Santa Rosa Premises Liability Attorney

Premises Liability Lawyers Serving All of Sonoma County

Have you or a loved one suffered an injury while on someone’s property? If that injury was caused by the property owner’s failure to warn of a hazard, you may be able to sue for damages.

Our Santa Rosa premises liability attorneys at Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery can listen to your case and determine whether you can bring a claim against the property owner during a free consultation. If you are able to pursue legal action, we will collect evidence, put together the necessary legal paperwork, and argue your case on your behalf.

With over a century of experience successfully handling premises liability and other personal injury claims throughout Sonoma County, we are confident we can handle your legal matter with the skill, compassion, and efficiency you deserve.

Contact us online or call (707) 542-5050 now to schedule your free case evaluation with a Santa Rosa premises liability lawyer. 

What is Premises Liability?

Premises liability is a type of personal injury case in which an individual’s injury is caused by an unsafe or defective condition on someone’s property. Since personal injury claims are based on negligence, a premises liability case places that responsibility on the person or company who owns or manages the property where the injury occurred.

In the event that a property owner or manager fails to adequately warn of or efficiently repair an unsafe condition, and that condition leads to an injury, they can be held legally liable for the victim’s medical bills and other accident-related expenses. This is why you often see “Wet Floor” signs displayed in businesses after a surface has been recently mopped, for instance.

Types of premises liability cases include:

• Amusement park accidents
• Defective conditions on the premises
• Dog bite accidents
• Elevator and escalator accidents
• Fires
• Inadequate security leading to assault
• Slip and fall accidents (trip and fall)
• Swimming pool accidents
• Toxic fume or chemical exposure
• Water leaks or flood damage

How to Determine Liability

By law, property owners owe a duty of care to anyone who visits their premises. If a person is injured and decides to sue, that individual (the plaintiff) must prove that the property owner (the defendant) violated their duty to protect them.

The legal “duty of care” obligates property owners to do the following in a consistent and timely manner:

• Maintain their property
• Inspect their property
• Repair or give warning of any potentially dangerous conditions

This duty of care is granted to the following categories of guests:

• Invitees: Someone who has the property owner’s express or implied permission to enter the premises. This usually includes family, friends, and neighbors.
• Licensees: An individual who has the property owner’s express or implied permission to enter the premises but is entering the property for their own purposes. This includes customers at a shop or tenants in an apartment building.
• Trespassers: Someone who does not have permission to enter the premises but does so anyway. Even though trespassers may be unlawfully present at the time of their injury, it is still up to property owners to keep their property safe from reasonably foreseeable risks of harm. A common example of this is an unattended child wandering onto someone’s property by mistake and falling into an uncovered swimming pool.

If you were injured on the property, you still must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that your injury was caused due to lack of necessary maintenance or care on the part of the property owner.