Visitors to homes and businesses alike often assume they are safe while they are guests on the premises – however, unfortunately this is not the case far too often. Visitors are often injured in accidents caused by unsafe conditions on another’s property and can suffer serious, debilitating injuries. If the property owner or manager has breached their duty of care to protect visitors from dangerous conditions and someone is injured as a result, they may be liable for the victim’s injuries. If you were hurt on someone else’s property, talk to an experienced Menifee premises liability attorney today to see if you are entitled to compensation for your injuries.
Premises Liability Risks in Menifee
Menifee is a growing city of over 93,000 that continues to attract new residents from Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. The burgeoning population means there are homes, retail establishments, apartments, restaurants, hotels, malls, supermarkets, and parks springing up every day – ample places for a premises liability claim to begin. Additionally, Menifee boasts tourist attractions such as Funhouse Escape and the DropZone Waterpark that bring even more people to the city. Any of these properties could incur liability for an owner or manager if a visitor is hurt on premises, and the number of potential accident sites will do nothing but increase into the future.
What Should a Property Owner in Menifee Do to Protect Me?
Owners, managers, and caretakers of property in Menifee are charged with the legal duty to protect their visitors by using reasonable care to maintain their property free from hazardous or unsafe conditions. The party controlling the property is also burdened with the legal duty to exercise reasonable care to adequately warn all visitors of existing dangers. They must also exercise reasonable care to uncover any unsafe or hazardous conditions through inspection of the premises and either abate the condition or adequately warn of the existing condition.
Despite the legal duty owed by the party controlling the premises to visitors, they are not required to warn visitors about a condition on a property so blatantly unsafe that a reasonable person:
- Would recognize it and
- Take steps to avoid it.
However, if a victim can prove the owner or manager should have discovered the unsafe condition through exercise of reasonable care such as inspection before the victim’s injury, they are considered to have had constructive notice of the condition for the purpose of premises liability.
Dangerous Conditions
California courts have construed unsafe and hazardous conditions very broadly for purposes of premises liability personal injury claims. This means any number of conditions on commercial and residential properties can injure visitors and give rise to liability. Conditions often causing injury are:
- Insufficient or nonexistent lighting;
- Falling objects;
- Faulty handrails;
- Broken glass;
- Liquids on the floor;
- Insufficient pool safety;
- Broken or nonexistent smoke detectors, sprinklers, or fire extinguishers;
- Negligent hiring of security personnel;
- Broken steps; and
- An owner or manager’s failure to warn visitors about unsafe or hazardous conditions.
Some conditions are blatantly obvious, but others are more subtle and might be overlooked by a layperson. If you were injured on a party’s property, it is important to speak with an experienced Menifee premises liability attorney to see if a condition on the property caused your injury and may allow you to seek legal redress for your losses.
Events Giving Rise to Premises Liability Claims
Commercial and residential properties are the primary source of premises liability lawsuits, but claims may also arise on public property and government land. Though any incident can entitle a victim to compensation, certain accidents are more common than others:
- Drownings;
- Cuts;
- Slip or trip and falls;
- Dog bites;
- Diving injuries; and
- Trauma from falling objects.
Commercial buildings may also pose additional risks not typically found on residential property – elevators and escalators. It is common for elevator drops, faulty elevator doors, and clothes or shoes snagged in an escalator to injure visitors to malls, office buildings, and other commercial properties.
Property owners may also be liable for consequential injuries resulting from lack of or insufficient security on their property. Their legal duty includes exercising reasonable care to protect visitors from crime risks that are known. If a restaurant owner is aware there have been multiple muggings in their unlit parking lot yet fail to install lights, post signs warning guests, or take other reasonable care to remove the risk of crime to their patrons, they may incur liability if a diner is injured during a later mugging in their parking lot.
What Can I Recover for My Injuries?
It’s normal for you to wonder what compensation you may be able to receive for your injuries at the hands of another. Once you have established negligence on the part of another party, you may recover compensatory damages you are able to prove in court.
Compensatory damages are intended to make victims whole for their injuries. They can be awarded for two types of injuries: economic and noneconomic. Economic compensatory damages make a victim whole for concrete, verifiable harms such as:
- Lost wages and lost future earning capacity,
- Funerals or burial costs,
- Property damage, and
- Medical bills.
Noneconomic compensatory damages, on the other hand, are awarded for injuries on which you can’t put a price tag such as emotional, physical, and psychological traumas including:
- Pain and suffering,
- Emotional distress,
- Scarring and disfigurement,
- Permanent physical disability, and
- Loss of consortium.
Additionally, if certain aggravating conditions are met a victim may be awarded additional relief in the form of punitive damages. These awards are intended to punish particularly vile, reprehensible conduct by a party and discourage others from engaging in such behavior. Punitive damages are at the discretion of a judge or jury and require a higher standard of proof than compensatory damages stemming from negligent behavior. Because of the varying burdens of proof, as well at the discretionary nature of some damage awards, it is important to have an experienced premises liability attorney that will advocate in the most compelling, strategic way for you.
Contact a Menifee Premises Liability Attorney Today
If you were injured in an accident on another person’s property, you understand the traumatic, long-lasting, life-changing consequences these injuries can bring about in the blink of an eye. Contact the experienced Menifee premises liability attorneys at Walton Law today to receive a professional review of your case and help in determining the best way to proceed. Our attorneys have spent years delivering personalized, zealous representation for victims like you and have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for our clients. Contact us at (866)-338-7079 or use our online Contact Page to set up a no-risk, no obligation case review today. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help you. The initial consultation is free, and you pay nothing until we win your case. Let our attorneys evaluate the facts of your case and work diligently to secure an optimal result for you.