Johnstown Premises Liability Lawyer

Johnstown citizens use other people’s property daily for a variety of activities ranging from work to shopping to schooling and daycare. Every time you enter another person’s or business’s property, you do not expect to leave injured. On the contrary, you expect that the property is safe for your use.

Regrettably, not all landowners uphold the property maintenance standards they should. A Johnstown premises liability lawyer could help you or a loved one who has suffered an injury on someone else’s property. Whether the landowner or manager failed to fix faulty stairs or did not warn of high voltage wiring, an attorney could empathize with your situation, evaluate your case, and help you seek legal recovery for your injuries.

Does a Landowner Have a Duty to Maintain Safe Premises?

Johnstown premises liability claims fall under Colorado’s Premises Liability Statute, Colorado Revised Statutes § 13-21-115, governing injuries that occur on the property of another. The law applies to activities, conditions, and circumstances that the landowner is legally responsible for overseeing.

Premises liability claims are beneath the umbrella of negligence, which poses a central question. Did the landowner’s careless act or failure to act cause the plaintiff’s injuries when the landowner had a legal duty to protect the plaintiff from the hazard that caused the harm?

What are the Different Classifications of Visitors?

A particular question in premises liability cases focuses on the landowner’s duty to visitors. The duty varies depending on the legal status of the person who enters the property. A visitor is either a trespasser, a licensee, or an invitee.

Trespasser

There is generally no duty owed to a person who is trespassing. A trespasser, or person on a landowner’s property without their consent, may only recover for injuries the landowner willfully or deliberately caused.

Licensee

A licensee is a person entitled to enter or remain on a particular property for their own convenience or to further their interests only with the landowner’s consent. An example of a licensee could be a person who asks to and uses a restaurant bathroom without transacting any business there. A landowner must protect a licensee from dangers they know to exist on the property.

Invitee

An invitee is a person welcomed onto the property by the owner. For shops and businesses open to the public, the invitation is implicit. Additionally, visitors to hospitals and public parks are also invitees though they are not conducting business. Employees are considered invitees, and under certain circumstances, tenants may be invitees.

A landowner must exercise reasonable care by protecting invitees from both known dangers and those that would have been revealed by reasonable inspection. The injury must have been foreseeable, meaning that it was probable enough in the context of modern life that a reasonably careful person would consider it in conducting everyday practices.

Schedule a Consultation with a Johnstown Premises Liability Attorney Today

Pursuing your claim means that you could obtain monetary damages for medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering as a consequence of the injury you suffered on another’s property. Prospective plaintiffs should consider bringing a claim as soon as possible because a case is most compelling when freshly presented, and the process can move slowly.

A seasoned attorney could help you exercise your legal rights as an injured victim, and hold the at-fault party accountable. Schedule a consultation with a Johnstown premises liability lawyer to learn more about your options.