What Makes a Strong DC Premises Liability Case 

A case is considered a premises liability case if it arises out of someone’s use of a premises. That is the prevailing standard. If you are on someone’s land and something happens as a result of you being on that land then, by definition, it is a premises liability case.

An experienced premises liability attorney can represent you in a case against the at-fault party. They can in do so by securing your medical records, negotiating with the insurance company, filing a lawsuit, and going through the litigation process. Work with a knowledgeable lawyer that knows what makes a strong DC premises liability case.

How Does Someone Know They Have a Strong Case

If a person does not do anything wrong and is injured, they typically have a pretty strong case. An example is a ceiling collapse. If someone is sitting in a restaurant and a ceiling falls on them and they break a bone, that is a very strong case. A lack of culpability in the situation is usually what makes a strong DC premises liability case.

For a slip and fall or a trip and fall, they might have a good case, but it is not as strong because there is an element of contributory negligence. Contributory negligence makes things very difficult because if someone did something that caused or contributed to the accident, they are not going to be able to recover anything.

How the Type of Property That an Incident Occurs on Can Affect a Case

The type of property that the incident occurred on touches on the reasonableness of the conduct. The property owner is going to owe a duty to be reasonable under the circumstances. If somebody owns a junkyard, there is a different expectation of what a reasonable junkyard owner does compared to someone who owns a daycare. Daycares have different standards of reasonableness than junkyards. So, the type of premises really does factor into what the standard of care is because the standard is what a reasonable owner of a similar property would do under similar circumstances.

Impact of Severity of Injuries or Wrongful Death on a Case

Typically, the bigger the possible exposure to an insurance company, the harder the plaintiff’s attorney may have to fight. If somebody dies on someone else’s premises or if someone gets paralyzed in someone else’s premises, the insurance company is going to be much, much less likely to pay without filing a lawsuit and, as a result, a person needs to fight that much harder. If the insurance company does not want to pay and the value of the claim is very high, someone really does need a lawyer to help navigate the nuances of law. That attorney may understand how to negotiate with the insurance companies, and could also know what makes a strong DC premises liability case.

Approaches a Defense Attorney Might Take

The first approach is to attack the idea that the business owner, the property owner, or the business operator owes that duty of care to the plaintiff, which means that they did not owe the plaintiff a duty to do anything. For instance, if somebody slips and falls on a wet pool deck, the defense attorney would argue that it was not the property owner’s responsibility to maintain a dry pool deck.

The second approach is to say that there is no breach. For example, in a restaurant, if someone slips and falls on water, the attorney could say that the water had to have been there for an unreasonable amount of time for the water to be considered a breach.

The next approach would be to argue for contributory negligence, which is to argue that the person who got injured was partially at fault. If the person that is injured is partially at fault then, under DC law, they are not able to recover a dollar on the doctrine of contributory negligence.

Recoverable Damages

A person can recover economic and non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are pain and suffering. That is the standard and it includes loss of enjoyment of life and conscious pain and suffering, which means how much pain someone has suffered over how much time along with the inability to do things that give them joy in life. They are also entitled to economic damages, which are medical bills and lost wages, including future medical expenses, past medical expenses, future lost wages and past lost wages.

Information an Attorney Must Know

What makes a strong DC premises liability case is making sure that your attorney is well-informed about what happened. They need to know where the accident happened, when the accident happened, why the accident happened, and what kind of medical care you may have received. They also need to know whether you had been drinking, using drugs, or doing anything else to cause or contribute to the accident, where you went for medical care, whether there are any witnesses, and how you are doing now. Armed with all of that knowledge, your attorney could attempt to dispute the defense’s argument and could build a solid personal injury case for you. Consult a determined premises liability attorney today and know that you are in capable hands.