A property owner has an obligation to ensure the safety of all those who are visiting his or her business or residence. If a property owner neglects to uphold this duty, he or she could be held liable for any accident that occurs and a trusted personal injury attorney may need to get involved.
At Phillips Law Group, our Phoenix, AZ premises liability lawyers are dedicated to pursuing personal injury claims where a property owner’s negligence resulted in an injury or death. Premises liability accidents can be caused by a number of dangerous conditions, including exposed wiring or broken lighting, lack of safety equipment such as a railing or guarding on stairs and ledges, loose or broken floorboards, and more.
As one of the largest consumer law firms in Phoenix, Arizona, our attorneys have decades of experience in representing victims of premises liability claims, including a slip-and-fall case that resulted in $2.25 million in damages.
Our initial review of any personal injury claim is always free and we provide our services on a contingency fee basis, so you will not be charged any legal fees unless you receive compensation. Your information will remain confidential, and you are under no obligation to move forward with us should you decide to pursue legal options.
Contact us today to see how we can help. Give us a call at the number below or feel free to fill out the form on this page.
People enter the property of others for any number of reasons in Arizona, and most of the time, there are legal rights held by those who enter this property as well as legal duties owed by property owners to those visitors that attach. These legal rights and duties generally fall under the realm of premises liability law, and people who have been injured while on the property of another should seek the help of experienced Phoenix, AZ premises liability attorneys. Below is a brief introduction to the concept of liability that could attach to property owners when people are harmed on their property.
The first mode of analysis that must be completed when someone is hurt on the property of someone else is to define the legal status of that visitor. There are several different statuses that could arise, and they include:
Basically, invitees and licensees are owed protections from harm by property owners, while trespassers are not afforded the same protections. There are exceptions to each of these statuses, but for the most part someone must lawfully be present on the property of another for legal protection to attach.
As a Phoenix, AZ premises liability attorney can explain, generally, there are several duties that attach to a property owner in relation to the legal entrants onto the premises. First and foremost, the property owner must remove any dangerous condition on the property that would not be obvious to anyone present. If such a dangerous condition cannot be removed, the property owner must provide clear and distinct warnings to those legal entrants, usually by way of warning signs or barricades placed around this problematic condition. This duty of protection applies even if the property owner was not aware of this dangerous condition but still should have known about it. In essence, the property owner owes the legal duty to protect legal entrants from unreasonable harm.
In addition to all the requirements listed above, landowners in Phoenix, AZ owe an additional duty to invitees visiting for that landowner’s benefit. In brief, landowners are legally liable for injuries suffered by invitees due to hazards which they—the landowner—had “constructive knowledge” of, not just hazards which they already had “direct knowledge” of from seeing it themselves or having it reported to them by a subordinate.
In legal terms, a landowner has constructive knowledge of a hazard if they should have already discovered it through reasonably consistent and thorough inspection of their property, either on their own or through an employee. For example, a retail store owner would likely not be considered to have constructive knowledge of a spill in one of their aisles if that spill occurred just a few minutes before someone slipped on it, but the opposite might be true if that spill had been present for several hours prior to that accident.
Even if you were hurt directly due to a hazard on another person’s property which that person had a duty of care to protect you from, that does not automatically make that landowner 100 percent liable for your ensuing losses. In fact, one of the most common defenses strategies used by defendants named in claims of this nature is arguing that the injured plaintiff suing them was partly to blame for causing their own injuries through their own misconduct—in other words, accusing them of “comparative fault.”
If a court agrees with this kind of argument and assigns a percentage of fault to you for the role you played in your own accident, Arizona Revised Statutes §12-2505 would allow that court to reduce the total amount of compensation available to you by that same percentage. Insurance companies will also take this into account during private settlement talks since they know a court would back them up if needed, so this is a significant potential obstacle to fair recovery which a Phoenix, AZ premises liability attorney can provide irreplaceable help with navigating around.
A qualified legal professional’s assistance can also be crucial to building and filing the strongest possible premises liability claim within the deadline set by the “statute of limitations.” This is a section of state law dedicated specifically to setting time limits on when legal proceedings must begin after the cause of action for the proceeding first arose, with the idea being that possible defendants should not have the threat of legal action hanging over them indefinitely and that plaintiffs should have access to as much preserved evidence as possible when they file suit.
Under A.R.S. §12-542, the statutory filing deadline for most premises liability cases in Phoenix, AZ is two years from the date on which the accident in question actually occurred, regardless of how long after that point the plaintiff’s injuries will continue to harm them. However, as your lawyer can explain in more detail, it is sometimes possible to “toll,” or push back, the starting point for this two-year filing period for cause—for instance, because you did not discover and reasonably could not have discovered your injuries until some time after they first occurred.
If you or someone you love has been harmed on the property of someone else, contact a Phoenix, AZ premises liability lawyer at Phillips Law Group today to schedule a free initial consultation. Our team has been serving the metro area for over 30 years and has the knowledge and experience you need. Do not hesitate. Initial consultations are free.
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