Store owners have many responsibilities, including ordering supplies, paying their staff members and performing general maintenance. If a person falls in a store and brings a claim for compensation against the owner, it can be difficult to know what to do next.
Premises liability overview
Property owners are expected to maintain a safe premises so a person who comes onto the property is not injured. This includes fixing uneven pavement, ensuring the property has adequate lighting, clearing snow, ice, spills or other materials that could cause a fall and performing regular maintenance to keep the property in good condition.
In order for a claimant to bring a successful premises liability case he or she must demonstrate that the store owner created the dangerous condition, knew about it and failed to fix it. It must have been foreseeable that the store owner’s negligence would create the danger.
Potential defenses
A store owner may have several potential defenses to the claim. If the store owner did not create the condition or was not aware of it, he or she may use that as a defense.
Also, if the claimant did not suffer an injury, if there was no actual defect or the store owner did not have adequate time to fix the issue, those may also be defenses.
Sometimes, if a person experiences an injury, it may have been caused by something other than the fall. If a store owner is faced with a premises liability claim, an experienced attorney can provide guidance about all possible defenses.