Premises liability law provides that the owner of a property (as well as the owner’s employees) owes a duty to customers to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition. This means that a property owner must keep his or her premises clean and safe from various hazards. For example, a property owner is required to clean up puddles of liquid or broken packages on the floor of his grocery store; a restaurant owner is obligated to ensure that the floor of her restaurant is clean and that any spilled food is picked up promptly; and a gas station owner is required to shovel snow and ice from the parking lot or sidewalk in front of his service station. If a property owner fails to meet these types of safety requirements, the owner may have breached his duty to provide his customers with a reasonably safe environment. As a result, a customer may be entitled to compensation if he or she is injured due to these types of hazardous conditions.

Premises liability cases always hinge on the unique facts of the accident. It is important to focus on the behavior of both the property owner and the person who was injured. In order to be held responsible for any type of premises liability case, the owner of the premises:

• must cause the dangerous condition;

• must know of the dangerous condition but do nothing to remove it or warn customers about it; or

• should know about the dangerous condition because any reasonable person taking care of the property would discover and remove or repair that danger within the same period of time.

As a result, the length of time that the hazardous condition existed before an injury occurs is very important to a premises liability case. Timing is crucial to determine whether a property owner had either actual or constructive notice of a dangerous condition prior to a customer’s injury. Take, for example, a situation in which a person slips and falls in a restaurant on ketchup spilled when a bottle was dropped on the floor. In this scenario, the restaurant owner may be liable if she knew about the spilled ketchup but took no action to clean it up or warn customers to be careful in that area. This would constitute actual notice, because the store’s owner actually knew about the spill. However, the restaurant owner might also be liable even if she never actually knew about the spilled ketchup. This would be true if the spilled ketchup had been on the floor for such a long period of time that any other reasonable restaurant owner would have discovered and cleaned that spill within that same length of time. This is called constructive notice. This means that property owners are responsible for periodically inspecting their premises to check on the cleanliness and safety of the property.

Of course, there are situations in which a property owner is not held responsible for a customer’s injuries. A customer will not automatically win a premises liability case just because he slipped on spilled coffee on the floor of a convenience store. It is crucial to evaluate the specific facts of each individual premises liability case. The important question to ask is whether an ordinary person would have reasonably seen and avoided the danger. For example, if a reasonable customer would have seen and avoided that same puddle of spilled coffee at the convenience store, the owner of the property may not be liable. Likewise, if the store owner puts a cone or sign warning customers about the spill, yet a customer ignores the warning and walks in the area of the spilled coffee, the store owner would probably not be liable when the customer slips on the puddle and is injured. For these reasons, it is important to remember that you do not necessarily have a slam-dunk case just because you are injured in a public place.

If a party is successful in bringing a premises liability claim, then that person will be entitled to monetary damages. The amount and types of damages may vary, but in general will include compensation for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and disfigurement.

Finally, if you are injured in a public place or in someone’s home, be very careful about signing any statement regarding the incident. You may be held to an incomplete or misleading representation of the facts if you agree to sign a statement provided by an insurance company or a store. It is best not to provide a statement of any sort until you have talked to a lawyer about your accident.

Premises liability cases may take longer to resolve than other case, and frequently require expert investigation and testimony. It is important to seek out competent counsel to advise you of your rights as each jurisdiction has different laws pertaining to these types of claims.

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