Millions of New York residents sustain fatal or severe injuries from dog bite incidents, slip and falls, pool incidents, and other accidents. These accidents often occur at improperly secured properties or unsafe homes. There are different types of premises liability cases.
When you’re injured on someone’s property, you’ll be facing unexpected medical bills and might be unable to work for some time. If the injury occurred through no fault of yours, you could file a premises liability claim for compensation.
Under New York’s premises liability law, property owners owe the public a duty of care to keep their grounds free of potential dangers that might harm guests and residents. When property owners don’t take the responsibility seriously, they might have to compensate victims for medical expenses and the economic losses suffered.
What’s Premises Liability?
Legally, the term premises means the real estate or land and the buildings or structures on the property. On the other hand, liability means any party’s legal responsibilities or obligations. As such, property liability refers to the legal responsibility of the property owner/ occupier to their land and the buildings they control.
Owner’s Duty of Care
Property owners are primarily responsible for:
- Protecting guests from possible hazards
The property owner/ occupier is responsible for protecting guests against any possible dangers or hazards revealed by reasonable inspections and regular maintenance. If the property is open to the public, every entrant is considered a legal invitee.
- Exercising reasonable care
That includes regular maintenance and posting warning signs of possible danger to protect the invitees and licensees. That means owners owe a duty of reasonable care even to people who may enter the property for their gain, like salespeople.
- Refraining from harming trespassers
Property owners in New York should refrain from intentionally harming trespassers, but they don’t owe them any other legal duty of care. However, trespassing children shouldn’t be expected to exercise the same level of care as an adult. A property owner should keep their premises free of attractive nuisances like unsecured swimming pools that might attract children.
What are Property Owners Liable for?
Individuals can be hurt in many ways while visiting unsecured or unsafe premises. That makes premises liability law a confusing and broad topic for many. Additionally, the premises liability law requires the victim to prove the at-fault party in any premises liability claim.
When you suffer an injury on someone else’s property, you’ll need to prove negligence by the owner. The negligence might include failing to maintain the property or removing hazards that might harm another person. However, some conditions might remove liability in some cases, like someone invading or trespassing the property.
As most premises liability cases require a unique understanding of every detail, hiring a personal injury lawyer is crucial. Gregory Spector and Associates P.C. will help you file premises liability lawsuits and get a favorable settlement to focus on recovering.
To hold the negligent property owner liable for the injury, your lawyer will need to prove:
- The property involved is legally controlled or owned by the responsible party.
- The property owner was intentionally reckless or negligent in caring for and maintaining the premises for invitees, child trespassers, and licensees.
- The property owner should have known or knew about a hazard, deficiency, defect, or any other dangerous condition and failed to warn others or address the issue.
- The negligent acts of the property owner/ controller caused the accident, resulting in personal injuries to a licensee, visitor, or child trespasser.
- The injured party wasn’t aware of the defect or deficiency and couldn’t be reasonably expected to see it on time and avoid it.
- The injured party wasn’t misusing the property or engaging in activities that increased the possibility of an accident.
Types of Premises Liability Cases
Every premises liability case is different. However, the legal team at Gregory Spektor & Associates P.C. commonly sees some accidents more than others in New York. Here are typical examples of premises liability accidents you can file a claim for:
1. Slips & Fall accidents
Slip and fall accidents are common in our daily lives, but they are more dangerous than most people realize. Tripping, slipping and falling cause 15% of accidental deaths in the U.S. Additionally, the general statistics for slip and fall accidents are worrying.
General slip and fall statistics
- One out of five slip and fall accidents result in serious injuries like a traumatic head injury and broken bones.
- Over 9 million people rush to the emergency room every year with fall-related injuries.
- Over 800,000 victims are hospitalized every year for injuries resulting from slip and fall accidents.
- Car accidents and slip and fall accidents are the leading causes of traumatic brain injury in children and senior adults.
- Falling causes over 95% of hip fractures.
- Slip and fall accidents account for about 30% of all non-fatal injuries.
- Falling once increases your chance of falling again.
- Half of all home accidental deaths are caused by falls.
- The trip, slip, and fall lawsuits are among the top three most common types of personal injury claims, sitting behind medical malpractice and auto accidents.
Examples of slip and fall cases
A slip and fall accident may result from:
Storefront spills
When you go into a store, you’re an invitee, and therefore, the shop owner needs to take care of your safety. If a hazardous area is unmarked or a spill is left uncleaned, it’s easy for the invitee to get injured. In that case, the store owner might be held accountable for your injuries.
Ice and snow
Winter can be harsh in New York, leaving behind slippery ice and snow that could injure individuals. Many municipalities charge homeowners and commercial properties a duty to ensure that the pedestrian traffic is kept away from winter hazards like ice and snow.
Unsafe maintenance
When a public building or a store has passageways for invitees to walk on and allows them to fall in disrepair, it can create an unsafe condition for pedestrians and result in injuries. You can be entitled to compensation when you incur injuries in such situations.
