Southfield Premises

WE’VE ACHIEVED MILLION-DOLLAR RESULTS

Accountability for Your Losses

Property owners and property tenants have a duty to keep their properties reasonably safe for those who are on the property legally. However, many property owners fail to do so, leading to serious accidents and sometimes death. A Southfield premises liability lawyer helps victims of these occurrences access real money that relieves much of the suffering and stress they experience.

Have you been harmed because someone failed to maintain their property in a safe manner? If so, you should be aware of the various compensable damages available, which include far more than just medical bills.

Why Choose Us?

Experience that Counts

Those injured by others continue to choose Goodman Acker to fight for the compensation they need and deserve. We always strive to win the maximum payout for our clients. Attorney Barry Goodman has personally recovered multiple millions of dollars over the years thanks to his relentless drive to help his clients.

If you need maximum compensation, choose Goodman Acker, a premier personal injury law firm with:

• Over 150 years of combined legal experience
• Thousands of fulfilled clients
• Deep involvement in the legal community
• Free consultations and case reviews
• 24/7 availability.

At Goodman Acker, we are not only capable — we also care. Every effort we make is to get you to a better position in life by fighting for the monetary compensation that is rightfully yours, every single penny of it. For this reason, we always advise our clients to reject lowball settlement offers and let us fight for what they truly deserve.

If you have been injured on someone else’s property, contact our office to set up a free consultation. A Southfield premises liability attorney can answer your questions and concerns and explore your options. Call (248) 286-8100

Understanding Premises Liability

When you are out in public, you invariably enter numerous properties with multiple different owners. Society requires those property owners to maintain their properties in reasonably safe condition. What a reasonably safe condition is depends on the property and the legal status of the person who is harmed.

Legal Status

When you are on someone else’s property, you are in one of the following three positions, legally speaking:

An Invitee

An invitee is a person who is on land that is open to the public or used for commercial purposes. The property owner must benefit from the person’s presence in some way, such as how an auto shop owner benefits from a motorist entering their shop for service. Invitees must be given the highest form of protection under premises liability law, which requires property owners to inspect for, warn of, and remedy dangerous conditions.

A Licensee

A licensee is someone who enters a property for reasons other than business, such as friends and family. That said, friends and family may be considered invitees if they are invited to a property to conduct business. The level of protection mandated for invitees is lower than for invitees. Property owners need not warn of nor inspect for hidden dangers. Without the duty to inspect, a licensee may find it difficult or impossible to recover compensation in some cases.

Trespasser

Property owners owe trespassers varying degrees of duties, depending on the trespasser’s age and other factors. For example, an undiscovered adult trespasser is generally owed no duty of care. And for a discovered trespasser, the property owner must refrain from creating a risk of bodily injury or death.

Minor trespassers, in contrast, are owed a much higher duty of care due to the “attractive nuisance” doctrine. It holds that property owners can be held liable for a minor trespasser’s injuries if an artificial, dangerous condition on their property, such as a swimming pool, attracted the minor trespasser and caused their injuries.

Regardless of your status, if you have been injured, a premises liability lawyer from our team can review your case for no charge at all. Contact us today and take a big step toward the justice you deserve.

Common Premises Liability Situations

Various situations can give rise to injuries when you are on someone else’s property, depending on the property and what is occurring at the time. Here are some scenarios where you’ll need a premises liability lawyer in Southfield, MI.

Private Homes

Homeowners are the rulers of their castles. However, once a licensee is on the premises, homeowners may have the duty to warn them of unreasonable hazards, such as:

• Surprise holes in the ground
• Broken stair steps
• Landscape hazards
• Falling objects.

A private home might also be the source of a poisonous hazard or contaminant that flows or seeps off of the property onto the property of others.

Apartment Complexes

Apartment complexes have lots of public space for tenants and their guests. Michigan law explicitly gives the landlord of the complex the duty to maintain the complex in a safe condition, including common areas. Yet landlords in Southfield and around the state regularly fail to do so, especially in the winter when ice abounds.

If you are inside someone’s apartment, however, the tenant must warn of hazardous conditions. For instance, if the tenant creates an unreasonably dangerous condition inside their apartment that harms a guest, the tenant will face liability if they did not warn the guest, who is considered to be a licensee.

