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Goleta Premises Liability Attorney

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Premises liability claims arise when people are injured on properties that belong to others. Property owners—both private and public—have a duty of care to protect those who enter their properties from harm. In the absence of this care of duty, owners of property open themselves up to liability from shoppers, customers, clients, vendors, visitors, and others who come onto their properties legally.

Examples of Property Owner Negligence

Property owners can fall short of their duty of care to keep others safe in innumerable ways. Some examples of negligence on behalf of the property owner (or his employee or agent acting on his behalf) include:

  • A store employee observes a spill on the sales floor but fails to clean it up quickly. A customer doesn’t see the spill and falls as a result, breaking a wrist in the process.
  • A homeowner has an “attractive nuisance” in the backyard—a swimming pool. The homeowner fails to fence in the swimming pool to keep neighborhood children out, and a child nearly drowns as a consequence of the homeowner’s inaction.
  • A tenant complains of poor lighting in the stairwell leading to an upstairs apartment, but the landlord fails to act on the complaint. As a result, the tenant falls and becomes severely injured.

Most premises liability claims are preventable with the due diligence of property owners.

Elements Necessary to Prove Negligence

A successful claim based on premises liability laws hinges on proving that the owner of the property where the accident occurred was negligent. Four elements must be proven in order for negligence to be established. Proving that negligence occurred requires:

  • Establishing the existence of a duty of care between the property owner and the injured party. The injured party must be lawfully present on the property and cannot be a trespasser (other than in a narrow set of circumstances that provide an exception to this rule).
  • Proving that the property owner neglected to hold up to the duty of care owed to the injured party.
  • Establishing that the negligence of the property owner in failing to provide the standard duty of care caused the injuries sustained by the claimant.
  • Showing that physical, financial, or emotional injuries resulted from the property owner’s negligence.

Compensatory Damages for Goleta Premises Liability Accident Claims

Premises liability claimants may recover a mix of different compensation types, depending on the accident specifics and the nature of the injuries sustained. This may include:

  • Economic injuries, such as lost wages and medical expenses.
  • Non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering, emotional trauma, mental anguish, disfigurement, and scarring, among other damages.
  • Punitive damages, which are meant to punish the at-fault party for actions that are deemed particularly malicious or that show a blatant disregard for human life.

Working With Our Goleta Premises Liability Attorney

At the Law Offices of John B. Richards, our Goleta premises liability attorney understands how difficult life can be in the aftermath of a serious accident. Our team of seasoned legal professionals is ready to help you seek the justice and compensation you deserve. Reach out to us now for a free consultation of your case by clicking here or calling 805-683-2736.

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