A Decatur Premises Liability Attorney Is Here to Help
The owners of stores, apartment complexes, hotels, and other places of business in Decatur have a duty to protect the members of the public that they encourage to enter their property. This duty triggers a legal concept known as premises liability. Essentially, premises liability means that when the person who owns or manages property fails to take the right steps to protect and you get hurt while on their property, they can be held responsible for the pain, anguish, and other losses you suffered as a result of your injuries.
This includes situations where someone slips and falls due to a slippery substance on the floor, but the liability of property owners goes far beyond slip-and-fall situations. A property owner or manager can be held accountable if you are hurt in other ways due to dangerous conditions on the property, even when the injuries are caused by the criminal behavior of others, such as if you are assaulted in the parking lot of a shopping center or injured in a fire started by another tenant in an apartment complex.
Anytime you suffer injuries while on property belonging to someone else, even in a private home, it is possible that the owner should have done something to protect you, but they failed to live up to their legal obligation. When that is the case, you could be entitled to compensation for your losses, from medical bills to emotional distress. A Decatur premises liability attorney can review the circumstances surrounding the injuries and determine whether premises liability principles provide the ability for you to recover.
What Is Premises Liability?
The basic theory behind premises liability is that if you own premises, you may be held liable for the things that happen on those premises, particularly if you encourage people to come onto your property for your commercial benefit. In other words, if you open a business and you advertise to get people to buy products at your store, stay in your hotel, rent your apartments, play mini-golf at your entertainment complex, or do anything else that enables you to make money, then you can be held responsible if you don’t take the right steps to keep those people safe. Those steps could include everything from ensuring that stairways are well-lighted to making sure that smoke detectors are installed correctly.
The law imposes different obligations depending on the situation. Property owners can be held liable in situations where they don’t necessarily encourage people to come onto the premises, but they allow it, and individuals can be held liable for incidents that happen on their property even when they don’t operate a commercial establishment. Our Decatur premises liability attorney can help you determine whether a property owner may be required to pay for your injuries after analyzing all the details of the situation.
Where Does Premises Liability Occur?
Owners of all types of property can be held liable for their negligence or recklessness in maintaining the safety of the premises. People often file personal injury lawsuits or claims for insurance based on injuries that occur in:
- Restaurants and bars
- Grocery stores and big box stores
- Office buildings
- Hotels
- Movie theaters
- Shopping malls
- Gas stations and convenience stores
- Amusement parks
- Apartments and houses
Even public property such as a park can provide a setting for a premises liability claim, although it is often necessary to take immediate action if you want to hold a government entity responsible for injuries suffered on public property.
Legal Duty of Property Owners
Although premises liability is a general legal concept that dates way back, the way it is applied in Decatur is based on the terms lawmakers used to incorporate the concept into the Georgia Code. Section 51-3-1 of the state code specifies that when someone who owns or controls property “induces or leads others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose,” that person is liable if people are injured by the owner’s “failure to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.”
The act of encouraging others to enter the premises can be either “express or implied” under the statute. This means that a property owner does not have to issue you a personal invitation to come onto the property in order for the owner to be liable for what happens to you while on the property. If they operate a business with an “open” sign in the window, for instance, that is an implied invitation for you to enter the property.
It is also important to note that the owner’s duty to take ordinary precautions to keep the property safe also extends to the “approaches” to that property. This can include parking lots, sidewalks, and entry areas that enable customers or other visitors to access the premises.
Negligent Security
Someone who owns or manages property and invites others onto that property owes a duty to be aware of potentially hazardous conditions and to take the right steps to prevent those conditions from causing injuries or other harm. These hazardous conditions can include criminal activity. If you get attacked while on the premises of another and the court determines that the property owner failed to put adequate security measures in place to protect you, then the owner can be held liable for the harm you suffer because of their negligent security. This can include a simple assault or more severe attacks such as robbery, rape, or assault with a deadly weapon.
For the property owner to be responsible for the criminal actions of outside parties, your Decatur personal injury attorney needs to show that the criminal activity was foreseeable and that the owner did not take adequate steps to prevent harm from occurring. For instance, if there have been police reports of similar attacks in the neighborhood within the previous months, the property owner should be on notice that patrons are at risk of attack and that they need to take appropriate security measures.
What is considered necessary for security will depend on the circumstances. A premises liability case could be based on failure to provide measures such as:
- Security fencing
- Locks on windows
- Adequate lighting
- Security cameras
- Guards
- Alarms
- Gates
The Georgia Supreme Court has held that prior crimes do not need to be exactly the same to put a property owner on notice of the potential for different crimes. So, for instance, a property owner could be held liable for wrongful death after a shooting even if there had been no shootings in the neighborhood previously.
Different Standards Depending on the Status of the Person Injured
Property owners owe the highest duty of care to those they invite onto the property. For these individuals, a property owner has a duty to inspect the premises periodically to become aware of potential hazards so they cannot simply claim they were unaware of a problem.
When someone is allowed to be on the property but is not invited, then for purposes of Decatur premises liability, that individual is considered to be a “licensee.” An example of someone who is a licensee would be a salesperson coming onto the property to sell something for their own benefit.
Section 51-3-2 of the Georgia Code specifies that the property owner does not owe licensees a duty to keep the premises reasonably safe but only to avoid “willful or wanton injury.” A similar rule is in place for anyone who is trespassing on property.
Attractive Nuisance Situations
All property owners in Decatur have a special responsibility to watch out for the safety of children on their property, including children who may be trespassing. This duty kicks in whenever the property owner has what is known as an “attractive nuisance” on the premises.
An attractive nuisance is something that is potentially dangerous and yet could be appealing to children, such as a swimming pool, trampoline, construction equipment, or weapons. When they have this type of dangerous feature on the premises, the owner of the property needs to take extra precautions, such as setting up secure fencing to keep children out.
Examples of Premises Liability
For many people, the easiest way to understand premises liability is to consider hypothetical examples. Some situations where the “owner or occupier of land” could be liable for failing to keep the premises safe include:
- A guest was injured in a fire after a landlord was told that a smoke detector in an apartment was not working but failed to replace it
- A shopper who is hit on the head by merchandise that falls in a store after being stacked improperly
- A delivery person who is knocked over by the family dog while taking a package to the porch
- A parent who trips over a rake left lying in the parking lot outside their child’s daycare center
- An office worker burned in an explosion caused by a gas leak in the building’s basement
- A tenant attacked in the unlit hallway of an apartment building
When safety measures could have prevented an injury from occurring, there is a good chance that the owner of the property could be held liable for the injury. It is a good idea to consult a Decatur personal injury attorney as soon as possible after the incident so that if you have a claim, your lawyer can start collecting and preserving evidence of liability right away. While the statute of limitations gives you two years to prepare and file a claim for Decatur premises liability, you have a better chance of proving liability when you begin investigating immediately after the injury.
Michael M. Day Law Firm, LLC Helps Victims Recover in Premises Liability Cases
It is not always obvious when a property owner’s negligence leads to legal liability for injuries on their property. However, an attorney experienced in handling premises liability cases in Decatur knows how and when to investigate to uncover and prove liability. At Michael M Day Law Firm, LLC, we know that property owners and their insurance companies are often prepared to go to great lengths to deny liability or shift it to someone else. We know how to hold the responsible parties accountable for negligent security and other forms of premises liability so that victims can gain the resources they need to make up for their suffering and rebuild their lives.
For a free case evaluation and consultation with a Decatur premises liability attorney, call 404-480-4284 or contact us online now.