If you’re the owner of a business, we congratulate you. You have found great success in your life, and you should be applauded for that. However, because you own a business you also have a rather large bullseye on your back. People are going to try to take advantage of your wealth and success.
They might steal from you or attack your company online. But today, we are going to talk about an attack that comes from within. Specifically we are going to show you how to protect yourself from a personal injury lawsuit. To do that, you need to understand premises liability and everything that comes with it.
What is Premises Liability?
It holds the landowner responsible for any accidents or injuries that occur on their property. It also holds a landowner responsible if harmful materials from their property spill out. For instance, if a farmer was leaking a slippery substance from his property onto the main road he could expect a hefty lawsuit. Now you might think: so if I rent my business property I’m safe?
Not usually, no. When you rent the property landlords often make sure within the agreement, there is a clause that shifts legal responsibility to you particularly, if you are running a business off the property. So, if anyone is injured on the premises, you will be held responsible.
Explosion on the 42nd st. by Max Khokhlov, on Flickr. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.
Why Should I Care?
Premises Liability is the part of the law that personal injury attorneys use to get big payouts for their clients. Depending on the severity of the accident and how much the business owner was to blame, the payout can be huge. It could cripple a small business owner such as yourself and stop you being competitive in the market. Also, you should note it does not need to be an employee. It could be anyone visiting the premises who has suffered an injury.
How Can I Protect Myself?
You may believe that employees and the general public are out to get you. You might have seen those daytime television ads with friendly faced lawyers promising big PI settlements to the viewer. But, generally speaking, an employee does not want to be injured at work. They certainly do not want to experience such a severe injury that they’ll be unable to complete their job. You just need to make sure your premises are safe.
Check for Hazards
At the beginning of each day, you should be checking your premises for any potential hazards. Or, you should be ensuring that the safety officers you hired are doing this. A hazard could be anything from a flickering light bulb on a staircase to a loose wire.
You should also teach employees what to look out for so that they know to report a hazard if and when they see it. Remember, ignorance is not an excuse. If there is a hazard that you should have known about, you will still lose a lot of money in compensation. If you are worried about premises liability, contact your legal representation and find out more about what you can do to prevent a PI lawsuit.
