St. Petersburg Accident Blog

Can a Property Owner be Responsible for Your Injuries?

Did you slip and fall at a mall, grocery store, parking lot, workplace or other location?  If so, you may be wondering if you can hold the property owner responsible for your injuries.  Slip and fall and trip and fall injuries can be serious, resulting in high medical costs and time away from work.  You need to know your legal rights following a slip and fall accident.

Slip and fall accidents fall under a legal category known as premises liability.  Property owners owe a legal duty of reasonable care to keep their premises free from danger.  According to Florida law, a business owner has the responsibility to “maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition for the safety of business invitees on the premises, which includes reasonable efforts to keep the premises free from transitory foreign objects or substances that might foreseeably give rise to loss, injury or damage.”

There are certain things that you have to prove in order to receive compensation from a property owner.  Some of the questions that will need to be answered include:

• Did the person in control of the property owe you a duty?
  
• Did the property owner act negligently by failing to exercise reasonable care in the “maintenance, inspection, repair, warning or mode of operation of the business premises?”
  
• Did the property owner fail to provide reasonable care, which ultimately caused you loss, injury or damage?

The first question can be answered by reviewing the categories of visitors on a property, which include invitees, licensees and trespassers.  A licensee is someone who has a reason to believe the property is open for use, such as in the situation of a customer shopping at a retail store.  A licensee is someone who is on the property for any other reason other than commercial or business use.  A trespasser is a person who is on the property without expressed or implied invitation or permission.  In most circumstances, a property owner owes the duty of reasonable care to invitees, licensees and known trespassers.  Also, a property owner cannot intentionally harm a trespasser.

If you have been injured on someone else’s property, contact a Florida slip and fall attorney who can review your case to determine who was liable.  Call the Law Offices of William K. Saron at (727) 345-4566 or (866) 836-4947 for expert legal advice.

The article, Property Owner’s Responsibility for Injuries, has more information regarding this subject. 

Labels: Florida slip and fall attorney premises liability slip and fall trip and fall