Richmond Premises Liability Attorney
It doesn’t take much to cause serious injury—simply falling from your own standing height can cause broken bones, a significant spinal cord injury, or severe traumatic brain injury. If something like this happened to you while at a store or on someone else’s property because of an unsafe condition, like a wet floor or a broken step, then the property owner may be liable. Virginia law makes it difficult to succeed on these types of claims, but Puglielli Injury Law has the experience and expertise to navigate you through the process with compassion and understanding.
Why hire a Richmond premises liability lawyer?
You’ve been seriously injured on someone else’s property. However, determining whether the property owner is liable is a challenging and complex question. It depends on circumstances such as your legal status on the property, the nature of the hazard or danger, the property owner’s knowledge of the danger, and what warnings the property owner may have given. Then there are questions of whether the property owner has the ability to pay or what kind of insurance policies might be available to compensate you. Finally, obtaining evidence of any of these circumstances can be difficult because it can disappear quickly, and premises incidents typically aren’t documented as well as incidents like car accidents.
A skilled and experienced premises liability lawyer can provide the expertise you need to prevail in this type of claim because of the numerous elements that you need to prove. Whether you’re in Richmond or somewhere else, if you’ve been injured on someone’s unsafe property, you can give Gianni a call to discuss your potential case for free. You can also browse some helpful, in-depth FAQs and information below and see our general FAQs page too.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What’s meant by “premises liability?”
Put in the simplest terms, premises liability is the legal description for injuries that occur on someone’s property (i.e., the “premises”). Property owners (and sometimes other parties) can be liable for those injuries.
How do I know if I have a premises liability injury claim?
Like with most other personal injury claims, such as car accidents, cycling accidents, or pedestrian accidents, there are three general criteria for a viable premises liability claim:
Liability. The property owner (in some cases, it may be someone else) must have been negligent in causing your injury on the property. This is usually the most challenging aspect to prove in a premises liability claim because whether the property was negligent or owed a duty to protect you can be a highly complex question to answer. And, in Virginia, we have a strict rule called “contributory negligence,” which means that if you’re partially at fault, even slightly, for causing your own injuries, then you can’t recover any money. For more information about whether the property owner owed you a duty, please see the next FAQ on this page.
Insurance or Assets. The existence of insurance or assets isn’t technically required for a cognizable premises liability injury claim in Virginia, but, practically speaking, it’s critical. If you were injured on someone’s property but they don’t have significant assets or an insurance policy, you may still have an injury claim, but that person or business may unlikely be able to compensate you no matter how badly you might have been injured.
Damages. You must have been physically injured by the property owner’s negligence. There’s more information on damages below, but some core categories of damages include pain and suffering, inconvenience, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, and medical bills.
What kinds of duties does a property owner owe me?
Generally, a property owner’s duties to you depend on the legal classification of your status on the property. In Virginia, there are three classifications:
Trespasser. A trespasser is someone who is on someone’s property without their permission or consent. Property owners owe no duty to keep their premises safe for you and, generally, don’t owe a duty to warn you of hazards or unsafe conditions. However, there is an exception for trespassing children in certain situations and a couple of other exceptions too.
Licensee. A licensee is someone who is on someone’s property with permission but for the guest’s own benefit. An example of a licensee is a social guest (like a guest at a party), and the property owner’s duty is to warn the guest of known hazards, but the owner isn’t required to inspect the property to find unknown dangers.
Invitee. An invitee is someone who is on someone’s property with permission for the mutual benefit of both parties. A classic and often common example of an invitee is a shopper in a grocery store. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty of care. Like with a licensee, a property owner must warn invitees of known hazards, but they also must look for unknown or hidden dangers, as well as maintain the property in a safe condition. Using the grocery store example: the store should check throughout the day for unsafe conditions such as spills that may have occurred in the aisles and clean them up—the store is more likely to be liable if there was a wet floor that it allowed to remain for several hours.
What are the common defenses in a premise liability case?
Depending on your status on the property, property owners have several defenses available to them if you’re injured on their property. These are some of the most common ones:
Contributory Negligence. As mentioned above, in all kinds of personal injury cases in Virginia, if you’re even slightly at fault for causing your own injuries, you can’t win premises liability claim. This applies regardless of your status on the property.
Open and Obvious Dangers. One of the most frequent defenses is that the hazard on the property was apparent and obvious, so the injury victim should have seen the danger and avoided it. An example would be a step on a staircase that is clearly broken, missing, or weak—the property owner could argue that you didn’t need a warning from them to know about that unsafe condition.
Property Owner’s Lack of Knowledge. If the property owner didn’t know about an unsafe condition on their property, they might not be liable for any injuries caused by it, but this depends on a couple of things. First, it depends on your status on the property—remember that property owners must warn both invitees and licensees of known dangers, but only invitees are owed a duty to look for unknown dangers. Second, when the unsafe condition came about is an important factor. If the owner didn’t have a reasonable opportunity to inspect for or learn of the hazard, they may have a defense. Using the grocery store example again: if a liquid is spilled onto the floor of an aisle and someone slips on it 30 seconds afterwards, the store could argue it didn’t have enough time to learn about that danger.
Assumption of Risk. Like with contributory negligence, assumption of risk is a defense available in most personal injury cases in Virginia. For example, if the property owner put up a sign warning guests of an unsafe condition and its risks, and the guest acknowledged the risks but continued anyways, the property owner may have an effective defense.
