Most people have a general sense that if they get hurt on someone else’s property, there may be legal options available. But “premises liability” is an unfamiliar legal concept to most.
Premises liability is the area of law that holds property owners and occupiers responsible when someone gets hurt due to an unsafe condition on their property. Slip and fall accidents are among the most common types of premises liability claims, but the category is broader than that. Dog bites, inadequate security, toxic exposure, swimming pool accidents, falling objects in retail stores — all of these can fall under the premises liability umbrella.
At Warshafsky Law Firm, our experienced injury attorneys help people throughout the state who suffer injuries while on the properties of others. If you were seriously injured in a fall on someone else’s personal or business property, contact us to find out if you have a claim.
What Protections Are Available for Property Visitors in Wisconsin?
Not every injury on someone else’s property automatically leads to a successful claim. Wisconsin law generally requires property owners to exercise ordinary care toward lawful visitors. Previously, there were three categories that determined the level of protection the law provided. Wisconsin has abolished the distinction between the duties owed to invitees and licensees; special rules still apply to trespassers.
- Invitees include customers shopping at a grocery store, tenants in an apartment building, patients at a medical office, and visitors to a retail business. Property owners owe invitees a duty of ordinary care, including reasonable care to discover dangerous conditions. They can’t just respond when something goes wrong.
- Licensees, like social guests at someone’s home, are generally owed the same duty of care as is extended to invitees.
- Trespassers generally receive minimal protection. Owners must avoid willfully or wantonly harming people who trespass on their property. There are exceptions, particularly involving children, but that’s the general framework.
What Is Wisconsin’s Safe Place Law?
Wisconsin’s Safe Place Statute is an important law affecting premises liability cases. It requires that employers and owners of public buildings maintain their properties in as safe a condition as the premises permits. What makes this significant is that it can impose liability even in situations where a standard negligence analysis might fall short. Unlike general negligence claims, Safe Place claims impose a heightened duty concerning the safety of covered premises. This means liability for a structural defect may apply even if the owner did not know about it; other unsafe conditions generally require actual or constructive knowledge or notice.
For unsafe conditions requiring notice, the distinction is between what someone knew and what they should have known; structural defects do not require notice. The Safe Place Statute can be a powerful tool in a premises liability lawsuit.
What Is a Premises Liability Claim Worth?
In Wisconsin, injured visitors may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost income, rehabilitation costs, and what the law calls non-economic damages — things like pain, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. In cases involving particularly serious misconduct by a property owner, punitive damages can sometimes come into play as well, though those situations are less common.
The value of a premises liability claim depends heavily on the severity of the injury and how clearly the evidence ties the property owner’s failure to what happened. A broken wrist from a parking lot fall at a grocery store on Bluemound Road is a very different case than a traumatic brain injury from a fall down an improperly maintained stairwell in a commercial building downtown. Both may be valid claims. The recoverable amounts are going to look very different.
Do Not Wait to Seek the Advice of a Lawyer
In Wisconsin, an injured person generally has three years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. Three years sounds like a long time. It isn’t, not when you factor in how long it takes to gather evidence, identify all potentially responsible parties, document the full extent of your injuries, and build a case that holds up in front of a jury.
Most people hire lawyers too late. By then, evidence is gone. Surveillance footage from the property gets overwritten. Witnesses move or their memories fade. Inspection records that could prove the owner knew about a hazard get harder to obtain. Contact a personal injury lawyer early, not just because of the filing deadline, but because the quality of a case often depends on what evidence is preserved in the days and weeks right after an incident.
If your injury happened on government or municipal property, the timeline is even tighter. A formal notice of claim may be required well before the standard three-year window closes, and missing that shorter deadline can be just as damaging as missing the main one.
Our No-Win, No-Fee Guarantee Is a No Risk Proposition for You
If you were hurt on someone else’s property in the Milwaukee area, in Racine, Kenosha, or anywhere else in Wisconsin, our skilled lawyers will listen to you and help you understand your options in a free consultation. It costs you nothing to find out what your rights are after an accident. Contact us today.
