Boston Premises Liability Lawyers

Premises liability refers to accidents that happen when you’re on somebody else’s property, such as a retail store, shopping mall, restaurant, hotel, apartment complex, professional office, or a nonprofit organization. The owners of the property owe the people who have the right to be on their property a duty of care to keep these visitors safe. Property owners may even owe a duty of care to people who don’t have the right to be on their property, in some cases.

To file a claim, the owner must owe you a duty of care, they must breach this duty of care, and the breach must be the proximate (likely) cause of your injuries. A breach of duty includes an owner who causes a dangerous property condition to occur or who fails to take reasonable steps to discover and remedy any dangerous condition.

The duty of care generally applies to all parts of the property, including the insides, entranceways, and parking lots.

The people who owe the duty of care may include the owner, management companies, tenants, and renters.

Duty to anyone legally on an owner’s property

Generally, property owners have a duty of care to the following people:

• Invitees: These are people the property owner invites onto their property for the benefit of the owner. Common examples include stores that invite customers to make purchases or organizations that invite visitors for a social purpose, such as a community event. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty of care. Generally, this means that the property owners have a duty to regularly inspect their property for dangerous conditions. Invitees are in the owner’s building to buy, browse, or for other purposes. There is no expectation that invitees will be looking at the floor or focusing on other dangers. Property owners must warn visitors of known defects and make prompt repairs.
• Licensees: These people have the legal right to be on the property, but are not there at the request of the property owner. A common example is when someone walks on the sidewalk of a property to get to another destination. The duty of care standard is generally less than it is for invitees. This means property owners must repair known defects or warn visitors of the defects, but there is no formal duty to conduct routine inspections.

Duty to children

Property owners have a duty to anticipate that children may lack judgment and maturity. We hold property owners accountable if a property owner could reasonably anticipate that a child might trespass because the attraction of danger (such as a trampoline or a swimming pool) may be too strong for the child to resist. Property owners may be responsible if they could have restrained the child, with minimal costs, such as installing lights, warning signs, or a fence. This duty of care is often called the “attractive nuisance” doctrine.

Duty to trespassers

Trespassers do not have the legal right to be on the property of another. Generally, Boston property owners do not owe a duty of care to adult trespassers. However, property owners cannot intentionally create dangerous conditions for trespassers.