When someone gets injured on a commercial property, they often want to sue the property owner. They may be facing significant damages, from lost wages to medical bills. They blame the person who owns the property because that’s where the injury happened, so they start a lawsuit seeking compensation.
But if you’re the business owner, you may contest that the property was very safe for everyone else who was there and that the accident was in no way your fault. Why should your business be liable just because someone was on the premises when they got injured?
Often, it’s just a question of negligence. If there was no negligence on your part, you’re not responsible for the injuries that the other party suffered. But if they show that you were negligent, that’s when they will claim that your company should cover the costs.
How do you identify negligence?
Essentially, you just need to exercise “reasonable care” to create a safe environment for anyone who comes to your business. If you create a dangerous environment – such as failing to use adequate security measures or failing to put up proper lighting, making it difficult for people to see and increasing the odds of a trip-and-fall accident – the injuries could be your fault.
Negligence sometimes revolves around a “failure to repair known hazards.” In many cases, it depends on how long the hazard has existed. For instance, if there was a wet spot on the floor that caused someone to slip and fall, and they can show that you knew about a leaky pipe for months and did nothing, then you may be negligent. Even if you claim that you didn’t know about the leak, they may claim that you should have known because it existed for so long.
As you can imagine, these cases can get rather contentious, so be sure you know what legal steps to take when facing a lawsuit.