1-800-920-8165
The first thing that you need to take into account is the definition of premise liability and what it relates to. It refers to the potential legal liability that an owner of a property might be put through in case someone gets injured because of unsafe conditions on that property. The truth is that premise liability is likely to exist in almost all sorts of spaces and structures and it covers an array of different accidents including slip and fall, swimming pool accidents, falling equipment, animal as well as criminal attacks, fire outbursts and many of the kind.
Burden of proof
As it is in every single personal injury case, the burden of proof is significant. This is particularly true when it comes to premise liability cases as there are quite a few things that need proving. Of course, when it comes to it, there are different jurisdictions but the one in the province of Ontario as per the special Occupier’s Liability Act of 1990, the things that need proving include:
· The defendant owned the property or occupied/leased it.
· The plaintiff was harmed
· The defendant was negligent in his use of said property
· The defendant’s negligent behavior was a substantial cause for the harm
As you can see, there are quite a few things that need to be proved. This is why you might want to consider using a personal injury lawyer who has experience in these kinds of cases. This is going to help you run the claim smoothly and without any issues.
However, looking deeper into the things that need proving, we see that negligence is a substantial factor. That’s right – if you want to establish liability, you need to ensure that the owner or the occupier, as per the Occupier’s Liability Act, has acted negligently. However, evidence has to be provided so that it is accepted as negligence. If it is not proved, your compensation amount can be a distant dream. That is why it is important that you hire the services of a lawyer to assist you with the case.
Let’s take slip and fall, for instance. When it comes to premise liability cases, this is without a doubt the most commonly filed case. However, there is a very easy way to get out of liability for slip and fall injuries. When the owner of the premise places a sign that the particular surface is slippery and thus slips and fall is a possibility, the responsibility of taking care is yours. You are aware and you need to make sure to do the right things in order not to fall. Only if you’ve done everything you could and yet you have still slipped because of the particularly unsafe conditions in the premise, then you can go ahead and claim damages from the owner, even though this is going to significantly complicate your particular claim for damages.