Have you been injured on someone else’s property and are seeking restitution for your injuries? While Texas property owners are required by law to ensure their property is safe, you can’t automatically pursue a claim or lawsuit against them just because you got injured on their premises. Your lawsuit must meet certain minimum criteria before the defendant is considered liable for your damages. Learn about how negligence is proven in a premises liability lawsuit in Houston below.
How Is Negligence Proven in a Premises Liability Lawsuit in Houston?
Duty of Care
Under Texas law, all property owners are required to maintain safe conditions for the benefit of others. While you may have been injured on another person’s property, you must have been on the property lawfully to have a legitimate premises liability claim. All visitors fall into three broad categories, depending on how they gain access to someone else’s property: invitees, licensees, and trespassers.
Invitees are friends, relatives, neighbors, and other people invited into a property by the owner. Licensees are independent contractors or parties contracted to do some installation, maintenance, or repair work on the property. They include plumbers, electricians, pool contractors, roofers, professional landscapers, and more. Trespassers refer to anyone who accesses a property without the owner’s knowledge or permission. Visit this page to learn more about the various categories of visitors that property owners may owe a duty of care.
To Whom Do Property Owners Owe a Duty of Care?
Based on the duty of care principle, Texas property owners can only be held liable for injuries suffered by invitees and licensees: persons they willingly granted access to their property. If you slip and fall in the workplace, you may be eligible to receive compensation from your employer.
Likewise, you may file a personal injury lawsuit if you get hurt while working as an independent contractor on someone’s home or other property. Property owners don’t owe trespassers a duty of care. In fact, they can file civil penalties or criminal charges against the at-fault party for trespass. Punishment for trespass can involve hefty fines or incarceration, depending on the circumstances.
Breach of Duty of Care
If your premises liability claim in Houston meets the duty of care criterion, there must be a breach of that duty. Put simply, you must demonstrate that the defendant knew about or should have known about the hazardous condition that caused your injury but failed to take adequate steps to eliminate that condition. If you’re at a friend’s place and get injured in a slip and fall on wet bathroom floors, they may be liable for your injuries.
As your host, they’re expected to keep their bathrooms clean and dry for the safety of guests. If a property owner took reasonable measures to mitigate the condition that led to your injury, or that they couldn’t have known about it in good time, your case may be dismissed, however (for example, if they put an out-of-order sign on a bathroom door, and you decided to use that particular bathroom anyway).
Causation
Did the at-fault property owner’s negligence or non-action directly result in your injury? Proving that the defendant was negligent is not enough to get compensation in a premises liability case. There must be a direct relationship between your injuries and the hazard or condition that caused it. In other words, you can’t seek compensation merely because you had an accident on someone’s property. You must demonstrate the injuries sustained due to that accident.
How to Prove Causation in a Premises Liability Claim
To establish a causal link between your injuries and the property owner’s fault, you may need a medical expert witness. A medical witness is any medical professional that can establish your injuries were caused by the accident that occurred on the defendant’s property.
Damages
Before filing your premises liability case, you’ll need to show proof of damages. Proving your damages allows you to attach a value to your lawsuit, so you can get the most out of your lawsuit. While your settlement will include economic losses such as medical expenses, lost wages, and lost future income, it also covers non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, and mental anguish.
Personal Injury Lawyers: When Should You Be Hiring Them?(Opens in a new browser tab)
While it’s not mandatory to seek help from an experienced and specialized lawyer, it’s best to do so. Specialized lawyers focus on helping clients get the compensation they deserve for injuries suffered on someone else’s property, but they also defend property owners against claims by personal injury victims. Whatever side of you are, you’ll benefit from getting expert legal help. The stakes are just too high to choose self-representation.