Determining if your accident was caused by negligence

This time of year, people are spending more time at places outside of their own homes, whether it’s the mall, a restaurant, a hotel with family or an apartment complex for a holiday party with co-workers. Because so many of us will be out and about, it can be a good time to remind people of what happens when property owners are negligent.

Miami property owners have a duty to maintain a safe environment for anyone legally permitted to be on site. Failure to do so can be considered negligence in some, but not necessarily all, cases.

Generally speaking, you can identify negligence by first asking if your injury was caused by a preventable hazard. This might include poor lighting in stairwells, inadequate security, puddles of water in a grocery store and anything else that could have been cleared.

It will then be necessary to determine if the owner of the property knew about that hazard, or should have known about it, and failed to properly address it. This is one element that makes premises liability claims so complicated. Property owners often claim they never knew about a dangerous condition and did not reasonably expect one to exist, so they should not be considered negligent.

However, one of the easiest ways to determine if an accident was caused by negligence is to discuss the situation with a personal injury attorney. We can assess the situation and identify any factors that could be considered a failure of duty on the part of the property owner.

We hope that this holiday is a safe one for all our readers. However, if an accident does occur and you are injured on someone else’s property, you should understand your rights to take action against a negligent party. For information on how you can contact us to discuss your legal options in these situations, please visit our website.