Whether they operate a retail store accepting all kinds of customers or are just inviting close friends over to their private home for a visit, everyone who owns property in Arizona and opens that property up to lawful visitors assumes a “duty of care” requiring them to keep their premises in a reasonably safe condition. A landowner who “breaches” this duty and allows a visitor to suffer an injury as a direct result of a dangerous property condition may hold legal liability for any damages that person sustains because of their injury.
This may seem simple in theory, but as any experienced personal injury attorney could tell you, holding a property owner liable for an injury on their land can be exceptionally difficult in practice, especially if you try to do it alone. Fortunately, you have guidance available from a Gilbert premises liability lawyer with a track record of over three decades of helping people much like you through similar situations.
Establishing a Landowner’s Duty of Care
Under Arizona “premises liability” law, landowners owe different “duties” to lawful visitors depending on that visitor’s reason for being on the property. Property owners generally do not owe a duty of care to people illegally trespassing. However, there are some notable exceptions to that rule under the attractive nuisance doctrine, which involves children who trespass because they are drawn to certain elements such as trampolines or pools.
Landowners owe a less substantial duty of care to “licensees,” which are people like private houseguests who are visiting someone else’s property solely for their own purposes. A licensee can generally sue a property owner over an injury they suffered due to a hazard the landowner had actual knowledge of but did not properly warn them about, as long as the hazard was not obviously dangerous to any reasonable person who encountered it.
Conversely, landowners owe a greater duty of care to “invitees” or people visiting lawfully for the landowner’s benefit, such as retail store customers. In addition to being liable for hazards they failed to warn invitees about, property owners may also be liable for injuries caused by hazards they reasonably should have discovered through regular inspection of their property.
How Comparative Negligence Could Impact Recovery
A successful settlement demand or lawsuit against a negligent property owner can include both economic and non-economic repercussions of an injury, including:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Psychological trauma and anguish
- Past and expected future medical expenses
- Lost working capacity, income, and/or benefits
- Lost consortium, lost quality of life, and other effects of a long-term or permanent injury
Importantly, though, any injured person found to have contributed to causing their own injury through negligence—for example, wearing shoes with no tread and then slipping on an unmarked spill in a store aisle—could have a percentage of “comparative fault” assigned to them by a court. In accordance with Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-2505, this could then result in the court reducing their final damage award in proportion to their share of total fault for their accident—something a skilled premises liability lawyer in Gilbert could provide vital help with preventing.
Contact a Gilbert Premises Liability Attorney for Assistance
Premises liability law can be challenging to understand and even harder to apply in a way that gets you paid fairly for the harm you sustained on another person’s property. Without a dependable legal professional on your side, you may have trouble obtaining any compensation at all for your injuries, let alone the full amount to which you should be entitled under Arizona law.
A consultation with a Gilbert premises liability lawyer could be a crucial first step towards maximizing your chances of case success. Call the Phillips Law Group today to schedule yours.
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