petersburg premises liability requirements.

An adept premises liability lawyer will be able to look at the facts of someone’s accident and determine whether they have a case or not. If you have sustained an injury due to negligence, contact a lawyer so you can begin your case.

Qualifications for a Case

To be qualified for a premises liability case, a person needs to have a visitor of a property that is owed a duty by the land owner, or the premises owner or controller, and that duty is to keep that premises in a reasonably safe condition or to warn from any hazardous conditions. The land owner has to breach that duty by either allowing or creating a hazardous condition and that hazardous condition must have caused an injury or damages to that visitor who was on the premises.

If it is a residential property or commercial property that has an insurance policy, then the premises liability case will usually be covered by the liability insurance or the homeowner’s insurance. If the injury occurs on public property, then a person will sue a public entity for this premises liability case. At that point, they are dealing with some sovereign immunity and some statutory caps on damages.

Recovering Damages

If the person can meet the St. Petersburg premises liability requirements , a person can recover damages for past medical bills, past lost wages, future medical bills, future lost wages, future loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering in the past and future, loss of consortium with their spouse or their children and also any emotional distress that they may have suffered as a result of the injury.

If they were on the property as a public invitee, business invitee or licensee and they were using the property properly, and it was foreseeable that they would be on the property, then the damages that occurred are likely foreseeable to the owner of the property. And if they were caused by the hazardous condition that the owner failed to correct, then a person has a good premises liability case.

The severity of an injury changes the amount of damages in a case. It changes the amount of damages a person is going to request in their demand letter or their complaint, and it affects the amount of future medical bills or past medical bills that they may claim as damages. Each premises liability case is investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, whether a person herniated a disc in their back or lost a leg or has a traumatic brain injury, the attorney will complete a full investigation, preserve all the evidence, talk to all the witnesses and put together a demand package in the best way possible to make their case successful.

Approaches an Attorney Might Take

A premises liability attorney will need to know where the injury occurred, what the person slipped and fell on, tripped on or what caused this person’s injuries and how it was not their fault that this injury occurred, in order to know whether the client’s case will meet St. Petersburg premises liability requirements or not. They need to understand what the damages or injuries are that this person sustained and then they need information that can back up the claim, either pictures, video or witness statements.

The common approach that a defense attorney takes is contributory negligence. They say that the plaintiff either was not looking where they were going, that the defect was opened and obvious and should have been seen, that everyone else walked around the hole, that the injured party tripped over their own two feet, or that they were distracted, for instance, texting on a phone. They try to attribute some amount of comparative negligence or comparative fault onto the plaintiff so that percentage of damages can be mitigated by the percentage of fault by the plaintiff.

Working with a Premises Liability Lawyer

The owner of the property protect themselves and hire an attorney or an adjuster to help disclaim any potential liability they may have right from the outset. They will keep videos, witness statements, photographs just in case someone ever comes back to sue them for the injuries that occurred on their premises.

So, in order to be on a level playing field, an injured person needs to have someone on their side looking out for their best interests. A person can hire an attorney right away to protect their rights in the case. That lawyer will hav a thorough knowledge of St. Petersburg premises liability requirements and can use that knowledge to complete the investigation, make sure all the evidence is preserved and make sure that their case can be analyzed and synthesized in a way that can prove liability and damages creating a successful claim on their behalf.