If you’ve been hurt on someone else’s property — whether it’s a grocery store, an apartment complex, a parking lot, or a private residence — you may be entitled to compensation. Property owners and occupiers in Virginia have a legal duty to keep their premises reasonably safe for visitors, and when they fail to meet that duty, the people who get hurt are often left with serious injuries, mounting medical bills, and no clear sense of what to do next.
At MartinWren, P.C., our Charlottesville premises liability lawyers have spent years investigating dangerous property conditions, identifying the responsible parties, and holding them accountable. Our firm brings preparation and attention to detail to every premises liability case we handle.
You will not owe any legal fees unless we recover money for you.
For a free, confidential consultation, call (888) 991-1980 — we answer calls 24/7.
What Is Premises Liability?
“Premises liability” is the legal term for a property owner’s responsibility when a dangerous condition on their property causes someone to get hurt. A property owner doesn’t automatically guarantee your safety just by letting you onto their land — but if they know about a hazard (or should reasonably know about it) and fail to fix it or warn you, they can be held legally responsible for your injuries.
These cases come up far more often, and in far more forms, than most people expect. Below, we’ve outlined some of the most common types of premises liability cases we handle, along with what makes each one unique.
For a legal consultation with a personal injury lawyer, call (434) 817-3100
Common Premises Liability Scenarios That Cause Injuries
Slip, Trip, and Fall Hazards
Falls from slips remain one of the leading causes of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and broken bones for people of all ages. Our Charlottesville Slip and Fall Lawyer can help. Some of the most common causes we see include:
- Wet or recently mopped floors without warning signs
- Spilled liquids or food in grocery stores and restaurants
- Snow- and ice-covered walkways, parking lots, and entrances
- Cracked, uneven, or crumbling sidewalks and parking surfaces
- Loose mats, rugs, or flooring transitions
Dangerous and Defective Stairs
Stairs that don’t meet building code requirements are one of the most overlooked dangers on commercial and residential property. Problems we frequently investigate include uneven riser heights or tread depths, missing or improperly installed handrails, worn or slick treads with no anti-slip surface, poor stairwell lighting, and landings that are too small or unevenly sloped. Because these issues are governed by specific building code provisions, a code violation can become important evidence in your case.
Learn more about Injuries Caused by Dangerous Stairs and Steps.
Inadequate Security
Businesses and residential property owners — especially apartment complexes, hotels, and parking garages — have a duty to take reasonable security precautions when they know, or should know, that criminal activity is foreseeable on their property. This can include broken locks and gates, non-functioning security cameras, inadequate lighting in parking areas, or a failure to respond to a documented history of crime on the property. These cases require careful investigation into a property’s crime history and security practices.
Dangerous Animals and Dog Bites
Property owners can be held liable when they know, or should know, that an animal on their property poses a danger to visitors and fail to take reasonable precautions. This includes dog bite cases as well as injuries caused by other animals kept on commercial or residential property.
Daycare Injuries and Abuse
Sending your child to daycare requires an enormous amount of trust. When a facility betrays that trust — through physical abuse, sexual abuse, inadequate supervision, or unsafe conditions — