Property owners or managers owe a duty of care to those they invite into their premises. They are responsible for ensuring that their property is safe, which is why they must routinely carry out maintenance tasks and standard safety measures. When a property owner fails to carry out these precautions, it can lead to accidents, resulting in serious personal injury to their invitees.
Due to unsafe conditions, if you get hurt while on a person’s property in Florida, you should not have to pay for treatment, as you have the legal right to receive fair compensation for your injuries. Premises liability cases can help you prove negligence and entitle you to financial damages.
Diamond & Diamond Lawyers in Miami can provide you with an experienced premises liability attorney to spearhead your efforts. We can help you through the litigation process and recover financial losses due to medical expenses, lost current and future earnings, physical pain, and mental anguish. Our commitment is to hold the property owner accountable for their negligence.
Testimonials
What Our Clients Say
“Diamond & Diamond will help you by understanding the circumstances of your accident. Their lawyers will put up a good case so that a settlement is reached according to what you deem sufficient recompense for your losses and then some. I was very impressed by my lawyer’s experience as well as that of his staff. I recommend Diamond & Diamond to you and hope that you will choose their lawyers to help you.”
– Christopher S
“I would like to thank all the staff at Diamond and Diamond for their tenacity with the handling of my father’s slip and fall case. We got a fair compensation cheque that brought my father’s life back on track. They treated us like a family and really meant it. Our gratitude is inexpressible in words.”
– iperfection
Why Look to Diamond & Diamond Lawyers for a Premises Liability Attorney?
Diamond & Diamond Lawyers has a history of success in personal injury cases, obtaining millions of dollars in damages for thousands of clients. Our commitment for each practice area, including premises liability, is to do everything possible to acquire the maximum compensation for each client.
Each premises liability lawyer on our team has years of experience and believes accident victims should have easy access to quality representation. We have law offices in more than 30 convenient locations throughout North America.
Money shouldn’t be an issue, as we offer free consultations. Moreover, if we take on your premises liability claim, we work on a contingency fee basis. This means that you will not have to pay for our legal services unless we are able to secure a monetary award for you.
What is premises liability?
Premises liability is the breach of a duty of care of a property owner (or anyone who controls the property) not taking reasonable measures to ensure the safety of everyone on their property. Premises liability is part of the Florida Statutes on tort laws regarding negligence.
A property owner must maintain the premises and post warnings of hazardous conditions to prevent injury or harm to their invitees and licensees. The law provides for the right to sue for personal injury, or the wrongful death of a loved one, due to the dangerous condition of the property because of a property owner’s negligence. The liability extends to homeowners in cases of animal attacks on guests who are lawfully on their property.
Who is liable?
Most people believe that property owners are solely responsible for maintaining the safe conditions of a building, land, or home. However, premises liability falls primarily on the people or entities with rights or control over the property, not necessarily the property owners.
For example, if the property owner leases a unit to a business, the business owner takes on the duty of care to ensure the safety of their invitees and licensees. In places such as malls and office buildings, the property manager and the third-party contractors may also be included as parties to a premises liability claim.
For example, suppose there are no warning signs, then you slip and fall on a wet patch in a mall and break your arm. You can file a claim against the property manager and the maintenance contractor. Since Florida uses the comparative (contributory) fault doctrine, the court will be the judge of the percentage of fault for each party based on the circumstances of the case.
Why do you need a premises liability attorney?
A premises liability lawsuit is rarely straightforward. The work involved in figuring out who is liable for premise liability accidents and proving a claim requires significant resources, skills, and knowledge of Florida law. Therefore, it would be best to have a law firm specializing in personal injury and wrongful death claims.
A premises liability lawyer can determine who is liable after carefully examining the circumstances and conducting other necessary investigations. They can also deal with the relevant insurance company to ensure that any settlement they might offer is appropriate and just.
How a Florida Premises Liability Attorney Can Help
Unless you are a personal injury lawyer with experience in filing a premises liability lawsuit, you will probably not have the requisite knowledge about legal options and the statute of limitations. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will succeed in your claim and get fair compensation for your losses from the insurance company.
A premises liability attorney in Miami from Diamond & Diamond Lawyers has the experience in personal injury cases you need to handle your claim. They can advocate for you and ensure you receive the financial assistance you need to recover from catastrophic injuries or the wrongful death of a loved one. The right attorney can give you legal advice and hold your hand throughout your case.
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Proving Premises Liability Claims in Florida
How hard is it to prove premises liability claims in Florida? Under the law, you need to prove four things in a negligence action.
Duty of Care
Based on the appropriate classification, you must prove that the duty of care owed would have prevented the injury or harm you or a loved one sustained on the property. The categories of people who are on another person’s property include:
- Invitees – people who are there for a business purpose, such as customers and clients
- Licensees – people who are there for a social purpose, such as party guests
- Trespassers – people who are there without permission
The property owner or manager owes a duty of care to people on the premises, but not to equal degrees. They owe the highest duty of care to licensees, which requires them to remove hazards, keep the premises reasonably safe, and provide adequate warning about dangers they know or should have known. The duty of care is lower for invitees as they only need to warn them about hazards they know.
Trespassers receive the lowest duty of care as they are not supposed to be on the property. However, property owners or managers must still take reasonable steps to prevent intentional or reckless injuries. Therefore, you must try to prove that you are a licensee or invitee for a premises liability claim to prosper.
Breach of Duty of Care
Next, you must prove that the property owner or manager failed to take reasonable steps to ensure your safety. For example, suppose you sustained a serious injury as a shopper in a grocery store because of broken tiles or railings. In that case, your lawyer will gather evidence that the shop owner had known or should have known about the situation and did nothing about it.
If a property owner deliberately lets a guard dog loose on the premises or on the parking lot after hours, then the owner will breach his or her duty of care to you as a trespasser if you sustain dog bites. The evidence may take the form of surveillance videos, witness testimonies, and prior complaints about the unsafe conditions of the store.
Breach-Caused Injuries
You must prove that the unsafe conditions of the property, such as negligent security or inadequate lighting, caused the injuries you sustained. This also requires you to prove that nothing else other than the dangerous conditions on the premises, caused your injuries. As evidence, you can submit witness testimonies, surveillance videos (if available), and medical records attesting to the nature of your injuries based on the medical treatment you received immediately after the incident.
Injuries Resulted in Actual Losses
It is not enough to prove that you sustained injuries due to the dangerous condition. You must prove that the injuries led to financial, emotional, and physical losses to you. A premises liability attorney will prove this by gathering evidence, such as medical records, medical bills, loss of wages, photographs of your injuries, and testimonies from you and the attending physician about the extent of the injury.
If You Were a Victim of Negligence, Diamond & Diamond Lawyers Could Help You Prove It
Premise liability is not the only type of cases Diamond & Diamond handles for victims of negligence. If you or a loved one got seriously hurt or worse in a car accident or work-related injuries in Miami, you should immediately talk to a personal injury attorney. Diamond & Diamond has a team of experienced personal injury attorneys who can help you get the compensation you deserve for your injury.
Other cases that Diamond & Diamond also handles include birth injuries, brain injuries, catastrophic accidents, dog bites, long-term disability (LTD), soft tissue injuries, and spinal cord injuries. If you are an injured person in Florida and were injured because of these situations, don’t worry. We have your back.
Each Diamond & Diamond team member is committed to serving every client by providing personalized attention, dedicated customer service, and professionalism. Call Diamond & Diamond now at 1-800-567-HURT to get a free consultation.