Premises Liability in Auto Accidents?

Premises liability laws do not exclusively cover personal injury. These laws also cover property damage resulting from auto accidents on the property or auto accidents themselves. If an auto accident occurs adjacent to or on property owned by another party, or even if the property causes the automobile accident, it may be possible to obtain compensation under premise liability laws.

Premise Liability and Auto Accidents

Premise liability laws do not restrict a property owner to only needing to prevent personal injury. A property owner may be responsible for any type of damage that befalls a guest or a guest’s property as a result of his failure to property maintain and make safe his property.

Accident Caused by Property

The best chance for obtaining compensation under premise liability laws for an automobile accident is where a condition on the property itself causes the auto accident. A driveway with an extremely deep pothole in it, for example, that causes the driver of a moving vehicle to lose control and hit another vehicle or otherwise become damaged might fall within the scope of premise liability law. Since it can be clearly identified that but for the pothole the accident would not have happened, most likely the property owner would be liable.

Auto Accident Near or Adjacent to Property

An automobile accident that does not occur directly on the property but instead near the property can also fall within the purview of premise liability. In this situation, however, the injured party must somehow demonstrate that the property made worse or somehow affected the accident itself or the amount of damage the accident caused. After providing evidence of this, a property owner would most likely be found liable for the additional injury the dangerous condition on the property caused.

Getting Legal Help

If you have been involved in an automobile accident and believe that premise liability laws may be involved in your claim, seek legal assistance. While adding premise liability to your claim is possible, doing so makes a claim more complex.

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