2. Dangerous platforms, staircases, steps, elevators, or escalators
Stairs, escalators, steps, and elevators are essential structures in most urban houses. However, these effective tools can be hazardous to visitors. Consider these statistics:
- Over a million injuries occur from staircase fall accidents every year.
- There are about 12,000 deaths resulting from staircase falls.
- In the U.S., about 10,000 escalator injuries are reported every year.
Well-designed staircases reduce the chances of slip and fall accidents by incorporating useful features like ramps and adjusting dimensions. Every property owner also needs to raise awareness of a potentially dangerous section to avoid accidents.
If you’ve sustained an injury after falling on stairs without properly installed ramps or stuck on the elevator, you can look for a personal injury lawyer to help. Your personal injury lawyer can prove that the property owner failed to exercise reasonable care in maintaining or installing these systems.
3. Toxic fumes, preventable fires, or chemical spills
Fires, chemical spills, and toxic fumes can cause burns and respiratory issues. Exposure to these spills and fumes is common among New York residents who work in construction, industrial trades, and demolition.
Toxic fume inhalation can be life-changing, whether it’s from an explosion or an accident. In some cases, workers and other people around the premises may have legal recourse. Hiring a premises liability lawyer will be important in such a case, helping assess your potential claim in terms of:
- Carbon monoxide poisoning, respiratory problems, and other serious health issues like smoke inhalation from leaks, explosions, or industrial fires.
- The disabling effects of toxic exposure from demolitions include breathing problems and vision loss due to a lack of protection against dirt and debris.
- Immediate and long-term medical conditions related to chemical spills in a warehouse or industry. These spills can result from careless use of forklifts or failure to seal chemical containers properly.
- Any other form of exposure to hazardous fumes, vapor, and gases with consequences to your brain and nervous system.
4. Dog Bites
Dogs are man’s best furry friends, and over 63 million American households can attest to that. However, It’s important to remember that these loyal companions won’t be friendly to everyone around your property. When agitated, provoked, or exposed to unfamiliar faces, dogs can viciously attack their victims and cause severe bites.
In New York, there are an average of 400 dog bites every month. The huge number of dog bite incidents explains why the state has set different liability laws. These liability laws set by the New York state aren’t strict, but some municipalities have laws identifying some breeds as dangerous.
What’s considered a dangerous dog in Queens, New York?
According to New York law, a dog is considered dangerous if it attacks a domestic animal or person and causes death or injury without justification. A dangerous dog may also behave in a manner that a reasonable person may believe posses an unjustified imminent danger that might result in death or physical injury.
When a dangerous dog attacks you or your loved ones in New York, filing a personal injury case might be your best option. Every property owner in New York should exercise reasonable care by restraining their dogs while in public or while in contact with other animals or people. However, there are several exceptions to that:
- Dogs can’t be considered as dangerous if you were a trespasser.
- You can’t file a personal injury case if you get a dog bite when committing a crime in Queens, New York.
- A property owner may not be held responsible for dog bites if the pet was responding to injury or pain. The court also doesn’t consider a dog dangerous if it has gone through inhumane treatment like abuse or torture from the person it attacked.
- If the dog was protecting its offspring against the person it attacked.
- If the dog was protecting its owner and their property or any member of the owner’s household.
Filing personal injury claims after dog bites
An essential first step to filing a premises liability case after a dog bit is determining whether the property owner is liable. You’ll have to demonstrate that your injuries directly resulted from the dog bite and that no exceptions apply in your case. Pictures and video evidence of when and where everything took place are essential.
When filing for a personal injury lawsuit after a dog bite on someone else’s property, you’ll need a complete list of:
- Medical expenses
- Time off and lost wages while seeking treatment
- Physical therapy costs
- Preventive treatment costs like rabies shots
- Psychological trauma
- Repairs to any damaged personal property
According to the New York law, victims of dog bites have up to three years to file their personal injury cases from the day they get attacked. You can hire a personal injury attorney to negotiate your settlement from the owner’s insurance company.
If the property owner doesn’t have insurance, your injury lawyer can file a court claim. Personal injury cases from dog bites are handled in the civil court, but criminal charges can also be filed in some cases.
Pressing criminal charges for dog bites
You can file criminal charges against people who negligently let their dogs bite others. If the owner knows that the dog has a history of reacting aggressively towards others and fails to exercise reasonable care in warning them, you can press criminal charges. The New York law also states that a dog owner is accountable for a class-A misdemeanor if their pet causes death or serious injuries.
Dog owners can defend themselves against personal injury claims arising from bites using different strategies, including:
- The dog was abused, tortured, tormented, attacked, or threatened by the injured victim.
- The dog was protecting its home, offspring, and property manager/owner or reacting to pain.
- The dog was protecting the property from trespassers and people conducting criminal activities.
