Nashville Premises Liability Requirements

In order for a case to meet Nashville premises liability requirements, a person has to prove a duty, breach, and causation. The qualifications will be that the property owner has a duty to provide a person legally on their property with a safe place and to protect them from unforeseen harm.

And the last one is causation. The person is injured in a slip and fall. There may be a leaky freezer in a grocery store that they actually slipped in and fell sustaining some type of significant injuries and damages.

In order to have a successful case, a person must show that the owner has a duty, they have to have breached that duty, and a person has to have been injured as a result of that breach of duty. A lawyer can work with you to prove all three, establish liability, and build your case. If you have sustained an injury on a premises, contact an adept premises liability attorney who can advocate for you

Information a Lawyer Needs to Start a Case

One of the first bits of information that an attorney will need to know is why their client was at this property. Were they there for commercial reasons like grocery shopping, or was this a personal visit? This helps determine what the owner’s duty was to that person, to make sure they cannot be classified as a trespasser.

Another one of the Nashville premises liability requirements that need to be addressed in a liability case are the details surrounding the incident. It is important to determine how the person was injured, whether the conditions were dangerous or not, and what caused the injury on the premises.

If it is a slip and fall case, an attorney might question what they slipped on that made them fall. If it is a dog bite case, a lawyer might ask about the dog got out, whether they were in or outside of the yard, and who the owner of the dog is.

The lawyer must figure out whether the owner either caused the danger or knew about the danger and failed to protect the client from it. The attorney also needs to know if the injured person completes an accident statement, if there were witnesses and/or witness statements, and if there is any photographic or video evidence.

In addition to that, they should know what the client’s injuries are and should have access to their medical bills in order to determine what kind of damages the person can expect to recover. An experienced attorney would put that whole picture together and be able to move forward with a case, or give a good assessment as to what the strengths of the case are.

How the Type of Premises Impacts the Case

A jury tends to be a little more critical of commercial property than a person’s home. Everyone can relate to going on commercial property and how aggressively businesses market in order to get people to come to their property.

Businesses are there to make money off of the general public and it makes sense that if they expect the public to return and shop again, they should provide a safe place to shop. A jury would be less critical, a little more forgiving if a personal residence was involved.

Defenses Against a Premises Liability Claim

The most common approach in a premises liability claim would be that the injured person was just not paying attention, that they should have seen whatever was in front of them.

The problem with that is that every commercial business, every product in a store or grocery store, whatever it is, is put there to draw the attention of the shoppers.

While that store is fighting for their attention with colorful merchandising which captures their eye, and then they fall at the store because of the danger that they created or did not warn them about, the business immediately states that they should have been looking where they were going.

Damages a Person can Recover

Personal injury damages are going to include medical bills (that could be medical bills that a person has incurred to date, or up until the date of trial) which can include hospitals, doctor visits, ambulance, surgery, physical therapy, and any of those types of expenses.

This may also include doctor supported future medical expenses. If the injured person needed to have a hip replacement due to the injury, and because of their age they would need another hip replacement in 20 years, that future expense would be added because they should not have to pay for this either.

Pain and suffering in the future may be difficult. According to Nashville premises liability requirements, unless there is a doctor who is willing to testify that the injuries sustained will cause this person to have pain for rest of their life, it can be difficult to recover damages for pain and suffering.

An experienced attorney will ask the jury for future pain and suffering up to the date of trial and future. The lawyer will also ask for lost wages if they are out of work because of their injuries, and any income that was lost which was needed to support their family.

If the injured person is unable to return to work, or if their doctor believes that it is going to be more difficult for them to stay gainfully employed at the same level they were before the accident, an experienced attorney will also ask the jury for future lost wages.

How the Severity of Injuries Factors into the Role of an Attorney

The higher the damages, the more an injured person needs an experienced lawyer. An experienced lawyer understands how to present those damages to a jury. The higher the damages in a case, the harder the insurance company will fight. An experienced lawyer has the skills, the staff, and the resources to put on a case and fight those defenses.

Necessity of Contacting a Lawyer

The necessity of contacting a lawyer stems from the fact that is difficult to prove liability without a lawyer in these cases. Insurance companies tend to deny the claim indicating they should have been more careful. Being able to establish liability is one of the Nashville premises liability requirements that can make or break your case.

The second reason you might want to hire a premises lawyer would be if you have high damages. If you are injured on someone’s property, even if you are partially at fault and/or not injured badly, you may not need a lawyer.

However, if you have significant medical bills, or are out of work, this brings the damages to a level that requires an experienced lawyer in this type of injury case. If you have been injured on premises, get in contact with a premises liability lawyer who can fight for you.