If you sustained an injury caused by a dangerous condition on someone else’s property, you may have a premises liability case. By filing a lawsuit against the property owner, you can seek compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and other losses caused by your injury.
Contact Maring Williams Law Office for a free consultation with a compassionate and experienced member of our team. During your initial consultation, we’ll walk you through what to expect from your premises liability case and answer any questions you have about the legal process.
Premises liability is a subset of personal injury law that deals with injuries caused by property hazards. Premises liability lawsuits hold property owners and managers financially liable for harm caused by these hazards if they knew or should have known about them and didn’t take reasonable steps to remedy them.
For example, an apartment complex owner could be liable if a tenant or guest falls in a poorly lit stairwell, and a store owner could be liable if a customer slips and falls on a wet floor. However, you must provide evidence that the owner or manager acted unreasonably.
There is a wide variety of premises liability cases, from slip-and-fall accidents to negligent security. Some of the most common types of cases our lawyers handle in ND, MN, and MT include:
For a successful premises liability case, you must prove that the property owner owed you a duty of care and that their violation of that duty caused your injuries. A duty of care refers to the property owner’s responsibility to protect visitors from harm.
Depending on the type of visitor you are, the property owner may owe you a different duty of care. For example:
Through your premises liability case, you can seek compensation for various losses suffered because of your injury. Losses are the negative, compensable consequences of your injury, including:
A compassionate and experienced premises liability attorney can help maximize your compensation by accurately assessing the value of your past and future expenses and how your injury will impact your life.
If your injury occurred on a friend’s or family member’s property, you may have concerns about filing a premises liability lawsuit against them. However, in most cases, the property owner will not pay the compensation you settle for or receive through a trial award.
Instead, their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance will cover your losses. This makes it possible to recover the compensation you need after a serious injury without harming your relationship with the property owner.
Depending on the state where your injury occurred, you may have a different time limit for filing your premises liability lawsuit against the party responsible for your injury. In North Dakota and Minnesota, you, generally, have six years to file your lawsuit, while in Montana, you only have three.
Our lawyers can make sure your premises liability case is filed within the appropriate time limit so you don’t miss out on your chance to seek compensation for your injuries.
Most of the challenges that premises liability victims face come from the insurance company handling their case. Insurance companies always want to get away with paying as little as possible.
One of these tactics is delaying the settlement. Insurers know that some victims need money sooner rather than later, and they may delay negotiations to pressure the victim into accepting a low settlement.
Insurers also try to shift blame for the incident onto the victim to reduce their own liability. ND, MN, and MT use versions of comparative negligence laws that insurers use when negotiating settlements, despite these laws specifically applying to trial awards.
Under comparative negligence, the court may reduce a victim’s awarded compensation by their degree of fault. For example, if you are 20 percent at fault, you may only recover 80 percent of your awarded compensation. Additionally, victims must be less than 50 percent at fault to recover compensation in ND, and less than 51 percent at fault to recover compensation in MN and MT.
When you hire our premises liability lawyers to handle your case, you can rest assured that we’ll look out for your best interests from start to finish. We’ll begin by speaking to you about the incident and how your injury affects your daily life. Then, we’ll investigate the incident to identify the at-fault parties and gather supporting evidence.
Once we have the evidence we need, we’ll calculate the value of your case and file your premises liability lawsuit. And at this stage, we’ll begin negotiating with the at-fault party’s insurance company for a settlement that covers your expenses and other losses.
If we can’t get the insurance company to offer a fair settlement, our lawyers will take your case to court to seek the compensation you need. However, the vast majority of cases settle before getting to that point.
Were you injured on someone else’s property in North Dakota, Minnesota, or Montana? Contact Maring Williams Law Office for a free consultation with a highly qualified member of our legal team. We’ll explain your legal rights as a property guest and your options for seeking compensation for your injuries.
