What Is Premises Liability? Attorney Bottlinger Tells Us

By Jason Bottlinger on August 30, 2019

Going shopping on Black Friday can be like entering a madhouse, but for our client, it was worse—he suffered a catastrophic injury when the store failed to secure a loose board. In this video interview, Jason Bottlinger goes over the basics of premises liability and explains why the store was responsible for his client’s recovery, both medical and financial.

TRANSCRIPT

Jason Bottlinger: “Premises liability” refers to situations in which somebody’s hurt on someone else’s property, and the cause of that injury is something that the property owner or property manager either created, or knew about (or should have known about) and should have fixed, but didn’t. And a lot of times, property owners are good custodians of their lands, and they take proper care… but a lot don’t. A lot would rather save that money than send somebody out to properly inspect the property; to make sure that it’s safe and clear of defects. And—they skip it. They skip the step; they cut the corner. And somebody gets hurt.

And in that situation, we can help.

We had a gentleman who was out shopping with his wife on Black Friday, for the advertised “biggest sale ever!” and the store had constructed a whole bunch of temporary displays. They weren’t fastened down; they weren’t safe; and he reached up to get the “doorbuster” comforter off of what he thought was a shelf—turned out, it was sitting on a loose board—and when he pulled that comforter off the top shelf, the board came right down, directly on his knee. He ended up suffering a catastrophic injury. This board fell from elevated height; he had to reach up to reach the comforter, so it had some velocity as it was coming down, some momentum in it. It really tore up his knee, to the point of having to get a total knee replacement. Completely changed his life—he was an avid sporting fellow; he liked to play soccer and basketball with his kids—he couldn’t do any of that stuff. He was only in his forties, but he felt like an old man after that happened.

So, that’s a situation where a company just—they’re not being appropriately thoughtful. They’re putting profits over safety, and they’re prioritizing their own bottom line over their customers’ safety. And when somebody’s hurt as a result of that, the company needs to make it right—and they didn’t, until we were engaged.

And we were able to pursue that case for that family and make a recovery for them.

Would you like to speak to Jason about a personal injury incident that hurt you in Omaha? Please call (402) 505-8234 for a free consultation.