Oklahoma Premises Liability Lawyers

If you’ve ever rented an apartment with a leaky roof or slipped in an icy parking lot, you’ve at least had a brush with premises liability law.

Technically speaking, premises liability is an area of personal injury law involving injuries caused by unsafe conditions on a property. Private, commercial, or government-owned property accidents can result in premises liability claims.

In Oklahoma, premises liability laws have been tailored to protect people injured due to unsafe land or facilities. Although there are a few common types of premises liability claims, these claims can be complicated and should be handled with the assistance of experienced premises liability lawyers.

Types of Premises Liability Claims in Oklahoma

The most common type of claim is related to slip-and-fall accidents. Property owners who fail to maintain safe conditions open themselves up to liability claims if someone falls and gets hurt. If you were injured in a slip and fall, you could file a claim with the property owner’s insurance provider. But before filing this claim, you should probably consult with a premises liability lawyer. An attorney can advise you on how to deal with questions from an insurer and what reasonable compensation looks like for your case.

Another common type of premises liability claim is related to an attack from a dog or other animal. In addition to physical injury caused by the actual bite or mauling, animal attacks can also spread diseases like rabies. Animal attacks can also be traumatic and result in long-term medical treatment. Serious attacks are actually quite common. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 800,000 dog bite incidents require medical attention each year.

Dog owners in Oklahoma may be held liable if their dog injures a person who was lawfully on their property and the attack was unprovoked. If the dog was provoked or the person attacked was not lawfully on the property, a dog owner in Oklahoma can only be held liable if they were otherwise negligent with their animal.

While falls and animal attacks are two more common types of claims, others include swimming pool accidents and damages caused by structural failure.

Proving Premises Liability in Oklahoma

To prove a claim, premises liability lawyers must establish four basic elements: duty of care, breach of that duty, causation, and resulting damages.

Duty of Care

A premises liability lawyer must first prove that a property owner had a duty of care to the claimant. This depends on the claimant’s status as a visitor to the property:

• Invitee. This type of visitor was invited by the property owner for financial reasons. Examples include customers at a retail store or a tenant at a commercial property. Owners have a duty to provide a “reasonably safe” experience to invitees.
• Licensee. This kind of visitor was invited by the property owner for personal reasons, such as a guest visiting a friend’s house. Owners have a duty to let licensees know about potential hazards that are not easy to identify.
• Trespasser. This kind of visitor was not invited by the property owner. Even though these visitors do not enter legally, owners must avoid willfully injuring trespassers under Oklahoma law.
• Child trespasser. Owners do not have a greater duty of care to trespassing children, except if the property has an “attractive nuisance.” This is something that is on, or related to, the property that will reasonably attract young children and yet also poses an unreasonable risk of injury.

For example, a young child may be attracted to a swimming pool but not understand the risk of drowning. Owners with an attractive nuisance should put up barriers and other measures to protect potential trespassing young children.

Breach of Duty

If a duty of care can be established, a premises liability lawyer pursuing a claim must show that the duty was breached. For example, a breach of care might involve an invitee falling down broken stairs that a property owner had known about for weeks.

Causation

A premises liability lawyer must also be able to establish that a breach of duty either caused or contributed to a claimant’s injury. For example, a claimant must prove that they would not have been injured if it weren’t for a broken stair that the property owner forgot to fix.

Resulting Damages

Finally, a claimant must be able to prove that they suffered damages or losses as a result of the breach. This can be done, for instance, by providing medical records that show the extent of a debilitating injury and lost wages resulting from being unable to work.

Compensation for an Oklahoma Premises Liability Injury

After filing a claim with an insurance provider, you should expect the company to push back and minimize any potential compensation. For example, an insurer may try to show that a broken step was an “obvious hazard” that could have been easily avoided by stepping over it.

Experienced premises liability lawyers understand these common tactics. They also know that seemingly minor accidents can result in injuries that require extensive, long-term care. An attorney can seek compensation for medical expenses, property damage, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

If an accident resulted in death, surviving family members could pursue a premises liability claim to cover funeral expenses, loss of income, and other damages.

Statute of Limitations on Premises Liability Lawsuits in Oklahoma?

In Oklahoma, the statute of limitations for filing a premises liability claim is two years from the date of the injury or two years from the date of an injured person’s death. Potential claimants forfeit their right to compensation if they do not bring a claim that isn’t brought within this timeframe.

That being said, potential claimants shouldn’t wait until almost two years before filing a claim. Understandably, getting over the shock and trauma of a serious injury takes time. However, a premises liability lawyer is put at more of a disadvantage the longer someone waits to file a claim. The passage of time can hamper a lawyer’s investigation and make a claim more difficult to prove.

Make Nix Patterson Your Oklahoma Premises Liability Law Firm

Even though we bring the strength and experience of a national law firm, we also have boots on the ground in Oklahoma. Our team of personal injury lawyers in the Sooner State can assess your case and represent you against the insurance companies. Get started now to find out how we can help.