What do I have to prove in my premises liability case?

If you visited a property and were seriously injured due to a hazard or dangerous condition that was not properly taken care of, you may have a premises liability claim. In order to win your case and collect complete compensation, you must prove certain facts of your case. In order to be effective in proving the circumstances of your premises liability case, you need a skilled lawyer on your side. Hire the premises liability lawyers of Burger Law today by calling us now at (314) 500-HURT.

Requirements for a Premises Liability Claim

In order to have a premise liability claim, the following must be true:

1. The defendant was in control of the property,
2. the defendant was negligent in their use of the property,
3. you were injured,
4. and the defendant’s negligence caused your injuries

Control of the Property and Duty of Care

The first thing you must establish in your premise liability suit is that the defendant (the person or group you are filing your claim against) owed you, the victim, a duty of care. To prove this, you have to prove that they were in control of the property and that you were there legally. Whether they are the owner, tenant, employee, or maintenance service provider of the property, you must prove that the party you are suing was in control of and responsible for the property where you were hurt. Proving the defendant as the possessor of the property establishes a duty of care, but only for visitors who enter the property legally. So in order to prove that they owed you personally a duty of care to keep you safe from harm, you must also prove that you were on the property legally. Depending on the reasons you were on the property and the type of permission you were granted, you may prove that you were on the property as an invitee or a licensee. The possessor owes a slightly higher duty of care to the invitee than they do to the licensee who has only a limited license to be on the property.

Negligence and Breach of Duty

After you have proven that the defendant was the possessor of the property and owed you as a legal visitor a duty of care to keep you from harm, the next step in proving your premises liability case is proving that the possessor breached their duty of care. As stated above, property owners and leasers owe different degrees of care to different visitors, so what is considered a breach of this duty by nature also differs. To prove their negligence if you were injured as an invitee, you need only prove that the defendant in your premises liability case knew or should have reasonably known of the presence of a dangerous condition on the property and failed to remedy the hazard or provide adequate warning of the danger. On the other hand, if you are a licensee to the property, you must prove that the possessor actually knew about the hazard but did not do anything to address it adequately in order to consider them negligent. While the definition of negligence differs in a premise liability case depending on the status of the visitor, possessors of a property are generally at least required to post a general warning about any possible danger on the property lest they be considered negligent.

Damages

There is no premises liability claim if you do not suffer any damages. It can be upsetting to discover that someone has not tended to a danger on their property and realize that your safety could be at risk, but you can not sue for premises liability unless you can prove you suffered damages. There are a variety of different damages a victim in a premises liability case could suffer. When you are injured on an unsafe property, your damages and the extent of your damages differ, which in turn affects the amount of compensation you can collect. A good premises liability lawyer in St. Louis will help you prove and calculate the value of your damages, which include things like medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, permanent disability and other effects.

Causation

Lastly, you have to tie it all together. To win your premises liability claim and collect compensation for your damages, you must not only prove that you were injured and experienced damages, but also that it was the possessor’s negligence and not some other circumstance that caused you to become injured. To prove causation, you have to show that because the defendant failed to remove a hazard or addressed the hazard inadequately, you were injured. Causation in a premises liability case and other types of personal injury cases is often the point of contention between the victim and the defendant. After you have adequately proven that you were injured, the defendant may try to dispute the fact that their negligence is to blame for your injuries. With a good premises liability lawyer in St. Louis, if you were injured by a dangerous

Hire a Premises Liability Lawyer to Prove Your Case

If you believe you have a premises liability case, contact an experienced premises liability lawyer right away. Do not waste any time. Contact Burger Law’s premises liability lawyers now to discuss the details of your case for free. We will get to work right away to collect evidence and build an argument that effectively proves every necessary component of your claim. Speak to us now by calling (314) 500-HURT.