A premises liability lawyer in Las Vegas can help victims recover damages from liable property managers, landowners, and others who contributed to the victim’s injuries. If you were injured due to dangerous property conditions, you will need to know what a premises liability lawyer is and how hiring an attorney can help with your case.
Table of Contents
ToggleHow to Know When You Have a Premises Liability Case
For a premises liability claim to be valid, there are certain criteria the case must meet.
What Are Premises Liability Claims?
A premises liability case involves injuries to visitors or others resulting from dangerous conditions on someone’s property. It’s a specific type of personal injury case, meaning victims in these cases must prove negligence to recover compensation for the damages they sustain.
Like other types of negligence cases, the victim in a premises liability claim must prove who was responsible for the accident and resulting damages.
How to Prove Liability in a Premises Liability Claim
To prove negligence in these types of cases, victims and their attorneys must demonstrate four key elements:
- The property owner or another liable party owed the victim a duty of care
- The liable party breached that duty of care
- The victim sustained injuries because of the breach of duty of care
- Those injuries and the breach of duty resulted in damages
Typically, these cases will require claimants or plaintiffs to show how a property owner or manager was aware of or should have been aware of the unsafe or dangerous conditions on his or her property and failed to take the right steps to address these conditions.
Proving negligence will require sufficient evidence that shows how the liable party was at fault. For example, evidence in these cases could include surveillance footage of the property, physical evidence of unsafe conditions, photos and video footage of injuries and property damage resulting from the conditions, and medical records proving the severity of the injury. There are also many expert witnesses in personal injury claims who help reconstruct the events of accidents.
These cases, like other types of liability cases, can easily become difficult to navigate. With the help of a Las Vegas premises liability lawyer, you may have an easier time developing a successful case against liable parties for injuries on their premises.
How Can a Premises Liability Lawyer Help You?
If you want to file a premises liability claim or lawsuit against a negligent party, you may not have the knowledge or experience needed to succeed with your case. If you have a viable premises liability case in Las Vegas, an attorney can help you build and proceed with a case.
There are a couple of ways a personal injury attorney will help your premises liability case:
Settlement Agreements
Premises liability cases involve negotiations with an insurance company, including those representing property owners and management. This process will involve reaching a settlement with an adjuster who looks for any valid reason to reduce or deny the claim.
Once you accept a settlement offer from insurers, you may not have the chance to recover more compensation later, even if your case is worth more. An attorney can help figure out the actual value of your case and work to recover that amount through counteroffers, ensuring you don’t settle for a lowball offer from an adjuster.
File a Lawsuit
While the majority of cases settle during negotiations, some might wind up going to court via a lawsuit. These cases would go in front of a judge or jury, who will decide on a verdict based on the arguments and evidence that plaintiffs and defendants present.
An attorney with trial experience can build a solid case against liable property owners in a court setting, increasing the chances of reaching a favorable verdict.
Types of Compensation in Premises Liability Claims
If you’re considering building a premises liability case and aren’t sure how much to ask for in a personal injury settlement, you can get a better idea of what your case is worth by calculating all damages involved.
There are a few different types of damages that victims may recover in premises liability cases with the help of injury lawyers, including:
Economic Damages
The first type of damages to consider in a premises liability case is economic. Economic damages in these cases account for the financial losses that victims suffer because of a liable party’s wrongdoing.
Examples of economic damages in these cases can include:
- Medical bills for immediate and ongoing care
- Rehabilitation
- Property damage
- Lost income
- Lost earning capacity
Non-Economic Damages
In addition to economic damages, you may be able to recover non-economic or non-monetary damages. These are different from economic damages in that they account for the personal suffering that victims endure.
For instance, a victim might suffer physical pain and psychological trauma from an accident on someone’s premises. The person could also suffer disfigurement, for which he or she could also receive compensation.
Punitive Damages
Although these damages rarely play a part in injury cases, a premises liability accident could result in the courts awarding punitive damages to plaintiffs. A judge or jury can only award these damages for gross negligence or malicious intent.
An example of this would be if the defendant was aware of the dangers his or her property posed but willfully avoided addressing the root issue, leading to serious injuries.
An attorney can help determine which damages your case involves and calculate them, which can help him or her prepare a case and begin seeking total compensation.
Timeframe to File a Premises Liability Claim
Similar to other negligence cases, premises liability claims in Las Vegas give claimants a limited amount of time to bring a case before they’re unable to seek compensation. This time limit is called a statute of limitations, and it applies to every type of case. In Nevada, the statute of limitations for premises liability cases is two years, meaning you have two years from the time of the injury or discovery of injury to file a claim or lawsuit.
Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations
There are exceptions to the statute of limitations that may apply to your case, depending on the circumstances.
Some of these exceptions could include the following:
- The victim was under the age of 18 at the time of the accident, meaning that the statute of limitations won’t begin running until the individual turns 18.
- The victim is mentally incapacitated at the time of the accident, which could extend the statute until the victim is mentally capable of filing a claim or standing trial
How Long Does a Premises Liability Lawsuit Last?
While the claims process tends to last for weeks or months after initially filing a claim, the legal process involved with lawsuits takes considerably longer in many instances.
A personal injury lawsuit could involve many processes from pre-trial to settlement, taking anywhere from months to years to settle after the victim files the lawsuit. The potential length of lawsuits makes it ideal to reach a settlement during the claims process. An attorney can help determine whether your case is worth taking to trial, or if it’s possible to reach a favorable settlement during negotiations with insurers.
What to Expect When Meeting With a Las Vegas Premises Liability Attorney
Having a premises liability lawyer by your side in a case could help you increase your chances of getting full compensation from liable parties.
Some individuals may be reluctant to hire an attorney out of fear of cost, but the fact is that most premises liability lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. This payment model ensures that clients don’t have to pay the attorney until the attorney reaches a settlement. In other words, if the attorney loses the case, the client doesn’t have to pay the fee.
Attorneys will usually meet with potential clients to discuss the nature of their cases in a free consultation. They can then decide whether to take on the case and pursue compensation on the victim’s behalf.
If a Las Vegas premises liability attorney decides to provide representation for you in a case, you may be able to get the compensation you deserve from liable landowners, property managers, or other liable parties. These attorneys have the experience and resources needed to navigate these types of cases. Understanding what a premises liability lawyer is and consulting one in your case may help ensure you’re able to successfully navigate the claims or legal process.