Premises Liability Claim: Owner's vs. Visitor's Duty of Care...

A premises liability claim usually comes down to whether or not the owner has taken reasonable care to make sure visitors don't get injured. This is true for premises liability law on different properties: public, private, or commercial.

In all situations there are at least two duties of care to consider: the owner's and the visitor's. In your premises liablity claim the duty of care may also extend to the property manager, business owner or landlord.

When walking onto someone else's property you have an obligation to act in a manner that is safe for them as well as yourself. You have to be willing to keep yourself out of danger and do what any reasonable person would do to avoid dangers.

Owner's Duty of Care:

The owners of the property have a duty to keep their visitors safe by providing a well kept environment. They must, firstly, keep their building up to code.

This refers to building codes, which are among the few well defined premises liability laws that can be referred to at any time during a slip and fall injury lawsuit.

The owner of a property must also keep their space clean and obstacle free to a reasonable degree that will meet common expectations.

This means they must clean up spilled liquids from the floor so no one slips and falls. They must also pick up fallen objectsso no one trips. Similarly, any damage to the floor or floor coverings can be dangerous to visitors and will therefore effect your premises liability claim.

With all of those things, however, there are exceptions to be made. Premises liability law recognizes that spills can only be cleaned up so fast. The same goes for clearing fallen objects or fixing broken flooring. When immediate cleanup is not possible the owners are expected to put up some kind of caution sign.

Visitor's Duty of Care:

When walking on anyone's property the visitor's duty of care includes looking out for obstacles that have yet to be taken care of. When walking after a rain storm anyone should be on the lookout for wet surfaces.

The same is true when walking around a pool, a kitchen, or anywhere else there may be spilled liquid. The visitor must also try to avoid slip and fall injuries by looking where they're walking and not running or moving around recklessly.

Because of this shared duty of care it is often the case in premises liability claims that the owner's and visitor's liability cancel each other out. The bottom line is that after these kind of slip and fall injuries the injured person will likely only win damages if they weren't negligent themselves.

This can be difficult to prove since defendant slip and fall injury attorneys are adept at convincing jurors that the plaintiff "should have been more careful." In most states though, if the premises liability was extensive then the negligent visitor should be able to get partial damages.