Premises Liability CLE

Premises Liability. That’s a little bit the lay of the land on those cases, so let’s talk about Premises Liability. So, Premises Liability cases are slip and fall cases, right? And, your recovery is against the land owner, and I talked about the MAI instructions here as well. There’s a little bit of a distinction between an invitee and a licensee.

So, an invitee, and the standard is that there was a dangerous condition; the defendant was negligent in neither creating, not remedying, or not wanting of that condition; that the defendant knew or could have known, not should have known; could have known, it’s in the jury instruction, that’s the distinction with a difference, so whenever I plead this and present this, we’d use the word could, not should; and then that your client didn’t know about it; and that they were proximately injured thereby.

For an invitee, it’s different. The owner, the possessor of the land had actual knowledge of the dangerous condition, and the plaintiff lacked knowledge of that condition and could not have discovered it, and that is when someone’s cutting through someone’s lawn to go to the playground or something like that. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an invite of licensee case. I’ve almost always had invitee cases, those are the bulk of the cases. The defendant has to control the premises. You’ll have landlord cases, so renters almost never have a renter’s insurance. So, it’ll always be a concern if your client’s renting premises, there’s a whole line of cases about whether it’s a common area, common control, if it’s in your own client’s apartment, you can’t recover…

Gary Burger

Founder | Injury Attorney
Gary Burger has dedicated his career to standing up against bullies. The founder and principal attorney of Burger Law | St. Louis Personal Injury Lawyer has helped hundreds of Missouri and Illinois individuals and families recover th …
Years of experience: 30 years
Location: St. Louis, MO

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