Common Types Of Premises Liability Cases (2025)

How Does the Claims Process Work in Premises Liability Cases?

If you’ve suffered a personal injury on someone else’s property, you should notify the property owner or occupier right away. Next, promptly seek medical attention to assess the severity of your injuries and obtain documentation about what happened.

As soon as you’ve addressed your immediate medical needs, connect with an experienced legal professional. The sooner you hire a premises liability attorney, the easier it will be for them to gather pertinent details about the case and speak with witnesses. The longer you wait, the greater the odds that crucial evidence, like security footage, will be lost.

Your attorney will help you understand your rights and, if necessary, file a claim on your behalf. They will then negotiate a lawsuit settlement so that you can receive compensation for your injuries, emotional trauma, missed time from work, and any other losses.

7 Common Types of Premises Liability Cases

Premise liability cases take all sorts of forms. However, every one of these cases must have three essential elements:

• Duty of Care: The property owner must have a duty of care to people who enter the premises
• Breach of Duty: The person responsible for maintaining a safe environment must have breached their duty, causing harm to another
• Causation: There must be a clear link between the breach of duty and the injuries suffered

Some of the most common types of incidents that meet these criteria include:

1. Slip and Fall Accidents

A slip and fall accident occurs when a person falls on someone else’s property due to hazardous conditions such as wet floors, uneven surfaces, or debris. Property owners may be held liable for slip and fall accidents if they fail to address known hazards or provide adequate warnings to visitors. In such cases, they may be responsible for compensating the victims for their losses.

Placing wet floor signs around areas that have just been mopped is one way that property managers seek to reduce their liability. However, simply placing signs around a building does not completely eliminate a building owner’s liability. They must also take due care to maintain safe conditions for workers and customers.

2. Negligent Security

Negligent security claims arise when individuals are injured due to inadequate security measures on a property. This can lead to criminal acts such as assaults, robberies, or vandalism.

Property owners may be held liable for negligent security if they fail to prevent foreseeable criminal activity by implementing reasonable security measures such as:

• Lighting
• Surveillance cameras
• Security personnel

Businesses that are open into the evening hours may be at increased risk of incurring liability for negligent security. Some examples include department stores and gas stations. Holiday shopping hotspots represent another common example.

3. Dog Bites

Dog bites and animal attacks can result in serious injuries, including lacerations, puncture wounds, and infections. In premises liability cases involving dog bites or animal attacks, property owners may be held liable for failing to restrain or control their pets.

If you own dogs or other animals, it’s important that you keep them properly restrained so they cannot harm others. If one of your pets bites someone, that person could file a premises liability claim against you and your homeowner’s insurance.

4. Dangerous Conditions

There are many scenarios where someone’s negligence may create dangerous conditions on a property. Failing to repair broken stairs or defective handrails can pose a huge risk to visitors or employees. Property owners have a duty to inspect their premises regularly, identify potential hazards, and take prompt action to address them. For tenants, this responsibility often extends to landlords, particularly when reported issues are ignored. In cases where unsafe living conditions persist despite repeated complaints, tenants may have grounds to sue their landlords for negligence, potentially recovering damages for harm caused.

5. Swimming Pool Accidents

Swimming pool accidents are a common cause of premises liability cases, particularly during the summer months. Property managers must take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of visitors, including installing barriers, gates, and safety equipment. They must also take steps to keep young children out of pool areas.

Depending on the nature of the establishment, the property owner may also need to hire a lifeguard. Alternatively, they may need to have guests sign release forms so they can insulate themselves from liability.

6. Amusement Park Accidents

Injuries can occur at amusement parks that have not been maintained as necessary. Malfunctioning rides, inadequate safety instructions and operator errors can all cause serious losses. If the problem was preventable and occurred because of negligence, filing a claim is an option.

7. Exposure to Toxic Substances

Premises liability cases can also be the result of exposure to toxic substances, including asbestos and other forms of chemical exposure. Not all of these injuries are preventable, but if the property owner knew or should have known that there were toxic substances on the premises, you can file a claim for negligence.

Types of Damages in Premises Liability Cases

To recover your losses after a premises liability incident, you can file a claim for economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages address medical expenses such as hospital bills, rehabilitation costs, medication expenses and a variety of other losses you may have suffered. If you need to receive future care, you can get coverage for these expenses, too.

Economic damages also cover lost wages if you need to take time off from work to receive treatment. If you can’t return to work in the same capacity or at all, you can get compensation for loss of earning potential as well.

Non-economic damages, on the other hand, address non-financial losses, including compensation for the physical and emotional distress you experienced. If you can’t live your life as you used to before the accident, you may be able to claim loss of enjoyment of life.

In instances when the accident leads to the death of a loved one, you can file for loss of consortium. It compensates you for loss of support and companionship.

How Legal Help Improves Premises Liability Outcomes

Having legal assistance increases your chances of receiving the compensation you need to cover your losses. Your attorney will know how to gather the most crucial evidence to demonstrate that negligence was a factor, and they will know how to present a robust case during negotiations with insurance companies.

If these negotiations fail, your attorney can also pursue litigation. Although this is a longer process, it can help you receive compensation if there are disputes over fault or other complexities.

Need Legal Representation? ConsumerShield Can Help

Suffering injuries on another person’s property can be a life-changing event. You may also incur significant medical expenses as lasting repercussions. That’s why it’s important to obtain experienced legal counsel right away.

If you need representation for a premises liability case, connect with ConsumerShield. We can put you in touch with an experienced legal team near you.