Visiting your neighbors’ house for a friendly barbecue should not be a dangerous experience. Just as strolling through your favorite department store to pick up an outfit should not end with a trip to the local emergency room. Unfortunately, accidents happen every day when people are away from home.
If you suffered a severe injury while on another person or company’s property, you may have a right to file suit. A knowledgeable personal injury attorney at our firm could sit down with you to review the details of your accident. A skilled Red Bank premises liability lawyer could help draft a legal strategy that might be able to help you recover compensation for your losses.
Premises liability law protects the rights of visitors, guests, customers, and clients who enter another person’s property and suffer an injury. Essentially, the law states that property owners or anyone caring for a property—such as a manager, store owner, landlord, or tenant—have a duty to keep their land and buildings reasonably safe for people who visit their property.
Premises liability law gives people who suffer an injury due to a broken staircase, slippery floor, inadequate security, poor lighting, falling debris, or other hazards the right to pursue compensation for their losses. An experienced legal professional in Red Bank could help guide them through the often complex process of filing a premises liability claim.
The duty of care that property owners must exercise over their property varies depending on who the visitor is.
Property owners owe the least care to trespassers who enter a property illegally and without the landowner’s permission. Trespassers could include thieves who are there to commit a crime on a property or people just taking a shortcut across a person’s yard. For the most part, property owners do not owe trespassers any duty of care. However, landowners cannot intentionally harm a trespasser. For instance, if a landowner is annoyed that people keep using their property as a cut-through, they cannot set a trap to intentionally harm those trespassers.
If the trespasser is a child, the duty of care is significantly higher. If a child wanders onto another person’s property because of an attractive nuisance—such as an open swimming pool or trampoline—the property owner might be liable for the child’s injuries.
Licensees are people who enter a property legally for social reasons, such as houseguests. A homeowner or business owner must not purposely harm a licensee and must fix or remove any hazardous conditions that they are aware of.
Invitees are people who come to a property for business purposes that benefit both parties. A shopper at a grocery store and a customer at a bank are both invitees. Property owners owe invitees the most significant duty of care. They must regularly inspect their properties to check for unknown dangers that could cause harm. If they notice a hazardous condition, they must repair it or warn customers.
The seasoned attorneys at our firm understand how premises liability claims work in Red Bank and could fight diligently in court to hold a negligent landowner accountable for their negligence.
If you suffered a serious injury away from your home, you might be able to seek financial recovery through legal action. Regardless of whether the injury occurred while you were at work, at a friend’s house, at the grocery store, or at the local post office, the person in charge of the property where the injury happened might be responsible for your damages.
Reach out to a Red Bank premises liability lawyer today to start building your case.