Each day, we venture out in Lexington, Kentucky, never thinking twice about the prospect that we’ll encounter a dangerous property situation. However, as most of us are aware, when we put our fate in the hands of others, we lose control. That loss of control increases the chances that we may encounter a hazardous scenario that we weren’t prepared for. By the time we notice it, we may have already gotten hurt, or someone may have already lost their life.
The work we perform as Lexington premises liability lawyers here at Thomas Law Offices is both a blessing and a curse. While the downside is that our attorneys meet their clients under some of the most unfortunate circumstances after they’ve suffered a life-altering injury or lost a loved one, the heartwarming aspect of our role as attorneys is that we have the knowledge of Kentucky law and experience providing legal services in personal injury cases to help you understand the entire process and take legal action. This experience is necessary to get justice and fair compensation for our clients.
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Common Types of Premises Liability Cases
While there is a wide range of incidents that occur on someone’s property that may necessitate you filing a Lexington premises liability claim, our liability lawyers find that the following injury incidents that occur on another’s property most commonly result in injured victims taking legal action here in Kentucky:
Dog Bites or Animal Attacks
Lexington dog owners are expected to take precautions necessary to keep their dog from potentially attacking others, including keeping it on a leash when outside its enclosure. Homeowners are required to do this because dog bites have the potential of not only causing rabies and other infectious and potentially deadly diseases, but also severe injuries.
A Kentucky resident attacked by an improperly restrained dog or another animal may be eligible to file a premises liability claim against the homeowner’s or business owner’s insurance company if they suffer injuries in an unprovoked attack.
Playground Injury Incidents
At least 200,000 children get so seriously hurt on playgrounds each year in the U.S., according to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, that they require emergency room care. Climbing equipment is among the most dangerous on a playground.
Poor maintenance is one of the most pronounced reasons children get hurt on playgrounds. Many playground owners install equipment and regularly revisit it to ensure it continues to be operational and safe.
Sharp objects like broken plastic, glass, nails, or screws can leave parkgoers with penetrative injuries. Inadequate spacing between equipment can cause crush injuries. Cracks in asphalt can leave users vulnerable to trips and falls.
Elevator, Escalator, or Stairwell Injury Accidents
The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) describes how an estimated 17,000 people get hurt on elevators and escalators in the U.S. every year. Those statistics show that there are an additional 30 fatalities that occur.
In terms of escalators, slip and falls are the leading culprit for injuries. These injury incidents often occur when:
- Someone is carrying too large or too awkward of a load (i.e., something too big or oddly shaped)
- Someone is using the moving stairwell incorrectly (i.e., roughhousing)
- A child, elderly, distracted, or disabled person loses their footing
Entrapment is a concern among both elevator and escalator users. This often involves a piece of clothing or a person’s hair, or their body part, becoming stuck in between the stairs of the escalator or doors of an elevator shaft and the floor.
Another type of injury associated with escalators and elevators is blunt force trauma injuries that have the potential to occur if either one of these modes of transportation loses power or otherwise malfunctions. Poor maintenance on the part of the property owner is one factor that can cause this to happen.
As for stairwells, every lawyer at our Lexington, KY personal injury law firm has seen where a slip and fall accident occurs because of poor lighting, poorly maintained tiles, missing or loose handrails, and debris on another person’s property.
Swimming Pool Injury Accidents and Drownings
Injuries can happen in swimming pools on slides, diving boards, and pool toys. Additionally, a person may suffer a slip and fall incident while attempting to navigate the slippery tiles surrounding a pool. There’s also the potential of a swimmer having an adverse reaction to the types or amount of chemicals used when “shocking” a pool.
Then there’s the risk of drowning. Most individuals immediately envision a drowning happening to a child left unattended in a swimming pool, but drowning can involve someone of virtually any age. For example, the suction capacity of pool filters can be so strong that a swimmer’s hair or body becomes stuck inside, causing severe injuries or resulting in their drowning.
Improperly grounded or malfunctioning swimming pool electric currents may cause electricity to flow through the water, resulting in the electrocution of swimmers. Electrical shock drownings are also another big concern that is likely to happen at Kentucky marinas during the boating season when swimmers approximate docks that have electrical sources.
Slip, Trip, and Fall Incidents
There are various ways in which someone may suffer a slip and fall accident. Fall accidents like these often happen on someone’s property when:
- Attempting to navigate a snowy or icy sidewalk outside someone’s home or place of business
- Entering a recently mopped or waxed lobby of an office building
- Visiting a drink or food preparation area in a restaurant where spills may have occurred
- Venturing into a space where debris, such as paper or trash, is unexpectedly strewn about where a property owner failed to warn you of that occurrence
- Walking down aisles in a grocery store where a product may have fallen off the shelf, or a freezer may have defrosted, causing pooling of liquids that haven’t yet been cleaned up
Situations that may lead to you becoming hurt in a trip and fall incident are situations such as:
- Cracked or chipped floor tiles
- Potholes in parking lots
- Unmarked raised curbs
- Torn or worn carpet
- Poorly illuminated staircases
- Unmarked speed bumps
- Turned up mats
- Clutter, including wires, boxes, or trash obstructing your path
- Uneven sidewalks
Negligent Security Issues
Part of a Lexington property owner’s responsibility to keep their buildings and grounds safe is to make sure that there is/are:
- Adequate lighting
- Surveillance cameras
- Security guards
- Necessary barriers
- Adequate visitor screening measures in place
- Working locks
- Well-kempt grounds
A property owner owes their visitors a right to feel safe when visiting their property. It’s not enough to have the items listed above but also to ensure they’re in working order. By doing this, a property owner sends a message that they’re taking the safety of others seriously. However, if you have reason to believe that the above-referenced factors contributed to your getting injured, you may meet the established criteria to file a Lexington premises liability lawsuit. A Lexington premises liability lawyer from Thomas Law Offices can help you determine whose negligence is a factor in your situation.
Each of the potentially dangerous property scenarios described above can put individuals at risk of serious injury—especially if they’re unable to break their fall and end up striking their head or another body part violently on the ground or another inanimate object.
Injuries That Often Result From Lexington Premises Liability Incidents
There’s no single type of injury that defines a premises liability case. Injuries that result can range in severity, depending on the type of injury incident and the circumstances under which it occurs.
Relatively minor injuries associated with premises liability incidents that only tend to impact a victim’s life temporarily include:
- Lacerations
- Strains and sprains
- Bruises
- Some types of broken bones
Severe injuries that have the potential of leaving behind a long-term or lasting impact on a premise liability victim’s life are:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Internal organ damage resulting in internal bleeding
- Spine or neck injuries, especially if they result in a spinal cord injury (SCI)
- Protruding types of bone fractures
Elements You Must Establish To File a Lexington Premises Liability Claim
You must meet three requirements to be eligible to file a premises liability claim or lawsuit in Kentucky. You must be able to show that:
- The Kentucky property owner owed you a duty of care
- The property owner didn’t uphold the duty of care they owed you
- A property owner breached their duty of care, causing your injuries
You or your Lexington premises liability lawyer must establish not just one but each of the three elements above if you wish to file a claim alleging the property owner’s negligence.
Understanding the Duty of Care of a Property Owner
Almost every Kentucky property owner is responsible for upholding a duty of care. What does that mean? It means landlords must ensure their premises are reasonably safe for those who are lawfully entitled to be there. That duty of care also includes an expectation that property owners will promptly make necessary repairs of any potentially hazardous situations after noticing it or it is brought to their attention.
Factors That May Impact Liability Determinations
Determining liability or proving negligence isn’t always straightforward or clear in premises liability cases.
One of the biggest factors that affects liability determinations is the nature of a person’s visit to the property. There are three classes of visitors that may frequent someone else’s premises, including:
- Invitees: Individuals who fit into this category have been invited or asked to visit the location by someone else. There’s an implied understanding that property owners have taken reasonable measures to ensure their premises are safe for these anticipated visitors in these instances.
- Licensees: Someone that visits a location with the property owner’s permission belongs to this category. An example of this is a parking lot placard holder. There’s no guarantee as to when they may use that placard, but they’re entitled to be at those premises because they have purchased it. Any party who suffers injuries on such a property must generally be able to show that the owner knew of the potential hazards that existed, was notified of them, and failed to address them in a reasonable amount of time for them to be held liable for these individuals’ injuries.
