Premises Liability Laws in Louisiana: Beyond Slip and Fall Accidents
Premises Liability Laws in Louisiana: Beyond Slip and Fall Accident
New Orleans has a strong claim to being the most hospitable place on Earth. From neighborhood block parties where the fun never ends to the Bourbon Street bars where we let the good times roll all year round, welcoming visitors is what the people of New Orleans do best. As the saying goes, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. From a legal perspective, whose legal responsibility is it when a customer at a bar or a guest at a private party gets hurt? You could buy a round of drinks for every guest at Tipitina’s on a Friday night for the price of a single visit to the emergency room. In many cases, business owners and social hosts bear legal responsibility for preventable accidents that happen on their property. If you got injured in an accident at a place of business or at someone’s house where you were an invited guest, contact a Louisiana premises liability lawyer.
Business Owners Have a Legal Duty to Keep Their Property Safe
In a premises liability lawsuit, you must prove that you were on the premises for a legitimate purpose; if the property owner is a business, you must prove that you were a customer, and if the owner is a homeowner, you must prove that you were on the premises as a guest. You must prove that the accident was preventable, meaning that if the owner had maintained the property appropriately, it would not have happened. You must also demonstrate that your injuries are due to the accident and not to a pre-existing medical condition and that you suffered financial losses, such as medical bills, due to your injuries.
Slip and fall accidents in supermarkets and restaurants are among the most well-known examples of premises liability cases, but they are not the only kind. These are other circumstances where premises liability laws apply:
- A customer trips and falls on uneven cobblestones on the patio of a nightclub.
- An alligator in a pond on private property attacks a guest.
- A customer becomes seriously ill after eating contaminated food at a restaurant.
- A deck behind someone’s house collapses during a party, and guests get injured.
A subset of premises liability laws is called dram shop liability laws. These laws hold that a bar or restaurant can be legally responsible for injuries caused by a drunk driver if the employees continued to serve alcohol to the person knowing that he or she was too drunk to drive and did not try to prevent the driver from driving. In some cases, you can sue the bar that served you alcohol if you got injured in a single-vehicle collision while driving drunk.
Contact Mansfield Melancon Cranmer & Dick About Premises Liability Cases
A premises liability lawyer can help you if you get injured in a preventable accident on someone else’s property. Contact Mansfield Melancon Cranmer & Dick Injury Lawyers in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Lafayette Louisiana, to discuss your case.
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