When you enter any property, whether a neighbor’s home or a restaurant, the owner owes you a duty of care that, if they breach, could make them liable for injuries you sustain.
Property owners owe a duty of care to visitors, requiring them to consider their safety and address any hazards that could jeopardize it. For example, if there is a broken floorboard in an accessible area, the property owner should fix it or clearly mark it. Otherwise, visitors could trip and fall, suffering broken bones, head injuries, and others that require medical intervention. When injured because of negligent property maintenance, victims can seek compensation for their economic and non-economic damages in lawsuits filed by our attorneys.
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 to have our Baltimore premises liability lawyers assess your case for free.
What Duty of Care Do Property Owners Have in Maryland?
Property owners have a duty of care to ensure their properties are reasonably safe and free from hazards. They owe this duty to anyone visiting their property. All property owners have a duty of care, whether the property in question is a commercial establishment, office building, or residential home.
While property owners cannot fully ensure that accidents or injuries do not happen, they must take steps to consider visitors’ safety and if property conditions might injure them. For example, if there is a loose railing in an apartment building stairwell, the maintenance staff should address it promptly to mitigate the risk to those living there. If they do not, someone could suffer serious injuries when falling down the stairs. In this instance, the failure to address the hazard could make the property owner liable for the victim’s damages.
While slipping, tripping, and falling accidents are the most common due to negligent property maintenance, other accidents could also happen. Poorly secured furniture might fall on victims, causing them crushing injuries. Furthermore, exposed wiring could cause electrocution or burn injuries. Failing to properly mark known hazards so visitors know to avoid certain areas is another example of property owners breaching their duty of care.
Many victims are unaware of property owners’ duties of care and sometimes assume that their own clumsiness made them slip and fall. After suffering injuries on someone else’s property, have our Maryland premises liability lawyers review the accident to confirm if you have a cause of action and can file a lawsuit to cover your damages.
What Are Common Injuries from Premises Liability Incidents in Maryland?
Slip and falls are the most common accidents caused by property owners’ breaches of duty. Injuries from these accidents vary, though victims typically need some form of medical treatment, resulting in compensable damages.
When victims trip over hazards on the floor and fall from their standing height, they could suffer hand and wrist injuries. Instinctively using your hands to brace yourself for impact could cause fractures that take months to heal. Getting caught in wires or other hazards could cause sprained ankles as well. Hitting your head on the hard ground after falling from any height could cause a brain injury or even a skull fracture. These injuries are more common when victims fall from higher heights or down stairs. Falling down the stairs due to property owner negligence could cause internal injuries, broken bones, and spinal cord damage.
After suffering any injuries in a slipping, tripping, falling accident, or other premises liability accident, go directly to the hospital. Your initial medical records should align with the accident’s date, as this will help our lawyers prove causation in your lawsuit. Hospital records prove the specific injuries you sustained, when you suffered them, and the treatment doctors prescribed and administered. Your treatment and records will correspond with hospital bills, allowing us to assert your medical damages due to negligent property maintenance and ownership in Maryland.
Filing Premises Liability Claims Against Negligent Property Owners in Maryland
If a property owner breached their duty of care, causing your recent accident and injuries, our attorneys can begin preparing your compensation claim immediately. Being proactive about your recovery is important as you only have a set period to file your lawsuit.
You will not have an indefinite amount of time to sue. Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 5-101 gives plaintiffs three years to bring premises liability claims unless a tolling exception applies. During this time, you may continue to incur medical damages from ongoing treatment and lost income from being unable to work, so prioritizing your case is vital. Waiting to file only delays your recovery and could put you at risk of missing the deadline, which would block you from any compensatory damages.
When preparing your case, our lawyers will focus on the evidence at the highest risk of getting lost or degrading. For example, properties where accidents happen may have surveillance systems. Since property owners also own these devices and the footage, they might have an incentive to delete it. Our lawyers can quickly preserve and review this footage to confirm its relevance to your case. In addition to obtaining useful videos, we will contact and interview anyone present during the accident. This can lead to eyewitness statements we can leverage over the property owner during settlement negotiations or employ to prove the accident’s cause to the jury if your case goes to trial.
We will also confirm your claim’s value before filing, basing our calculations on copies of medical bills, evidence of previous wages, and expert witnesses’ assessments of your pain and suffering. Knowing your deserved recovery is vital, as thinking you deserve less could lead to a subpar settlement, which we can help avoid.
Call Our Maryland Lawyers for Help with Your Premises Liability Case
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 for a free and confidential case discussion with our Maryland premises liability lawyers.