If you have lost a family member or suffered injuries as a result of another person's negligence or misconduct, a personal injury attorney who knows how to protect your rights can work with you to negotiate the best possible result according to the facts and applicable law. Don't delay. Contact our firm today to schedule a consultation and case evaluation.
When You or A Loved One Is Seriously Injured
If you or a family member has suffered as a result of another person's negligence, wrongdoing or carelessness, you should not be expected to carry the financial burden of lost wages and medical expenses along with the physical and emotional toll. The legal system is designed to make sure that you have a way to hold the right party responsible for the damage they have caused.
At the law office of Stulce & Yantis in Chattanooga, Tennessee, our attorneys work with seriously injured clients throughout the region. We put a career of proven work and a record of significant settlements and verdicts, including multi-million dollar recoveries, behind our effort to recover a full and fair settlement for you. No matter how big or small your case is we will provide the personal attention that your case deserves to gain a successful conclusion.
Find out some basic personal injury information below, or contact us to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your case.
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Our lawyers are proud to have earned the respect and appreciation of our clients for the quality of representation and guidance we offer along with our proven record of success. We work hard to foster the high standards of our legal practice that allow us to be recognized by independent organizations.
Contact our office today to schedule a free initial consultation at our Chattanooga office or by phone. You can reach us locally at 423-933-1504, toll-free at 888-820-7541 or through our convenient online form.
Slips, Falls, and Other Premises Liability Claims
Premises liability law involves the legal responsibilities of property owners and occupiers to prevent injuries to persons on their property. One of the most common causes of such injuries is a trip or slip and fall, such as on an icy sidewalk, a loose or uneven stair tread, or a piece of debris or spilled liquid on the floor. Property owner liability varies depending on the rules and principles adopted in the jurisdiction where the injury occurred. An experienced personal injury lawyer at Stulce & Yantis in Chattanooga, Tennessee, can evaluate the strength of your premises liability claim and help you recover damages for lost wages, medical bills, and pain and suffering.
Premises Liability: General Principles
Some states’ premises liability laws focus on the status of the visitor to the property. In such states, the injured person is generally defined as either an invitee, a licensee, or a trespasser.
- Invitee. An invitee is someone who is expressly or impliedly invited onto the property of another. The owner owes the invitee the highest duty of care, which includes taking every reasonable precaution to ensure the invitee’s safety.
- Licensee. A licensee, by contrast, enters the property for his or her own purposes but is present at the consent of the owner. The owner is required to warn a licensee of hidden dangers, but is not necessarily required to fix them.
- Trespasser. A trespasser enters the property without any right whatsoever to do so. In the case of adult trespassers, the owner generally has no duty of care and need not take reasonable care of his property or warn of hidden dangers. Even if a person was trespassing at the time of his or her injury, he or she may still be able to recover, however, if he or she can show that the owner knew it was likely that trespassers would enter the property.
Children are owed a higher duty of care, regardless of whether they are considered trespassers. A landowner’s duty to warn is also heightened with respect to children.
In states where consideration is given to the condition of the property and the activities of the owner and visitor, a uniform standard of care is applied to both invitees and licensees. This uniform standard requires the exercise of reasonable care for the safety of visitors other than trespassers. To satisfy the reasonableness standard owed to invitees and licensees, an owner has a continuing duty to inspect the property to identify dangerous conditions and either repair them or post warnings as appropriate.
Proving Owners' Liability in Premises Liability Cases
In proving a premises liability case, an injured person must show that the standard of reasonableness required by an owner has not been met. Perhaps the most difficult element an injured person must prove is the owner’s knowledge of the condition causing his or her injury. The injured person must prove that the owner knew or should have known the condition in order for liability to attach, which is often quite often difficult to establish.
Defenses to Liability in Premises Liability Cases
One of the commonly applied theories to limit an injured person’s recovery is comparative or contributory fault. A visitor has a duty, in most cases, to exercise reasonable care for his or her own safety, and when that degree of care is not exercised, then an injured person's recovery may be limited or reduced by an amount attributable to his or her own negligence.
In the cases where a person's injuries are the result of slipping on an icy sidewalk in front of a business or on a grape, lettuce leaf, or other food item that has fallen on a grocery store floor, the property owner may or may not be liable for the person’s injuries. Although property owners have a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain the premises in such a way to prevent injuries to lawful visitors, if a condition of the premises is noticed by a customer or other visitor or should be readily apparent, the property owner may avoid liability because the injured person has also a duty to protect himself or herself against the injury.
The property owner may also avoid liability by establishing that the debris had so recently fallen on the floor or that the ice had so recently accumulated that the responsible persons had no reasonable opportunity to correct the condition and avoid the hazard before the plaintiff fell. In other words, the plaintiff in a slip and fall case, whether it occurs in a grocery store or elsewhere, must show that the owner had a reasonable period of time in which to discover the dangerous condition and in which to remedy it. The determination of what constitutes a reasonable time will vary from case to case.
Conclusion
Even common accidents such as slips and falls can present complex legal issues and complicated questions of both fact and law. Accordingly, if you have been injured in a premises-related accident, an experienced and knowledgeable personal injury attorney at Stulce & Yantis in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is in an excellent position to advise you on your rights and work with you to pursue a favorable outcome.
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