Richmond Commercial Property Premises Liability Lawyer

Large corporations have teams of lawyers that can make a legal recovery incredibly difficult. Without the help of an experienced premises liability attorney, your recovery could be unsuccessful simply because of the resources available to these entities.

Do not let this deter you. Reach out to a Richmond commercial property premises liability lawyer for the legal help you need today.

Commercial property is any place the property owner or the possessor of the property conducts business. For example, a law firm is a commercial property. They invite potential clients to come in and meet with a lawyer because they want their business. Bars, grocery stores, banks, offices, and restaurants are all commercial property. A property that is defined as commercial usually does not have any effect on the case. What matters is the status: invitee, licensee, or trespasser.

The standard is reasonableness, what a reasonably safe property is. A great deal of case law defines what is and is not reasonable. For the most part, these cases are not repeated. Every case has its own unique facts. That means a jury decides whether something is reasonable, or one could avoid the jury by settling the case.

In a grocery store where somebody drops an egg, leaves it there, and does not tell anybody, when should the grocery store have that cleaned up to prevent a slip and fall? That is an impossible question. It depends on the size of the store, the number of employees, and the time of day. Those factors affect whether the possessor of the land was reasonable in cleaning up the hazard. It is completely flexible, but the commercial property owner must make some effort to ensure reasonable safety.

Liability is not something that is assigned; it is something that is alleged. A plaintiff can allege liability on anybody. The court might dismiss the case or find in favor of the defendant. The way liability is assigned ultimately comes down to a jury.

Someone makes allegations and the defendant has an opportunity to have the case dismissed. The plaintiff writes a complaint with plausible facts that point to liability, and the question of whether the liability exists comes down to a jury. They decide whether the defendant is at fault. However, a Richmond commercial property premises liability lawyer can help present a case with the hopes of a favorable outcome.

In a case with multiple defendants, the landowner and tenants may share liability. It depends on the facts of the case because most of the time, multiple defendants are not necessary. Theoretically, when somebody drops an egg on the floor in a grocery store, the individual who slipped on the egg could sue the grocery store and the person who dropped the egg. The goal of doing so is to seek compensation from a party that could make the victim of the accident whole again.

When a landowner has several tenants, there could be multiple defendants. Not only does the landowner have a duty to maintain the land in a reasonably safe way, but the tenants also have that duty. If something happens on one tenant's property, it is also the landowner's property, and the injured party may be able to sue all of them.

When the defendant is a large corporation, they have more resources to fight the individual. A defense lawyer charges by the hour. A smaller company may put a limit on the amount of time to spend on their defense to see if they may want to settle the case. A large corporation may be motivated to spend as much time on the case as needed to discourage future cases. A large corporation on the defense side means they have more resources to defend the case and they take up more of the plaintiff's lawyer's time. In events like these, victims need to be sure that the Richmond commercial property premises liability lawyer is ready to help them for the long-haul.

A Virginia civil procedure has 30 days to file the notice of appeal. In other states, there is an intermediate appellate court; they go from trial court, to a Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court. In Virginia civil cases, there is no intermediate court. When someone appeals in Virginia, they appeal to the Supreme Court that does not accept many cases. Most personal injury cases, whether defense or plaintiff, are not appealed.

Corporations, no matter the size, owe the same duty of care to people on their premises as everyone else. When they do not take this obligation seriously, injuries occur. However, these corporations have large defense teams. To better your odds of a successful claim, reach out to a Richmond commercial property premises liability lawyer today.