When someone is injured on another person’s property, that property owner may be considered negligent and therefore liable for those injuries. A store owner has a responsibility to take care of the premises to ensure that it is safe, for instance. This could include cleaning the floors, installing adequate lighting, repairing banisters on stairs and taking many other steps.
However, a store owner can only fix problems or issues that they are aware of. If someone slips and falls on their property, they may claim that they did not know there was a problem, and so they cannot possibly be held responsible. Is that actually true?
When they should have known
In many cases, a store owner can still be held liable if they should have known about the issue. Not discovering it is itself a form of negligence. It sometimes depends on how long the issue lasts.
For example, say that a leaking pipe has created wet tile stairs. A customer slips and falls down the stairs, suffering a spinal cord injury.
If the leak started moments before, the store owner may accurately claim that they did not know about the problem yet, even though they have done proper maintenance and taken care of their property in a general sense. But if the pipe had been leaking for weeks, even if they claim they did not know about the leak, they could still be negligent because that is long enough that they should have discovered it.
Seeking financial compensation
After a serious injury on someone else’s property, you may be able to seek compensation for medical bills and lost wages. Just be sure you know what legal steps to take.
