Factors of Liability in New Jersey Premises Liability Cases
Request a Free ConsultationIt is important to talk to a qualified New Jersey premises liability lawyer when determining liability and investigating more information in your New Jersey premises liability case. A premises liability attorney has handled a variety of premises liability claims, and there are many different factors in premises liability cases that will be important to take into consideration.
If you have been injured due to another’s negligence, it is important to work with an experienced premises liability attorney to help understand what goes into a premises liability case and the role they will serve helping you along the way.
Legal Status of a Visitor
In New Jersey, the legal status of a visitor on a premise plays a large role in a premises liability case. It depends on what the status of a visitor is. For instance, if someone is a business invitee, in layman’s term, it is basically a customer of a business, someone who is there for the financial benefit of the commercial defendant. Now the liability on this commercial establishment is higher, they owe a higher duty of care to business invitees.
If someone is a social guest, they are over at a residential property and are invited there, their duty of care to that individual visiting is not as high as a commercial establishment, but they still do owe them a duty to either warn or prevent dangerous conditions that a residential property owner knows about. If they know that there is a dangerous condition on their property, they have to warn their guests.
Trespassers have the least amount of liability when it comes to rules on a property. If someone is trespassing on a property, it is difficult to be able to prove that there is a liability on behalf of the landowner. That is one of the first things a premises liability attorney will try to establish in New Jersey cases. It is what their client’s status as a visitor on that property was and then different rules apply in determining whether or not they have a case.
Role of an Attorney
An attorney can help a person who has been injured as a result of a dangerous condition on a property once they are able to prove that the factors of liability existed, they are now able to try to get their client compensation for their injuries and that would include their pain and suffering and the effect that it has had on their life. They can also make a claim for their economic losses, which would involve medical bills (both past, present, and future) and lost wages (both past, present, and future) to try to put them in the position they would have been in if this premises liability claim never occurred.
Contacting an Attorney
The best course of action after an injury is to contact a premises liability attorney because there are a lot of factors to a premises liability claim in New Jersey. If you are on someone’s property other than your own, whether it is a commercial property or a residential property, and there is something there that causes injury to you, you should contact a premises liability attorney to discuss what your rights are.
It depends on your status as a visitor on that property, what the dangerous condition is, what notice the defendant had, and then what your injuries are. An experienced premises liability attorney is probably the best thing you can do to determine whether or not you have a case depending on the many elements of establishing liability.