You may have gotten mixed-up in a fight at a bar. Perhaps someone mugged you in a parking lot, or you slipped and fell on a wet floor in a restaurant, or tripped and fell on a defective sidewalk or stairs. All of these are examples of what the law calls “premises law". Premises law deals with the responsibility that a business or property owner has to protect their customers, tenants and visitors.

If you were injured on someone else’s property, you may have a right to collect damages to help you recover. There are specific conditions that have to be met, but if you have been hurt away from home it is always best to consult with an attorney simply to protect your rights.

What is premises law?

A store, restaurant, or any other property that is open to the general public has a basic responsibility to provide a safe space for their guests. Under premises law, anyone who is injured on someone else’s property has these questions to answer to determine if the owner of the property is liable:

• Who was in control of the property and had a responsibility to provide a safe space for everyone who came there?
• How did they fail to provide a safe space or fail to protect those who came onto the property?
• Were you injured because of a hazard or situation that they failed to prevent.
• Was the danger “foreseeable"?

Understanding “foreseeable":

In many ways, it is common sense. Was the danger something that anyone familiar with the business or situation should reasonably have seen coming?

Sometimes, a hazard is very obvious. The most common example of premises law is what is called a “slip and fall" type of injury, very often caused by a freshly mopped floor. If the floor is slippery, it is foreseeable that someone could fall and may be seriously hurt.

Another common example is a bar where alcohol is served. It is common for people who drink too much to sometimes get into a fight, and those fights can be messy. It is not an owner’s responsibility to prevent all fights, but when one does break out the bar owner needs to have people and procedures in place to contain it quickly. Without them, it is foreseeable that someone will be injured.

People may suffer injuries in many ways, such as on a defective flight of stairs, a dangerous patch of ice or snow, collapsing ceilings, inadequate security, or other building defects or dangerous conditions.

If you were injured as a result of a dangerous condition on premises, then you may be entitled to receive compensation for your injuries.

The firm of Jaroslawicz & Jaros has extensive experience in this area and a record of success in handling premises liability cases.

Jaroslawicz & Jaros was successful in pursuing a claim on behalf of a worker who was injured when she was assaulted by an intruder while in her place of employment. Tully v. Sylvan Lawrence Co., 97 Civ. 5762 (JSM), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1999 U.S. Dist. 1207. The court found that summary judgment for the security company was not appropriate where a jury could find that a worker’s injuries were caused by an intruder who had gained access to her place of work through an entrance negligently maintained by the security company, and our client obtained a substantial settlement.

In a slip and fall on ice, Jaroslawicz & Jaros was successful in the case of Hecht v. City of New York, 02 Civ. 4029 (JGK) (JCF), United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In a negligence claim for falling on ice, the court found it survived summary judgment because the evidence established that the building superintendent attached a hose to a water spigot, left the water in the “on" position, and did not advise the resident that it was necessary to turn the water off to prevent the hose from icing and bursting; our client obtained a substantial settlement.

If you’ve been injured on someone’s premises then don’t wait.