5. Inadequate security and property maintenance
As a New York resident, you’re entitled to the safety and security of where you live and visit. The state’s premises liability law makes the property owner or landlord responsible for guaranteeing the safety of all invitees from any dangerous condition.
The most common security issues that might affect visitors include unsafe electrical wiring, improperly maintained structures and rodents. Property owners might also be held responsible if you’ve suffered from a violent crime like rape while on their premises.
Property owners must sustain building maintenance to avoid premises liability accidents from inadequate property maintenance and security issues. Some of the most common types of safety flaws include:
- Broken windows – Besides being extremely attractive to criminals, broken windows can result in medical complications and other security risks.
- Broken locks include locks on the main gates and apartment doors or windows.
- Faulty alarm systems – When a building’s alarm systems are dysfunctional, they can’t provide reasonable care to its occupants. That breaches your legal responsibility to protect visitors and occupants as a premises owner.
- Dimly lit public areas – Public areas like parking lots and hallways should be lit properly to help everyone beware of potential accidents.
6. Unsafe swimming pools
Swimming pool accidents usually involve children and unsafe or unsupervised swimming pools. That includes slipping and falling on wet floors and drowning from poorly maintained pool drains. In fact, over 5,700 American children go to emergency rooms every year after suffering from spa and pool accident injuries.
A swimming pool accident may warrant a personal injury case, where you’ll need a premises liability lawyer to hold the owner responsible. These premises liability lawsuits are commonly filed for victims who drowned and wrongfully died in the pool.
Many premises liability lawsuits attempt to recover compensation for swimming pool injuries resulting from a person’s negligence. The most common types of swimming pool injuries include:
- Broken bones from slipping and falling on wet floors.
- Scrapes and abrasions from falling outside the swimming pool.
- Slipping on a diving board
- Drowning
- Near-drowning experiences that cause permanent injuries like a traumatic brain injury,
- broken neck or spine after diving in a shallow part of your pool
The premises liability for private and public swimming pools
In premises liability cases involving personal injuries while swimming, the type of pool matters a lot. That includes:
- Private – These are swimming pools located on someone else’s property. The owner is responsible for their cleaning and maintenance, helping to avoid a potential premises liability case.
- Public – These are publicly owned and maintained swimming pools controlled by the local government or agencies.
While the type of swimming pool doesn’t alter the extent or nature of your injury, it will affect how the premises liability lawsuit will proceed. In private swimming pools, landlords or owners might be liable to compensate visitors who suffered injuries on their premises.
Lawsuits against private pools in New York are based on the owner’s premises liability. They tried to prove that the pool owner was responsible for keeping their visitors and children trespassers safe but failed to do that and caused an accident. Such lawsuits might be filed against apartment complexes, hotels, and other private premises.
In public swimming pools, personal injury claims are more complicated. The premises liability accident claim is filed against a public entity, presenting several procedural hurdles as the taxpayers pay the compensation. Most of these lawsuits prove negligent supervision from the lifeguards, failing to keep people safe and leading to injuries.
Winning a Premises Liability Case
The key to being successful in your premises liability claim is promptly investigating to uncover the negligent or reckless actions of the property owner/occupier. That requires discovering the unsafe condition that caused the injury. Victims also need to show that lack of maintenance resulted in a dangerous condition.
Hiring a premises liability lawyer from Gregory Spector and Associates P.C. will help you adequately prepare the evidence material and negotiate for fair compensation. Some of the damages that you might be awarded in your premises liability case include:
Damages Awarded in Premises Liability Cases
1. Short-term & long-term medical expenses
An injury victim needs compensation to help take care of their short-term and long-term medical expenses, including ambulance rides, emergency room expenses, and surgeries. Other expenses like nursing care or hospital stay might also be included.
2. Physical and occupational therapy
You can claim compensation for rehabilitation expenses incurred after an accident.
3. Psychological care
Not all premises liability accidents result in physical injuries. You can claim expenses for treating depression, anxiety, altered mood, PTSD, and other mental injuries.
4. Lost Income
You can claim lost income after a premises liability accident to compensate you for immediate wages lost as you recover from the accident. They may also include a lost career path due to an injury, but you must explain how it affects your ability to work.
5. Wrongful Death
There are various damages related to premises liability accidents that result in wrongful death. The victim’s family might file for unpaid medical bills, burial expenses, emotional distress, loss of companionship, and loss of financial support.
6. Pain and suffering
Physical injuries cause pain and suffering. When you endure the pain from an injury, you deserve compensation from the negligent party. The compensation is made depending on the severity of your injury and the pain associated with it.
Want to file a premises liability case? Call Gregory Spektor & Associates P.C!
Gregory Spektor & Associates P.C are seasoned injury attorneys ready to help you get reasonable compensation for all types of premises liability cases. Call 888-797-7755 for a free consultation to understand everything about premises liability law!
