When someone is injured in another person’s home or at a business location, then a premises liability claim may be the answer to recovering any damages that result from that injury. As an injured person, you may have a claim against the person or business owner or the person or business who rents the property where the injury occurred. Claims may encompass medical bills, lost wages, pain, and suffering, and other damages.
At Soloff & Zervanos, P.C., our Reading premises liability attorneys have a long history of standing up for the rights of personal injury victims. Our team is ready to assist you with your claim and help you prove negligence and liability of the landlord, property manager, or property owner involved. Get started on your claim as soon as possible following your injury. Contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 866-597-8572.
Are Your Injuries Compensable?
In order to recover damages in a premises liability claim, our Reading premises liability attorneys are tasked with proving that several things apply to your situation. We must show that the defendant in your case:
- Owed you a duty of care to make sure that conditions under the defendant’s control were not dangerous.
- Breached this duty of care by acting negligently or failing to act to correct a dangerous or unsafe condition.
- Caused your injuries by breaching their duty of care.
If these three conditions are met, it must still be shown that the injuries you suffered resulted in actual damages. You were injured, you sought medical treatment, and you lost time from work, for example.
Invitee, Licensee, or Trespasser?
Your status and reason for being on or in the property matter too. In Pennsylvania, you are owed a different duty of care depending on your classification as an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser.
You are an invitee if you have permission, either express or implied, to be in on or on the property. For instance, you have an implied right to shop in a store if the store is open for business. You are a licensee if you are on the property for a purpose that has no benefit for the property owner, such as attending a friend’s backyard barbecue. And finally, you are a trespasser if you had no permission and received no consent to enter the premises or property.
The duty of care owed to invitees is to maintain the property in a safe condition and to repair any unsafe conditions reasonably fast. Licensees are owed a lesser duty of care in that the property owner must only warn them of known hazards. Trespassers are owed very little duty of care. Property owners must not, however, willfully or wantonly cause harm to the trespasser.
Simply put, if you are an invitee or licensee injured on someone’s property, you may have a claim. That claim hinges largely on whether negligence existed on behalf of the owner.
Review of Your Case
In Pennsylvania, you have just two years following a premises liability accident to file a claim against the negligent party. Do not delay. Reach out to Soloff & Zervanos, P.C. now to speak with our Reading premises liability attorney about your case. Contact us for a free consultation by clicking here or calling us at 866-597-8572.