Premises Accidents

If you slip and fall on someone else's property, the owner may not automatically be responsible for your injuries. The level or duty of care the landowner owes to others can be determined by the type of establishment and your relationship to the establishment. A business or public place is responsible for keeping the premises safe to all potential guests or customers. The owner is responsible not only for warning a customer of safety risks, but must also actively look for and prevent such risks. For instance, the proprietor of a hotel has a duty to perform routine safety checks on the hotel elevator. Mr. Shawver has experience handling premises accidents involving stairways, elevators, escalators.

If you are on another's property only at their specific invitation - such as an invited guest at a house party - the homeowner owes you less of a duty. The owner is responsible only for warning you of any known dangerous conditions, but otherwise you, the guest, must take the premises as they are. A homeowner would be liable for an invited guest's injuries if the owner had dug a dangerous hole in the yard, but failed to warn you before you tripped and broke your ankle.