where we shop, eat, or enjoy entertainment. Unfortunately, some property owners fail to adequately maintain their premises and neglect their legal obligation to repair hazardous conditions, resulting in serious harm to someone else.
If you’ve suffered a significant injury on someone else’s property, call Marc Brown Law Firm, the Georgia premises liability attorney who can help you with your financial recovery while you focus on your physical well-being.
Why Choose Us as Your Premises Liability Law Firm In Georgia?
Marc Brown Law Firm has a history of results, recovering millions of dollars for injured clients, including in Georgia premises liability cases. With Marc Brown Law Firm, your case has the following:
- A personalized strategy tailored to the unique details of your case
- In addition to the dedicated attention of your lawyer, the staff works collaboratively to advance your case
- Our history of success puts a well-respected voice behind your claim
- Our Georgia personal injury lawyers offer the compassion of a small-town law office with the professional of a large-city law firm
After a free consultation, our contingency-based payment system allows us to work at no cost to you until after we’ve recovered compensation in your case.
What Is a Premises Liability Claim In Georgia?
When you enter someone else’s property, you expect that they’ve taken the same reasonable care that you’d give to your own property. Under GA Code § 51-3-1 (2020), the law states the following:
“Where an owner or occupier of land, by express or implied invitation, induces or leads others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose, he is liable in damages to such persons for injuries caused by his failure to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.”
Under this law, even homeowners must take basic measures to ensure their property is safe for delivery personnel, repair workers, and others who legally enter. Commercial property owners in Georgia have an enhanced duty of care to those they invite onto their property for business purposes, as with stores, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. Unfortunately, sometimes property owners don’t live up to this legal obligation to others who enter their property.
When a property owner knows about a dangerous condition on their premises, and they fail to take reasonable and timely measures to correct it, they may be held liable for injury-related damages to a person who sustains an injury.
Common Types of Premises Liability Accidents In Georgia
Georgia tort law requires property owners to take “reasonable measures” to keep their premises safe for those who legally enter the property and are not trespassing or committing a crime. Reasonable measures for property owners include conducting routine inspections to identify obvious safety hazards, performing basic property maintenance to prevent hazardous conditions from developing, and making prompt repairs to any unsafe condition. The property owner must also block access or post warning signs until they’ve completed the repair.
When a property owner fails to regularly inspect their property, postpones repairs, or provides inadequate maintenance, the following types of accidents sometimes result in premises liability claims:
- Slip-and-fall accidents
- Trip and fall accidents
- Work injuries
- Staircase, elevator, and escalator accidents
- Pool injuries
- Structure fires
- Balcony collapses
- Ceiling collapses
- Faulty appliance injuries
- Electrocutions
- Parking lot accidents
- Dog bites
- Assaults or acts of violence due to insufficient security
Accidents in Georgia premises liability cases cause injuries ranging from mild, with a single emergency room bill, to catastrophic injuries with lifelong disability.
Who Can Be Held Liable for Premises Accidents In Georgia?
Most Georgia premises liability claims are made against the property owner. Compensation in these cases typically comes to the injury victim through the property owner’s insurance. Depending on the unique circumstances of the property’s ownership and management at the time the injury occurred, the following entities could be held liable:
- The property owner
- A leaseholder or occupier of the property
- A commercial property manager
- A rental property management company
- A government entity if the injury occurred on public property, such as a city park or bus stop
Claims against government entities require meticulous attention to detail due to unique deadlines and additional filing requirements.
Common Injuries In Georgia Premises Liability Cases
Slip-and-fall accidents are the most common premises liability claims, in Georgia and elsewhere, making them the leading cause of accidental injury-related deaths. However, there are many ways that serious preventable injuries occur. Common injuries in Georgia premises liability cases include the following:
- Soft-tissue injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Neck injuries
- Back injuries
- Bone fractures
- Facial and dental trauma
- Burns
- Hypoxia from near drowning
- Assault injuries
- Electrocution injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Traumatic amputations
- Internal bleeding/internal injury damage
Injuries are painful and traumatic, with potential life-altering consequences for severe or catastrophic injuries. They are also costly, resulting in medical bills, out-of-pocket expenses, and lost wages. When someone else’s negligence directly caused your injury and damages, you don’t have to be left responsible for the financial implications of the injury as well as the physical ones.
What Damages Are Available In a Georgia Premises Liability Claim?
When a preventable injury on someone else’s property in Georgia causes you financial losses as well as physical pain, these consequences become the “damages” in your premises liability claim. Common damages recovered in successful claims include:
- Reimbursement for medical expenses
- Anticipated future medical costs
- Out-of-pocket injury-related costs
- Lost income
- Future income loss or reduced earning ability
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Catastrophic injury compensation (in severe, permanent injury cases), such as loss of limb, scarring, disfigurement, organ loss, loss of one of the senses, or diminished quality of life
If a loved one dies due to property owner negligence, a Georgia wrongful death lawyer can help the grieving family recover compensation and a sense of justice.
What Is the Claims Process for Georgia Premises Liability Cases?
After hiring a Georgia premises liability attorney, your lawyer will handle all communication with the defendant and their insurance company. A personal injury attorney conducts an independent investigation and documents compelling evidence of the property owner or occupier’s liability and then makes a carefully calculated list of your damages to present to the insurance company. Then, they negotiate with the insurer from a position of strength to achieve a low-conflict settlement. If the case doesn’t settle, it goes to court as a lawsuit.
Fortunately, only about 4% of cases require a trial due to an insurance company’s wrongful denial or undervaluation of the claim.
Contact the Georgia Premises Liability Lawyers at Marc Brown Law Firm
You shouldn’t have to take on the additional distress of a complex legal process alone when you are still recovering from an injury. Instead, call or contact Marc Brown Law Firm online to learn how a premises liability lawyer can help you.