Retail Businesses

Corner groceries, clothing outlets, hardware stores, and other retail operations must maintain their businesses safe for customers and clients. They must also inspect for hazards, warn of any unattended hazards, and take reasonable steps to remedy the dangerous situation. Failure to do so opens them up to liability for damages.

Some of the many hazards customers might face when shopping include:

• Slippery surfaces
• Poorly lit or unlit stairways
• Dangerously stacked products
• Unattended tools and equipment
• Lack of adequate security
• Improperly screened employees
• Improperly trained employees.

The list goes on, and it is long. However, by adhering to basic safety principles, business owners will keep their establishments safe for customers. When they don’t, the victims of the inevitable accidents need someone they can rely on to fight for the compensation they deserve.

Government Property

Much of the property you pass through each day is government property owned by one of the three levels of government: federal, state, and local. But suing the government is not like suing a private party or a company. The rules of liability and procedure are stricter when the government is involved. 

In Michigan, you cannot sue a government agency or body for negligent acts that occurred while an employee was executing their duties. However, there are some exceptions pertaining to premises liability.

For instance, as of 2012, municipalities are responsible for maintaining all sidewalks that run adjacent to city, county, and state roads. So, if a person is injured on a sidewalk due to a lack of timely maintenance or repair, the victim may potentially have a case against the municipality.

Work

Although most work injuries are covered exclusively by workers’ compensation, there are instances where a property owner may be held liable in a third-party claim or lawsuit. For example, if an HVAC employee is installing a unit in someone’s home (considered an invitee in this case) and is injured by the homeowner’s negligence, they will have a claim for damages.

Another example is that of an office building that emits toxic chemicals into the air or water. Over time, some employees will likely be sickened and incur losses. They may sue the building’s owner for personal injury damages if the owner is not the employer.

How We Can Help

We Navigate the Claims Process for You

If you have been injured in a premises liability accident, you need time to heal. While you are recovering, Goodman Acker’s Southfield, MI, premises liability lawyers will manage your claim for you. We will bring our extensive experience to bear on every stage of the claim to get you a proper compensation payout.

As our client, you never have to concern yourself with the legal details of procedure and compensation. We take care of everything, including:

• Thoroughly investigating the circumstances of your injury
• Building your case and filing the proper paperwork
• Consulting with medical and accident experts
• Determining the financial impact on your life
• Aggressively negotiating with insurance companies
• Pursuing compensation through a lawsuit.

Recovering compensation is our number one objective. You can rely on our team of Southfield premises liability lawyers to do all we can to get you justly compensated.

Act Quickly to Preserve Your Claim

Time Is of the Essence

In Michigan, your right to file a lawsuit for compensation for a premises liability injury ends after three years in most cases. If three years have already gone by, your case will be dismissed when you file it.

Although three years may seem like a long time, it is important to know that the more time that passes after an accident, the harder it tends to be to prove what happened. So even if you make the statute of limitations deadline, you still may harm your case by delaying.

For example, CCTV is now commonly used throughout many cities by government agencies, businesses, and private individuals. This results in countless hours of evidence-rich footage that, in most cases, is deleted after a period of time.

Although CCTV is not necessary to prove many cases, it is needed in quite a few. In those that do not need CCTV, time will also have a negative effect on other types of evidence, such as the memory of witnesses and physical evidence that may have been thrown out.

FAQs About Premises Liability

The Answers You’re Looking For

Call us anytime with your questions. We are pleased to provide you with whatever information you are seeking. In the meantime, read through the following common questions.

Need more answers to your questions? Give us a call today to speak with a premises liability lawyer in Southfield, MI.

Meet with a Southfield Premises Liability Attorney Today!

Getting the Justice You Deserve

If an injury from an accident on someone else’s property has impacted your life, let our Southfield, MI, premises liability lawyers from Goodman Acker take on the insurance companies and their defense attorneys on your behalf. We know how to get them to pay what they owe. 

Call (248) 286-8100 to discuss your case and options with a premises liability lawyer who cares and knows how to fight.

LEGALLY REVIEWED BY BARRY J. GOODMAN

Barry J. Goodman has devoted his professional life to keeping courthouse doors open for victims seeking justice. Always a tireless advocate for his own clients, Goodman sees his responsibility as a Detroit personal injury attorney in a broader sense as well. [ Attorney Bio ]