Seattle Premises Liability Lawyers

What Is Premises Liability?

You can file a premises liability claim for sustaining an injury due to negligence by a property owner, lessee, property manager, or another responsible party. 

These accidents are caused by hazards or dangerous conditions on a property, such as:

• Slip and Falls: These accidents can occur due to poor lighting, wet and slippery floors, debris, cluttered floors, or any other hazardous condition on a property that can cause you to slip or trip and fall. These can happen at many locations, such as private homes, apartment complexes, stores, public sidewalks, etc.
• Swimming Pool Accidents: An accident in which an individual suffers an injury, such as drowning or near-drowning, due to hazardous conditions at a swimming pool. Swimming pool accidents can be caused by any number of hazards, such as inadequate fencing, diving boards that are not safely maintained, slippery surfaces around the pool area, and failure to post adequate warning signs.
• Exposure to Toxic Chemicals: This type of accident occurs when someone is exposed to harmful substances. This can include exposure to asbestos, carbon monoxide, lead paint, or any other hazardous substance.
• Gym Accidents: These accidents can be caused by defective or hazardous equipment, insufficient supervision in certain areas, slippery floors or wet surfaces, and a lack of warning signs. 
• Inadequate Security: A situation in which you are injured due to a lack of security, typically at parties, events, etc. This could include inadequate door locks, injuries caused by a person who should not have been allowed on the property, or the lack of proper personnel to monitor activity on the premises.
• Elevator and Escalator Accidents: If an elevator or escalator is out of order and you injure yourself using an alternative like a stairwell, the property owner or manager may be liable for your damages.

The list above is not exhaustive, as there are many ways that premises liability claims can unfold. Premises liability covers a broad spectrum of situations with dangerous conditions. For instance, poorly maintained walkways, insufficient lighting, or unstable infrastructure can create accidents-prone environments. Our Seattle premises liability lawyers can give you more information about your situation during a free consultation. Understanding each incident type's specifics is crucial for accurately evaluating your scenario. Our dedicated team can assess your circumstances and offer tailored advice and strategies to address your needs. 

Proving Fault in a Premises Liability Case

For a premises liability accident victim to pursue compensation for their injuries, it must be proven that the responsible party acted negligently in failing to meet their duty of care. As with most personal injury cases, you must prove that four elements are present in your scenario to succeed. 

These elements are:

• Duty of Care: The person responsible for maintaining the property owed you a duty of care as a property guest. This means they had a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to keep the property safe for visitors.
• Breach of Duty: The property owner breached their duty of care by failing to take reasonable steps to keep the property safe for visitors. This could mean that the property owner knew about the dangerous condition and did not fix it or that they should have known about it and failed to discover it due to a lack of adequate maintenance.
• Causation: The property owner's breach of duty caused your injuries. If the property owner had taken reasonable steps to keep the property safe, you would not have been injured.
• Damages: The injured party suffered actual damages due to their injuries. This could include medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses.

To prove premises liability, our team will collect various evidence to substantiate the claim. We will look at any available photographs or videos of the premises, interview any witnesses present during the accident or who can attest to the property's safety issues, research whether or not there have been other incidents like this in the past, and more. This comprehensive approach enables us to build a strong argument in your favor, showing the precise path from negligence to injury. Because premises liability cases can happen in so many different ways, it is difficult to provide a complete list of evidence here; however, we are prepared to discuss this with you once we know more about your situation and the injuries you sustained. Each process step is meticulously handled to uncover the truth and present an undeniable claim to the responsible party.