If you’ve been injured on someone else’s property and are considering to file a premises liability claim to recover damages, be warned that things can get very messy.
Any legal process can get ugly if you are not prepared for all possible obstacles, challenges and mishaps associated with filing a premises liability claim and proving that your injury was caused by negligence on the part of the owner of the property.
Today, our Los Angeles premises liability attorney at Compass Law Group, LLP is going to review factors that may prevent you from smoothly obtaining compensation for your injuries stemming from a slip and fall, wet floor accident, hotel accident, drowning or any other accident.
First challenge in a premises liability case
The first thing you have to understand before filing a premises liability claim is that the outcome of your claim is never predictable unless you’re legally represented by a lawyer. Here’s the thing: just because you were injured on someone else’s property does not itself legitimize a premises liability claim.
Only an experienced lawyer can evaluate the validity of your claim, determine the full value of your claim, and come up with a viable and tried-and-true strategy to fight for every dollar available in your case.
California premises liability laws are not easy to decipher and navigate for someone who doesn’t have a law degree and has never had success in suing a property owner for causing injuries stemming from dangerous conditions on the property.
In other words, in order to prove negligence on the part of the property owner in a premises liability claim, you’re required to prove four elements: duty of care, breach of the duty of care, causation, and damages. If this sounds confusing already, contact a Los Angeles premises liability lawyer to understand the basics.
More obstacles that you can encounter along the way
But understanding the basics of premises liability laws is not going to get you far unless you’re prepared for possible challenges and mishaps that can be encountered during a legal process. Let’s review some of the challenges that you could face after filing a premises liability claim.
Depending on the circumstances of your case, the property owner may attempt to avoid responsibility by proving that the dangerous condition, which caused your injuries, would have been obvious to a reasonable person.
In this case, only a skilled attorney can provide sufficient evidence that the existence of the dangerous condition was made possible by the negligence of the property owner, and that a regular person would have sustained injuries under the same circumstances.
Moreover, a skilled lawyer will pursue a premises liability claim even if you – as the victim – was partially at fault. Under California’s pure comparative negligence standard, multiple parties can be held liable based on the percentage they were negligent.
How to seek damages in a premises liability claim?
If you’re filing a premises liability claim in Los Angeles or elsewhere in California, you may also encounter the issue of “third party interference.” The thing is, the owner of the property may not be held liable for your injuries if an unrelated third party had a major role in creating dangerous conditions that led to the injury.
However, a Los Angeles premises liability attorney can easily counter the property owner’s claims of third party interference by proving that the owner failed to reasonably control negative third-party behavior that created the dangerous conditions.
Depending on the circumstances of your case, a skilled attorney can prove that the dangerous conditions created by a third party could be prevented by modifying certain policies, hiring guards, changing access to the premises, installing video cameras, etc.
As you can see, there are many challenges that can be encountered after filing a premises liability claim. That’s why it’s never advised to attempt to sue the property owner on your own. Contact our attorneys at Compass Law Group, LLP to get a top-notch legal representation.
