You may be curious about your legal options in New York if you sustain an injury while on a rental property. You have rights as a renter if you believe that your injury was brought on by negligence. Can you sue your landlord?
Usually, tenants have the opportunity to file a personal injury claim against the landlord for damages if they suffer injuries in mishaps on the landlord's property. However, you can frequently settle these disputes without ever going to trial.
Speaking with an NY premises liability lawyer will be beneficial to your case, as we can help maximize the value of your case to ensure you receive fair compensation. Our team at Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law has helped countless injury victims recover losses in personal injury claims just like this.
Call us today for more information.
What To Do After An Accident
Your main concern should be to get medical help immediately after an accident, especially if you have serious injuries. Suing a landlord should be secondary to seeing a doctor to treat your injuries. Visiting a doctor can help you document the extent and seriousness of your injuries in addition to giving you the treatment you require. The findings of your physician and perhaps even their testimony could be important in getting the fair compensation you deserve.
Additionally, you must be sure to adhere to the doctor's recommendations and follow any course of treatments that they recommend. If not, the landlord can claim that your own actions caused your injuries to worsen.
Keep in mind that you'll need evidence to back up your claim. This could mean noting and documenting your personal account of what happened as quickly as you can. Proof of your financial losses is also important. This could include things like medical bills, pay stubs, and receipts for travel, etc. If at all possible, document the accident-causing hazard with pictures or videos. You should get in touch with everyone who witnessed your accident as a prospective witness. Getting their account of what happened can prove to be very valuable, especially if it's different from yours.
Finally, inform the landlord about the incident and request that they contact their insurance company. You can proceed with filing a lawsuit if the landlord doesn't act in a timely manner. As previously mentioned, most lawsuits are settled out of court.
Establishing the Landlord's Negligence
It's common for a victim to contend that their injuries were caused by the landlord's negligence. This means that the accident was foreseeable as a result of the landlord's failure to act appropriately in the given situation.
The failure to act or how predictable the accident was is influenced by a number of different elements. Among them are whether the landlord had any control over the location of the accident or the event that led to it, whether it was likely that the accident would happen given the circumstances, whether it was likely that a serious injury would result, and how much it would have cost the landlord to lower the risk of an accident. If these circumstances work in your favor, you will need to prove that your landlord failed to take reasonable precautions to avoid an accident and because of this, you suffered an injury.
Additional Causes of Landlord Liability
A landlord is usually required to follow specific health or safety laws, and when they don't, it's typically viewed as negligence, making them liable for any accidents and/or injuries that happen. The landlord may be held responsible if necessary repairs are not made or if they are made negligently. (By contrast, the landlord cannot be held liable for your negligent repairs if you made arrangements with them to handle some of them on your own.) Occasionally a serious flaw appears that renders a unit uninhabitable. You may file a lawsuit on the grounds that the landlord broke the implied assurance of habitability if they were aware of the fault but did nothing to fix this.
Other times, the injury may have been brought on by the landlord's intentional malice. Punitive damages may result from this. The determination of whether conduct is reckless as opposed to merely negligent depends on unique factors. In the event that a landlord acts maliciously, punitive damages are also an option. Invasion of privacy that results in emotional discomfort, sexual harassment, or assault are examples of this.
In addition to a typical negligence claim, you file for these kinds of claims.
What Types of Compensation Can You Claim?
Both economic and non-economic losses may be covered by compensation in personal injury lawsuits. Economic damages typically include medical costs, future treatment costs, lost wages, and lost earning potential brought on by permanent disability.
Your subjective pain, along with any scarring or disfigurement, a decline in your quality of life, emotional distress brought on by strained personal relationships or any psychological trauma brought on by the accident are all examples of non-economic damages. Although it may seem difficult to prove non-economic damages, you can support your claims with testimony from doctors and people around you, as well as prescriptions for painkillers.
If the landlord argues that you contributed to the accident, the landlord or their insurance company could argue that your compensation should be reduced. If it is proven that you were partially at fault, this may lead to a reduction in compensation you receive. How much depends on the state. Some states forbid a victim from receiving full compensation for damages even if they were partially at fault. Most states permit a victim to obtain compensation that is proportionate to the defendant's share of the accident's blame. In other states, you cannot receive any damages if your fault exceeds a certain point (for example, 50 or 51 percent).
Premises Liability Attorneys at Brandon J. Broderick Can Help
Get in touch with Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law to schedule a consultation if you've been injured on someone's property and believe they are at fault.
Our knowledgeable premises liability attorneys can help you navigate these sometimes complex cases. We pride ourselves in securing a resolution that greatly helps our clients.
We have offices across New York. Schedule a free consultation today.