Premise Liability & Animal Attack

Premise Liability & Animal Attack

Did you suffer a major injury in Texas on someone else’s property?

Premise liability refers to a legal concept that applies when an injury is caused by unsafe conditions on someone else’s property. In general, property owners have the duty to maintain their businesses and homes in a safe manner and to provide warning of any hazards that could cause an injury.

There are many different types of cases that are classified as premise liability cases, including:

• Slip and fall accidents
• Trip and fall injuries
• Injury related to disrepair of property
• Injury due to malfunction or disrepair of equipment
• Animal attack
• Trampoline injuries

If you or a loved one have been injured in one of these circumstances, contact Texas premise liability attorney Michael Anthony Emma at The Emma Law Firm today to learn more about your legal options. You may be able to seek compensation for your losses, including your medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, emotional distress, and other damages.

Examples of Premises Liability Cases

Slip and Fall Accident. A customer is walking down an aisle in a grocery store, slips on a puddle of spilled yogurt that hadn’t been marked or cleaned up, falls down and suffers an injury. It turns out that the store manager had been notified of the spill but failed to take immediate action to clean up the mess, putting customers at risk. Because the store failed to take action to address the unsafe condition, it may be potentially found liable in this slip and fall case.

Trip and Fall. A man is visiting a friend who lives in a restored older home. While walking through the living room, the man trips on a raised floorboard and falls down, sustaining an injury. The friend may be liable in a trip and fall case if he knew about the raised floorboard but failed to repair the issue or warn the man about the hazard.

Structural Failure. A woman is walking across an old wooden bridge at a local park. She steps on a rotten portion of the bridge and falls through, falling into the icy pond. The owner of the park may be found liable for failing to maintain the bridge in a safe manner, as it is foreseeable that rotten wood on a bridge may give way under a person’s weight and cause the person to become injured.

Disrepair or Malfunction of Equipment. A family is staying in a hotel and takes an elevator to the floor on which their room is located. As the elevator begins to rise, it suddenly jolts and then free-falls back down to the ground floor, causing the family members to become injured in the impact. They find out that the hotel owner has known that the elevator was in need of maintenance but failed to hire someone to fix the issue. The hotel owner may be found liable for the family’s injuries.

Animal Attacks in Texas

Animal attacks are also a type of premise liability. Dog owners have a legal obligation to keep their pets from hurting or injuring others. If someone is injured by a dog bite, damages may be recovered from the animal’s owner.

Dog bites can result in serious injury and even death. There are 4.5 million dog bites in the United States each year, with 20 percent becoming infected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 28,000 individuals in the United States underwent reconstructive surgery in 2015 as the result of a dog bite injury.

Here is an example of an animal attack: A man is jogging on a residential street. As he passes a house with an unfenced front yard, a large dog runs at him and bites him on the leg. The man seeks medical attention and requires several stitches to treat the injury. He later finds out that the owners of the dog have faced several complaints about their dog’s aggressive behavior but failed to take measures to prevent the dog from running out into the street. The dog’s owners may be found liable for an animal attack and may be required to pay the injured man’s medical expenses and other losses he experienced due to the injury.

How Much Is a Slip and Fall Lawsuit Worth?

Because all premise liability cases are unique, it is impossible to provide an estimate for your particular case without reviewing the facts of your case and the types of slip and fall injuries you suffered.

Generally, a slip and fall attorney will review all of the available information about your case, including the cause of your slip and fall accident, whether the property owner was aware of the hazard, the steps the property owner took to repair the issue or warn of the hazard, the extent of your injuries, the amount of time you took off work due to the injuries, and whether the injuries affect your ability to work in the future.

Slip and fall lawsuits allow the injured party to pursue compensation for their medical expenses, lost wages, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and other expenses. These damages are calculated on a case-by-case basis.

However, the fact that you were injured on someone else’s property doesn’t mean you will be entitled to recover damages. People must take steps to keep themselves reasonably safe. If you failed to heed warnings about the danger, if you were intoxicated at the time of your injury or if your actions otherwise contributed to your injury, the strength of your potential premises liability lawsuit will be weakened and your ability to recover compensation for your losses will be diminished.

Contact a Texas Premises Liability Attorney Today

If you have been injured in a trip and fall or slip and fall accident, or any of the other types of premises liability cases, consider contacting a Texas premise liability attorney to learn more about your legal options and how much your potential case may be worth.

A slip and fall lawsuit may help you recover financially for your injuries and the losses associated with them, including your medical expenses, lost wages, physical therapy costs, pain and suffering, and other losses.

The Emma Law Firm offers a FREE consultation in this type of legal matter. Fill out the form below for more information.