When you enter a commercial or private premise that is maintained by another individual or organization, you are well within your rights to expect that your legal visit to the property is safe and free of hazardous situations. If a property owner or property maintenance fails to keep their property up to a reasonable level of safety for visitors and you are ultimately injured as a result, you may be eligible to seek financial compensation from them in the form of a premise liability lawsuit or settlement.
Read more below to learn more about some general premise liability information, and schedule your free consultation now. The following information is intended to provide a general overview of this type of personal injury case in New York, but once you are speaking with an experienced legal professional during your initial consultation you will be able to get a much clearer idea of your own circumstances and understand the path forward more.
When you visit someone’s property, you are absolutely correct to expect a safe environment. This means that the owner of the property, or in some cases the management company responsible for maintaining the property, must keep the area free of hazards, and remedy any issues that could lead to an injury within a reasonable amount of time. For instance, if you visit a shopping plaza, you should be able to walk along the halls or in the stores without needing to fear for your safety because of maintenance issues that have been unresolved, like wet floors or falling debris.
If you are injured in a situation where the responsible party clearly should have fixed the issue before you were injured, you may be able to seek financial compensation from the party or their insurance provider to cover the financial impacts that this injury has on you, including things like medical bills, lost wages, and personal issues that you have suffered relating to your pain.
In order for an injury to qualify for a premise liability case, it must meet some high-level criteria before we are able to get into the details of the situation:
While the above requirements may sound fairly straightforward, simply determining whether or not you are eligible to seek damages is only the start of a complicated process.
Examples of Premise Liability Claims
As you can imagine from the requirements for a premise liability case in New York City, there are many situations that can arise where the victim is within their rights to seek damages. However, the following are some examples of the most common types of injuries that go through the New York courts:
WET OR ICY FLOORS
When a building has a leak or a staircase is covered in ice after low temperatures, it is the responsibility of the owner, lessee, or property management company to ensure that all walking surfaces are safe for public travel, or that precautions are taken to prevent people from traveling across the area until the issue is resolved.
BROKEN OR FAULTY STAIRCASES
Stairs must be built to a standard set forth by the New York building codes, which require treads to be a certain depth, handrails to meet certain criteria, and more. In addition to the codes that regulate how the stairs must be built, there are expectations that these requirements are upheld. If a staircase has a broken tread, missing handrail, or other hazards, the owner must fix it or be responsible for any injuries that arise from their decision to ignore the issue.
ESCALATOR OR ELEVATOR ACCIDENTS
Escalators and elevators are extremely helpful and convenient for visitors to large areas with multiple floors, but they require ongoing care and maintenance to ensure that they are up to the required safety standards. If you are injured on an escalator or in an elevator, we will go through the details of the situation in order to understand what your rights were, and how we can build a case that increases the likelihood that you are compensated for your injuries.
DEFECTIVE CONDITIONS ON THE PROPERTY
This covers a very wide range of circumstances that also includes the previously mentioned issues. “Defective conditions” may involve a situation like broken or cracked pavement or walkways, cave-ins in floors or ceilings, or possibly even a situation where a fence failed to keep a child from accessing a pool.
Do I have a valid slip and fall or premises liability case?
Although some slip and fall cases, or premises liability claims, may seem easy to win, the New York premises liability law favors the property owner. You cannot successfully bring a lawsuit just because a person is injured on another person’s property or a commercial building’s premises.
You, as the injured plaintiff, must prove that the defective or unsafe condition of the property has caused your injury. And that the property owner or his tenant knew or should have known about the unsafe condition of the premises. Moreover, you must prove that the defects on the property were a significant factor in causing your injury.
Another important factor worth mentioning is the contributory and comparative negligence rule. This is about the injured party’s degree of responsibility for the accident. The rule could reduce the recovery of compensation or prevent an injured party from collecting any damages.
What do I need to prove to win a New York premises liability case?
Your claims will need a prompt and thorough investigation. Before evidence is lost or destroyed, the location of the accident must be inspected immediately. Also, photos of the accident must be inspected, and witnesses must be interviewed.
We will use trained investigators to immediately secure all available evidence. They must also try to get answers to a host of relevant questions including:
- prior accidents
- prior complaints
- how long the unsafe condition existed and
- building code violations
Likewise, we may retain an engineer or an architect and other experts in various disciplines to help investigate and evaluate your case.
And if necessary, we may also employ expert accountants and financial analysts. This is because many premises liability claims have their set of associated losses, which includes:
- the cost of care
- lost wages and
- other monetary costs
How will a New York City lawyer for slip and fall help me after I get hurt?
You already got enough going on after a nasty accident on another person’s premises. You don’t need the added time and stress of a slip-and-fall lawsuit.
Hiring an experienced lawyer for slip and fall can make your life a lot easier. For instance, you’ll have enough time to focus on getting better.
The premise liability lawyer near me at Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, LLP can level the playing field and force insurance companies and at-fault parties to take your demands seriously.
Here’s why you must not hesitate to contact our slip and fall law firm for help:
- Property owners will immediately deny responsibility. They may also turn things around and blame you for your injuries.
- Insurance companies will try to drive down the value of your claim.
- There might be other liable parties involved. You will never know unless there’s a thorough investigation supervised by premises liability attorney near me.
- There’s a time limit to filing injury claims, or in this case, premises liability lawsuits. You’ll risk losing out on valuable money if you hesitate or wait too long to assert your rights.
- You’ll never know exactly how much your premises liability case is worth. And you certainly don’t want insurance companies to do the calculations for you.
Our premises liability attorney near me will secure maximum compensation on your behalf and not just fight to get the money you need and deserve.
We will carry out a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding your accident. This will help us identify who might be to blame and also help us determine the case.
Then, we’ll fight tooth and nail to collect damages on your behalf. If insurance companies and at-fault parties won’t budge, our skilled premises liability lawyers in NYC will not hesitate to take your slip-and-fall case to court.
What damages are available in NYC premises liability cases?
A personal injury accident, especially if it’s an unexpected one, can have harsh long-term consequences. Any injury, ranging from lost limbs, broken bones, or spinal cord damage, can turn someone’s life upside down.
We can hold property owners financially accountable for the accidents that got them hurt. It is their responsibility to keep you safe once you enter their premises.
At Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, LLP, our trip and fall lawyer will aggressively pursue the damages you rightfully deserve including money for:
- Rehabilitation
- Pain and suffering
- Medical expenses
- Emotional distress
- Temporary and/or permanent disability
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Lost income and wages
- Disfigurement, and more.
The value of your injuries could be more than what you think, don’t underestimate it. Insurance companies will do everything to give you less money than what you deserve.
A New York slip and fall injury lawyer can help you get the money you rightfully deserve. Experts in various disciplines also help us to understand the nuanced and more complicated aspects of your fall and slip accidents. With their help, we can determine how much your injuries are worth by understanding your case better.
We Handle All Kinds of NYC Premises Liability Claims
Contrary to what many people think, premises liability cases are not limited to slips and falls. Our lawyers for slip and fall in NYC are ready to represent you in each of the premises liability matters listed below:
Contact The Top Lawyers for Slip and Fall To Start Your Case
The sooner you are able to begin working with the best slip and fall lawyers near me, the more time we will have to build a strong case that will increase your chances of getting a settlement or damages award that you rightfully deserve. These cases can be complicated and will require many different steps in order to determine the responsible party, build a case that clearly indicates their negligence, as well as calculating the damages that you are rightfully entitled to as a result of your injuries.
For a free review of your case, call Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, LLP today at 212-344-1000 or contact us online.