Not all accidents are grounds for personal injury lawsuits. In order to have grounds for a personal injury lawsuit, you must prove that the accident was the result of negligence on the part of a person or company, instead of just being a matter of pure chance. So you must prove that someone who could have prevented the accident failed to do so. In the case of premises liability lawsuits, the issue is that the owner of a piece of property, such as a home or business, failed to keep the premises safe enough to prevent accidental injuries from occurring on the property. When there are formal safety regulations about the conditions of a type of premises, the issue of whether the property owner kept the property safe enough is fairly clear-cut. If there are not, then it is up to the judge to decide whether the defendant took reasonable measures to make the property safe and to determine whether additional safety precautions could have prevented the accident.
It is easy to imagine whom someone might sue in a car accident lawsuit or a medical malpractice suit (the driver of the other car and the doctor or hospital, respectively), and why (driving in such a way as to cause the accident, or a mistake in diagnosing or treating an illness), but premises liability lawsuits are more varied. What they have in common is that they involve someone being injured or getting sick because of an unsafe place. The following instances could be grounds for a premises liability lawsuit:
Almost all businesses are required to carry some kind of liability insurance simply because accidents can happen anywhere. The purpose of the insurance is to help them cover the costs of compensating people for property damage or personal injuries that happen on the company’s premises. If it is a case of simple property damage that is relatively minor, then accepting a settlement from an insurance company to pay for repairs might be fine, such as if a supermarket parking lot is structured in such a way that, after another customer parks a shopping cart in the cart return area, the cart rolls away and dents your car. If the accident involves a bodily injury, and if it is clearly the result of negligence, though, you should not simply accept an insurance settlement. An example of this latter case would be if you seat a child properly in the child seat of a shopping cart, but the seat breaks, and the child falls and gets injured. In that case, you should consult a personal injury lawyer before speaking with the insurance company.
You might wonder what the danger is in accepting the settlement that the insurance company offers. The reason is that, once you accept the settlement, you no longer have the right to file a lawsuit related to the incident. Especially if the settlement amount offered does not cover your medical expenses and lost wages, you should definitely contact a lawyer first and see whether you have grounds for a premises liability lawsuit.
Many accidents could be prevented if property owners were more careful about safety. Contact Hammers Law Firm in Atlanta, Georgia if you were injured at a place of business to see whether you have grounds for a premises liability lawsuit.
