Clients turn to us regularly to handle premises liability cases that involve significant damages.
The attorneys of Brinker & Doyen, L.L.P, have successfully handled a wide variety of premises liability cases and obtained winning outcomes for many of our clients. The cases typically involve a claim that a hazardous condition has caused injury and damage to an invitee of the premises. Numerous conditions can possibly cause a plaintiff to trip or skip and fall and the owner or possessor of the premise is typically charged with actual or constructive notice of the condition. We often defend these claims on the behalf of the homeowner or commercial business owners. Commercial property owners can include retail businesses, apartment complex owners and condominium associations. We thoroughly investigate these types of claims by examining the allegedly dangerous condition and collect all relevant documents from our clients, including incident reports, maintenance records and possibly even photographs taken after the incident. On slip and fall accidents involving inclement weather, we will collect all relevant weather records and contact snow and ice removal contractors to obtain their service records.
A rapidly expanding type of claim over the past decade has involved a landowner’s liability for criminal acts of third parties. These claims involve an assault, or even murder, of an invitee and the owner is alleged to have been responsible for the attack because the crime was foreseeable and certain preventative measures, such as security, would have prevented the crime from occurring. There are numerous factors that must be examined in these types of cases, including a statistical analysis of past crime on the property, conditions of the subject property and whether preventative measures were available to the owner or possessor of the property. Expert witnesses are typically required to address these issues. We have successfully defended many of these types of claims and have even obtained summary judgment on some of the claims on different grounds. We are familiar with the applicable law on these types of claims and with the expert witnesses that work on either side of these claims. The experts include criminologists and security consultants. Our clients have recognized our experience and ability in defending these claims and regularly turn to us on these claims that typically involve significant damages.