- Trespassers: Property owners are seldom responsible for individuals who get injured on their property and didn’t receive prior authorization to be there. Owners generally have no obligation to ensure their premises’ safety in instances like this since they never invited the individual to visit them in the first place.
Some other factors that may affect who’s held liable for such a personal injury incident on someone else’s property include:
- How long the potentially hazardous situation existed
- Efforts a landowner made to resolve the dangerous property situation or to warn others who may travel onto their property about it
- The nature of the hazard that harmed you
- Maintenance schedules that may have been in place at the site
- Whether the property owner knew about the dangerous property condition
- Details surrounding the onset of the hazardous situation (i.e., a poor lighting situation that was caused by a power outage or a natural disaster that rendered a building less safe than it was previously)
What You Should Know About Attractive Nuisances
There is one legal concept referred to as an “attractive nuisance” that may allow individuals who were injured to recover compensation if they suffer injuries, even if a property owner didn’t want anyone to visit their property in the first place. Attractive nuisance cases like these most commonly center around minors who travel onto someone else’s property attracted by:
- Potentially dangerous pets or livestock
- Machinery or equipment left out in the open
- Stairways
- Low roofs
- Tunnels
- Non-garaged vehicles
- Trampolines
- Fountains
- Cleared pathways
- Wells
If there’s any potential for a child to trespass onto a property attracted by the items above, then a landowner must take measures to keep them out. Otherwise, if a minor trespasses and gets injured, their parents or guardians may be able to hold the property owner liable for any injuries they suffer as a result.
One of the reasons why Lexington residents hire Thomas Law Offices premises liability lawyers to assist them with their cases is because of how convoluted proving liability or negligence can be.
Compensation From Filing a Lexington Premises Liability Claim
While there’s no way to give you an actual amount of compensation you may be able to recover, we can provide you with a list of the types of damages you can request compensation for when filing your premises liability lawsuit.
If you or a loved one suffered one of the minor injuries described above, then it’s likely that the bulk of the costs amassed after the accident will be economic damages, such as medical expenses. Those medical bills you have may be associated with:
- Ambulance fees
- Emergency room costs
- Follow-up care with a primary care physician
- Physical therapy
- X-rays and other imaging
- Prescription medications
Our experience is that our clients who suffer some of the more serious injuries described above may not only need to claim medical economic damages like the ones above but also non-economic ones too.
Medical bills associated with a seriously injured victim’s care may be significantly higher if they received or end up requiring the following in the future:
- Any assistive medical devices
- Pain management
- A surgery
- Mental health counseling
- Rehabilitative therapy
Also, since individuals who suffer these more severe injuries often miss time from work and are unable to return to their typical role after their injury incident, our premises liability lawyers often help them request lost wages as well as lost future earnings.
It’s also common for clients who’ve suffered debilitating injuries to have non-tangible losses that they want to demand compensation for when filing their premises liability claim. Examples of non-economic damages victims often request include:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional trauma
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship
Thomas Law Offices Can Help Hold a Negligent Property Owner Liable
You can expect any lawyer you speak with at any Lexington, KY law firm to have a basic understanding of Kentucky law as it relates to premises liability accidents that occur on someone else’s property. However, that rudimentary insight isn’t often enough to prove liability necessary to seek compensation that’s going to cover all the expenses you’ve already amassed and will continue to do so in the future.
Only an experienced premises liability lawyer that you’ve established an attorney-client relationship with in Lexington, Kentucky will know what evidence to secure and what arguments to make to prove liability necessary to secure maximum compensation and send a message to a property owner that negligent acts like theirs come at a cost.
Our Thomas Law Offices attorneys are eager to help you as a new client navigate the often complex legal process as you prepare to file your premises liability case until its completion. Seek medical attention for your injuries, gather together your medical records, and contact a lawyer at our law firm about your premises liability type of personal injury case.
Contact us to schedule a free consultation to establish an attorney-client relationship as a new client, which is necessary for our law firm to act on your behalf and in your best interests in a negligence case like this.
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