4 Tips For Avoiding Premises Liability Suits
Brian O Sutter
Premises Liability
When you own or manage a property, you take on a responsibility to keep your guests safe. You also need to keep your employees safe, but that’s covered by other areas of law since they’re expected to enter dangerous areas and operate dangerous equipment, something your guests should avoid. If something does happen, it could end up as your responsibility, either directly because your property is too dangerous or indirectly because your employee endangered a guest.Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to reduce your risk of liability lawsuits. Many businesses and homeowners forget about these things, and doing so can open you up to serious damages. As such, this is also a checklist for people injured on someone else’s property: if the things on this list weren’t present when you were injured, you may have a strong case for a premises liability suit.
• Make Regular Inspections (With A Paper Trail)
Age catches up with everything, people and property alike. An old shelf could start to buckle under the weight of new inventory, an old water heater could start leaking natural gas or carbon monoxide, an old fire detector could run out of battery power, and an old sofa left in the wrong part of the building could become infested with bedbugs or fleas. The best way to catch these issues before they affect someone is to have regular inspections, and the best way to prove these inspections took place is to have a sheet the inspector can sign when they’re done.
• No Time Like The Present
Once you know about a dangerous situation that could harm guests (or harm employees beyond what their duties demand), you need to fix it right away. Labeling the danger is a good short-term step, but unless it’s completely beyond your means to fix the issue (and you can prove it), you shouldn’t waste time. If someone dies of a toxic gas leak you could have fixed six months ago, a jury won’t look very kindly on you just because you put up a warning about the toxic gas.
• Screen Your Employees
If your employee assaults a customer or steals from a tenant, that employee is clearly at fault for their actions. However, as the employer, you also bear some responsibility for letting your employee have the opportunity to act. As the defendant with bigger pockets, you could easily end up paying more in damages than your employee will. Whether or not that’s fair, that’s how tort law works, and so that’s why employers are very careful about looking for criminal records and other signs of bad behavior even for low-paying jobs like server and fast-food chef.
• Use Plenty Of Labels And Cordons
Much like how you should label any dangers you discover, you should also make sure that dangerous equipment has clear warnings on it and dangerous areas are roped off, blocked off, or otherwise closed to guests. A guest that crosses this line becomes a trespasser, and you’re much more likely to win a case if you provided a proper warning that the guest ignored.
As a premises owner and manager, it’s important to look at this list and make sure you’re sticking with it. However, if you’re someone injured by negligence, it’s important to look at this list to see what the premises owner or manager may have done wrong. The more tips the owner missed, the stronger your case will be. Either way, you should consult with a legal professional familiar with premises liability cases to help you decide what to do next.