Injured In a Parking Lot? How to Know if You Have a Premises Liability Case

Preventable injuries caused Americans over $1,000 billion in 2017. If you’ve been injured on someone else’s property, your share of those costs can often be more than you can afford. You might think your injury was just an unfortunate accident. However, the property owner has an obligation to make his or her property reasonably safe for people who are on the property with the landowner’s permission. This is a concept known as premises liability. If you’ve suffered an injury on someone else’s property in Texas, you might wonder if you should pursue a claim. If you were injured in a parking lot, call our experienced personal injury attorneys today to see if you have a premises liability case.

What Is Premises Liability?

A landowner owes a duty to people who are on his or her property. That duty depends on whether the person is on the property with the landowner’s permission. A person on the property with the landowner’s permission is called an “invitee.” A person on the property without the landowner’s permission is called a “trespasser.” A landowner has a duty to ensure invitees are safe while on their property.

The Landowner’s Duty

As a general rule, when it comes to trespassers, a Texas landowner must avoid intentionally causing injury to someone who is there without permission. For instance, the landowner can’t set traps designed to injure trespassers to keep them off the land.

In addition, a landowner can’t act with “gross negligence” when it comes to trespassers. That means if a landowner knows that something poses a high risk of injury and doesn’t care, a landowner can be liable to a trespasser.

When it comes to invitees, a landowner has to take greater care. Premises liability laws in Texas require landowners to either take an active effort to make invitees safe or, at the very least, warn of concealed hazards.

There are exceptions, though. In some cases, even a warning that would make the hazard obvious to an invitee is not enough to relieve a landowner of his or her duty.

The unreasonable danger of criminal activity can create a higher duty for a landowner. Likewise, if you must use the premises and the landowner should know that you can’t avoid the risk, the landowner can’t just warn you of the danger. He or she has to make the property safe.

However, those exceptions are rare. Generally, if you’re an invitee on someone else’s property, the landowner must make the property safe and aware of hazards he or she knows about.

If You’re Injured in a Parking Lot, Do You Have a Claim?

What kind of claim you can assert depends on how you were injured.

You can bring two kinds of claims against a landowner when you’re injured on their land. If a condition of the land injures you, that’s a premises liability case. If an ongoing activity on the land injures you, that’s a negligence case.

While both cases involve negligence, you have to prove different things.

Negligence

An example of a negligence injury would be if, for instance, someone accidentally hit you or dropped something on you while you were on the premises. For a standard negligence case, you have to prove:

The landlord has a duty to you
The landlord breached his or her duty to you
The landlord’s failure to abide by his or her duty caused your injury
You suffered damages from the injury

Damages must be serious to count. That means your injury must be serious enough to interfere with your work or everyday life.

Premises Liability

An example of a premises liability case would be if, for instance, you tripped because of a hole in the ground. Premises liability cases require a bit more in terms of proof. To prove premises liability, you have to show the following:

The landowner knew about a concealed condition on the premises
The condition posed an unreasonable risk of harm
The landowner failed to exercise reasonable care to eliminate the risk
That failure caused your injuries

Are Injured In a Parking Lot Claims Hard to Prove?

They can be, and that’s where a good Dallas premises liability attorney comes in.

Landowners sometimes claim that they were unaware of the dangerous condition on the property. You have to prove that the landowner created or knew about the condition.

Speculation about whether a landowner should have known about the condition isn’t allowed. You have to prove how long the condition existed and how the landowner was supposed to have known about it.

Landowners may also claim that you were somehow liable for your injury. You need to prove that you didn’t do anything that contributed to the harm.

A frequent defense is for a landowner to post signs to keep from having to fix a dangerous condition. Any injury becomes your fault if they prove you knew about the condition.

Contact Us

You need to know your rights if you’ve been injured while on another person’s property. Whether you have a claim for your injury will depend on the condition that caused your injury, the landowner’s awareness of the condition, and the extent of your injury.

Considering the current state of Texas premises liability law, the process of getting a recovery can be a long and complicated one. You need someone on your side who understands how to prove your claim and how to negotiate a proper settlement. The experienced premises liability and personal injury attorneys of The Benton Law Firm can help you.