Where you work, shop or even go to hang out with loved ones may not be as safe as you expect. In fact, although building owners and managers are bound to a certain duty of care when it comes to their properties and facilities, these parties do not always live up to their obligations. This type of negligence and carelessness can contribute to unsafe premises, increasing the risk of accidents and injuries.

Each year, more than 1 million people in the U.S. seek emergency medical care for slip and fall injuries.¹ In many of these cases, people end up with lasting pain and longer term injuries that can impact their ability to work, as well as their overall quality of life.

At Bell & Pollock, P.C., our Denver premises liability attorneys are all too familiar with how unsafe premises and negligence can lead to catastrophic injuries. That is why we are proud to be champions for the people, advocating their rights and defending them against injustice so they can reclaim their lives and financially recover after being harmed by others’ negligence.

Private and public premises can be unsafe for a variety of reasons, many of which can result from the responsible parties failing to take “reasonable” care to keep their properties safe.

Such reasonable care can involve promptly repairing or rectifying safety issues that owners or managers have been aware of. It can also involve situations in which a responsible party should have been aware of some risk of danger because a “reasonable” person in the same situation would have been aware of it.

Some specific examples of how negligence can make properties unsafe and cause accidents include (but are by no means limited to) owners, landlords and/or property managers:

• Failing to clean up spills or pooled liquids on floors
• Failing to keep walkways free from hazards, such as objects or cords left in walkways
• Failing to repair uneven flooring, loose carpet and/or holes in flooring
• Failing to fix broken stair railings or stair rungs
• Failing to provide adequate lighting in stairways, parking areas or other necessary areas
• Failing to provide sufficient security, such as locking doors, to keep people on the property safe
• Failing to prevent the people visiting a property from being exposed to toxins
• Failing to warn people about the known risks or dangers associated with a property
• Failing to promptly and appropriately fix any problem that makes a property unsafe.

Some of the most common types of premises liability claims include (but are by no means limited to) those involving:

• Slip and fall accidents
• Swimming pool accidents
• Animal attacks, including dog attacks
• Assaults
• Exposure to toxins
• Stairway, elevator and/or escalator accidents.