A woman in Van Nuys, California died at a hospital, prompting her survivors to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Understanding premises liability law.
Not all premise liability claims are clear-cut. A premises owner may have different obligations to the people on their property, depending upon the situation. In the instance described above, the woman was at a hospital, was an Alzheimer’s patient, and was elderly. The hospital staff allegedly failed to notice that she was in danger.
On private property, such as your home, your obligations for providing a safe environment may be much different. For example, if you invite people over for a party at your swimming pool, it’s reasonable for those people to expect that you are providing them with a safe environment. Should one of them slip and fall and suffer an injury, you may find yourself facing a claim on your homeowner’s policy.
This is not always the case, however, as premises liability claim are heavily dependent on the facts surrounding the incident.
If you believe that you do have a legitimate premise liability lawsuit that you want to pursue, you will need to sit down with an attorney and get their professional opinion/advice on the matter first. You can do this for free, as most personal inury attorneys generally take these cases on contingency (no-win, no-fee).