A commercial property refers to any property that is open for commercial use. If you or a loved one were injured on a commercial property, a skilled premises liability attorney can help you hold the landowner accountable for your injuries. Reach out to a Pascagoula commercial property premises liability lawyer to discuss your options for compensation.
For the most part, the business owner or commercial property owner is going to want to educate and train employees to look for problem areas for customers and try to correct them in a safe and timely fashion. If there is any kind of construction involved on the property, they will want to make sure the contractor is taking safe measures to prevent injuries or other problems in the construction zones. It is also important to put up signage for customers and if something cannot be corrected immediately, to warn of the potential danger. A property owner cannot be absent from a property, they have someone on-site and be ready, willing, and able to correct issues as they arise.
A seasoned commercial property premises liability lawyer could investigate the incident to determine whether a landowner took proper steps to protect all visitors from harm.
With regard to private businesses, the statute of limitations is three years for commercial-property liability. With regard to government-owned properties, the statute of limitations is one year. If the claim is not filed within the statute of limitations, the injured person may be unable to seek compensation for damages.
Mississippi commercial liability is established through classifying the injured person as a trespasser, licensee, or an invitee. After the person is classified, one has to look at whether that business owner acted as a reasonable person in relation to the classification. A landowner is generally not going to have liability with regard to a trespasser.
For licensees, the commercial property owner will have liability if they did not act as a reasonable person and would not correct obvious dangers on the property. With regard to an invitee, the person not only had to act as a reasonable person, a reasonable property owner had to correct any defects in a timely fashion or properly warn of the dangerous condition. If the property owner was aware of the defect and did not correct it, they could be held liable, or if they had a reasonable amount of time to correct that defect or should have known of the defect on the property and did not correct it, they could be held liable.
Large corporations have a lot of exposure, especially those that conduct a lot of retail transactions where the public is constantly entering the premises, so they have a lot of protocols in place to deal with dangerous conditions. Most businesses are not willing to resolve these cases without a fight, however. Large corporations get a lot of claims, and many of them, unfortunately, are not valid. People often have to file a lawsuit against a large corporation before resolving an injury.
Just because a person is injured on a property does not mean the property owner is liable for any and all injuries that occur on the property. It is very common for people to sustain very minor injuries, but determining whether a property owner is at fault for damages can be difficult. Since a lawsuit must be filed against the private commercial property owner within three years from the date of the accident, it is best to call an attorney for help. Schedule a consultation with a commercial property premises liability lawyer today.