If you are injured when you are on someone else’s property, you may be able to seek compensation for your injuries from the person who “controls” the property, typically the person who owns or has the right to possession of the property (hereinafter referred to as the “premises owner”).  You may seek compensation regardless of whether the property is a neighbor’s home, commercial business or city sidewalk depending on the circumstances surrounding your injuries.    An experienced Tennessee premises liability lawyer should know how to gather critical evidence of the premises owner’s knowledge of the dangers lurking on his or her property and how to make a compelling presentation to a judge or jury.

There are often complex questions regarding the “forseeability” of certain dangers that visitors encounter on a property, which may require an expert’s analysis and testimony.  At Nahon Saharovich & Trotz, PLC (“NST Law), we understand the importance of analyzing statistical data and employing expert testimony in to help ensure that our client’s are compensated or their injuries.  At NST Law, we will carefully analyze the circumstances of your accident and rely on state of the art models, video reenactments and computer simulations in helping a judge or jury understand how you were injured and why you should be compensated for your injuries.

The body of Tennessee accident law that provides for the liability of a premises owner to someone injured on his or her premises is generally called “premises liability.”  What your Tennessee premises liability lawyer must show to establish liability of a premises owner for injuries you suffer while on the property depends on the reason for your visit.

A premises owner owes a different duty of care to those who visit their property depending on how a visitor is characterized.  This classification system was the common law (judge made law) approach in Tennessee and remains the law in many states.

• Invitee: Basically, an invitee is someone who is on the property for some business purpose that is mutually beneficial to both parties.  The person is said to have the implied or express consent of the premises owner to visit the property.  A customer who visits a grocery store to buy groceries would be a typical example.  Under Tennessee common law and the law of many states, a premises owner owes this type of visitor the highest duty of care.

• Licensee: A licensee is a social guest who visits your property.  A visiting neighbor or friend would be an example of a licensee.  The premises owner traditionally has an obligation to warn an invitee of risks of injury that the invitee would not likely discover on their own.  If a premises owner knows that a step on the basement stairs is broken (but does not appear broken), the premises owner may be liable to a social guest who is injured by the broken step.  Put another way, a premises owner is liable for injuries to social guests that result from “latent defects,” meaning defects that are not obvious to a reasonably observant person.

• Trespasser: A trespasser is a person who has neither an express or implied invitation to be on the property but instead is present for his or her own purposes rather than to perform any task for the owner.  If the premises owner is unaware of a trespasser’s presence, the owner typically has no duty to warn the trespasser of dangers or to make the premises safe for the trespasser. The premises owner is only obliged not to intentionally hurt an adult trespasser.  A premises owner could be liable if she sets some kind of trap to catch someone pilfering from the premises, for example. But if someone were wandering around the property without permission and fell in a hole, the premises owner would ordinarily not be liable for his or her injuries.

If the trespasser is a child who is attracted by a dangerous condition on the property, such as, a deep hole or swimming pool, a premises owner may be liable under what is referred to as the “attractive nuisance doctrine.”  This special case of liability for injury to a child does not apply to the terrain of the property.  Tennessee premises liability law also has a special provision that relieves a property owner of liability if land is leased to the government for recreational use.

Tennessee has generally abandoned the common law distinction between the level of care owed to a licensee and an invitee.  A uniform standard of care requires the exercise of reasonable care for the safety of visitors other than trespassers. To satisfy the reasonableness standard owed to invitees and licensees, a premises owner has a continuing duty to inspect the property to identify dangerous conditions and either repair them or post warnings as appropriate.

At NST Law, we have many years of experience representing those injured by property owners who fail to warn of a dangerous condition on his or her property or fail to make the property safe.  The attorneys of NST Law have represented clients who were injured by natural or man-made conditions on a property and even injuries suffered by the intentional or criminal act of a third party.  Often, the “foreseeability” of ones injuries will be a critical issue in these cases, especially where one’s injuries are caused by the intentional or criminal act of a third party.

The experienced premises liability attorneys of NST Law will carefully investigate to determine if there has been previous criminal activity in the area.    We will typically use an expert to gather such evidence of past criminal activity in an area and testify regarding statistical evidence of crime in the area.

At NST Law, we understand that establishing that a premises owner should have known that his or her property was unsafe is usually a critical issue in establishing liability on behalf of someone who has been seriously injured or killed on the property.  We routinely employ our skill and experience by using statistics and expert testimony to establish this knowledge, and computer simulations or other state of the art technological evidence to communicate this knowledge to a judge or jury.  NST Law attorneys have been nationally recognized by Super Lawyers, which rates the top 5% of lawyers in the country.