When Businesses Can Be Sued for Personal Injuries

Determining Liability for an Injury That Occurs on Business Property

Whether you have been involved in a slip and fall accident or were injured in an elevator, you may have grounds to file a lawsuit if the business owner is responsible for your injuries. Nearly 40% of spinal injuries occur from slip and fall accidents, which is why it's important to identify liability in any personal injury claim. If a business owner is liable for your injuries, they may need to provide you with compensation to account for your medical bills, lost wages, and other damages.

Safety Responsibilities for a Business Owner

Business owners are required to make sure that their properties are safe for any employees and customers who enter, which is why they must perform regular maintenance if they want to avoid liability for injuries. Many injuries that occur at a place of business result from hazardous conditions. Once a business has detected the presence of a hazardous condition, it must correct it immediately to ensure that customers and employees remain uninjured.

If someone is injured because the business site wasn't properly maintained, the owner would likely be liable for any losses that occur. When looking at the different hazardous conditions that business owners are required to mitigate, there are numerous door problems that could worsen the customer's experience. Any door in a place of business must open easily to ensure that all customers can get in and out of the place without issue. Any customer with a wheelchair or walker needs to be able to open doors on their own. At a grocery store, all freezer doors must be simple to open in order to avoid face and hand injuries.

Parking lots must also be properly preserved. All travel lanes and parking areas need to be marked. The main parking lot surface should also be maintained to keep potholes and cracks at bay. Any ice or snow that accumulates should be removed as well. As for physical obstacles, every business must keep poorly stacked merchandise, loose cords, and sharp shelf edges to a minimum.

Wet floors are another cause for concern for any business owner. All spills should be mopped up immediately. It's also important that safety mats are positioned at any entrance into the store to avoid slip and fall accidents during wet weather. Whenever an area of a floor is slick, wet floor signs should be placed in the appropriate position. Sidewalks must be tended to alongside any parking lots. Ice and snow should be quickly cleared off after a winter storm. Sand or salt should also be placed on the sidewalks to prevent ice or snow accumulation.

In the event that a business doesn't take all of these issues into account, they could be held liable if an injury occurs on their premises. If an accident occurs because ice wasn't removed from a sidewalk, the court will determine if the business owner took too long to correct this issue.

Injuries That Commonly Occur on Business Properties

There are a number of different injuries that can occur on a business property, which include food poisoning, shopping cart injuries, puncture wounds, assaults in stores or parking lots, neck or head injuries, escalator or elevator injuries, parking lot injuries, abrasions and cuts, and door injuries.

Business owners will typically have liability insurance to make sure that they don't pay extremely high costs whenever an accident occurs on their property. However, business owners also get to choose how much insurance they would like to obtain. If the liability insurance doesn't provide enough compensation to cover your injuries, it's possible to file a lawsuit against the business owner. In this situation, the business owner would likely be required to pay any remaining amount after the insurance coverage has kicked in.

How Liability Is Proven

No matter the type of accident that occurred on business property, there are three things that need to be proven if a plaintiff wants to obtain compensation. First, the business must have had a duty of care to the customers who were injured. An attorney must also prove that there was a breach of this duty of care. Finally, it must be proven that harm occurred as a result of the breach.

In almost all cases, business owners will have a duty of care to any employee or customer who enters their place of business. However, it's important to understand that business owners aren't held liable for every injury that occurs on their property. If the injuries didn't result from the business owner's negligence, the court may not award compensation. To make sure that businesses aren't constantly paying money for every injury that occurs on their property, a reasonableness standard has been set that the business must adhere to.

For instance, the business must immediately repair any crumbling or cracked pavement. If the owner is made aware of this issue but doesn't quickly correct it, they could be held liable. The same is true if the business doesn't quickly remove snow from its parking lot. However, the owner isn't liable for every car accident that occurs in their parking lot.

In order for a plaintiff to prevail, they must also prove that the business owner breached their duty of care. Let's say that you slip on a floor in a supermarket. If a wet floor sign was placed in the area but you walked on the floor anyways, the business owner likely wouldn't be liable for your injuries. However, they could be liable if a spill wasn't cleaned immediately or a wet floor sign wasn't placed in the area. It's common for business owners and employees to forget to correct or repair issues that take place in their store because of how busy they are. When this occurs, liability could be an issue.

The third and final thing that must be proven is that the injury resulted from the breach. If it did, the business owner would likely be responsible for all of the harm that was caused by the breach. Harm relates to medical bill expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. It can be difficult to prove all three aspects of a personal injury case, which is why it's important to retain the services of a reputable personal injury lawyer.

How an Allentown Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help

If you believe that a business owner is responsible for your injuries, it's recommended that you seek assistance from our Allentown personal injury lawyer. When you request our assistance, we'll work hard to build a strong case for you. Along with proving that the business or business owner was negligent, it's also necessary to prove the overall severity of the injuries.

To ensure a strong case, we conduct a thorough investigation into every facet of the accident that resulted in an injury. Gathering evidence for a case like this can involve obtaining incident reports, witness statements, insurance information, and photographs of the area where the accident took place. Only after an investigation has occurred can a strong case be built. Keep in mind that the strength of a claim can dictate the amount of compensation that a plaintiff receives. We understand every type of compensation that can be sought during a personal injury case and can determine if they apply to your situation.

When an injury occurs at a place of business, you should consider all of your legal options before deciding what your next steps will be. Call our personal injury attorney today at (610) 435-7400 to discuss your situation.