Innocent victims are hurt daily on someone else’s property, usually by a defect that they couldn’t discover on their own. They incur massive medical bills and are often in so much pain they can’t work.

Fortunately, New York law lets many people hurt by a dangerous condition to sue the property owner. This is a premises liability claim, and the Law Offices of Gary E. Rosenberg, P.C. has brought several of them. If you were hurt in a slip and fall, trip and fall, explosion, or fire, we can help you. Contact our Queens premises liability attorney today to go over your case. Financial help with medical bills might be only a phone call away.

Were You Injured in a Premises Liability Accident?

We can assist anyone hurt in some of the more common premises liability accidents:

  • Slip and Fall: People can slip and fall due to spilled liquids, ice, snow, debris, litter, or loose tiles or floorboards. They might also slip due to poorly lighted stairwells or stairs in disrepair.
  • Trip and Tall: A victim can trip over uneven floors, power cords, broken pavement, or potholes, among other causes.
  • Building Collapse: A building wall or ceiling might collapse due to structural problems with a building or substandard repairs.
  • Electrocution: Faulty wiring and hazardous appliances can send a jolt through a person, leading to serious injuries.
  • Fire or Explosion: Wiring and other hazards can lead to a fire that burns a visitor.
  • Elevator or Escalator Accidents: Many clients are injured when an elevator or escalator suddenly stops without warning, or if they get a body part caught in closing doors or the side of the escalator step.
  • Negligent Security: Businesses must provide adequate security based on the history of crime and other factors. If they don’t, you can often sue if you are attacked on the premises.

In short, any accident that happens on someone’s property could give rise to a premises liability claim.

Proving Negligence

Most premises liability cases are based on negligence, which is the failure to exercise reasonable care. Property owners in Queens and New York state do not have to do everything humanly possible to make their property safe. At the same time, they need to take reasonable steps based on the situation:

  • The identity of who was hurt on the property
  • The likelihood that visitors would be injured by the hazard
  • The cost of fixing the hazard or warning visitors of it

If a business created a hazard and failed to warn people of it, then they are probably negligent. For example, they should put up warning signs when they mop the floor to warn people the floor is slippery. Similarly, a property owner is probably negligent when they could easily uncover a hazard by performing a reasonable inspection but failed to.

Proving negligence is very complicated. There are few bright-line rules in this area. We will carefully review the hazards and what steps the property owner took—and what steps they failed to take.

Holding Defendants Responsible

We can bring a premises liability claim against:

  • Businesses, like hotels, restaurants, stores, and shopping malls
  • Landlords and property management companies
  • Private property owners
  • Government entities, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) or the city government

Identifying the correct defendant is important. For example, you might be hurt in a parking lot and assume the nearby store owns the lot. However, a different company could own the lot and have responsibility for its maintenance. If you do not name the correct defendant, then it is much harder to obtain compensation.

Why You Should Contact Our Queens Premises Liability Lawyer

Ideally, you will reach out to our law firm soon after the accident. There are many steps we must take to secure your ability to receive compensation.

For example, one problem is proving the hazard or dangerous condition existed and hurt you. Property owners have an incentive to quickly fix any problem and pretend it didn’t exist. If you slipped on some loose tile, for example, they might quickly glue the tile back down. Similarly, they could delete closed-circuit television which captured the accident.

We immediately spring into action to document the condition which injured you. We can also interview any witnesses who saw what happened and talk to store personnel. The sooner we get started, the better.

Seeking Fair Compensation

Our clients suffer many injuries in premises liability accidents, including:

  • Burns
  • Fractures
  • Soft-tissue injuries
  • Head injuries
  • Concussions
  • Cuts or lacerations
  • Crush injuries
  • Back injuries
  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Paralysis

Obtaining compensation to cover the cost of these injuries is key. In particular, our Queens premises liability attorney can seek money to cover all reasonable medical expenses. If you were seriously injured, we can also seek future medical care.

Similarly, we can seek money for lost income and loss of future income, in addition to property damage. Someone with a head injury, for example, might be unable to work for months. They should not suffer a loss of income when they are not to blame for their injury.

We also seek money for pain and suffering, including emotional distress and inconvenience. These losses are harder to define but can be worth considerable sums of money.

Comparative Fault for Premises Liability Accidents

In some situations, New York’s shared responsibility law might reduce the compensation you receive. Specifically, an accident victim’s compensation gets reduced by their proportion of fault for the accident.

A common situation involves cell phones. Many people are not watching where they are going because they are looking at their phones. You might be partially to blame for slipping or tripping if you had your nose glued to a phone.

However, so long as the property owner is still somewhat to blame, you can sue. Let our law firm analyze fault and allocate blame fairly.

Speak with a Queens Premises Liability Lawyer Today

Accident victims need help filing a claim the correct way. Please contact our law firm as soon as possible. Accident victims only get a maximum of three years to file a lawsuit against a property owner. But if the government owned the property, you have only 90 days to file. This is a very short deadline. Call our law firm to speak with an attorney knowledgeable on this subject.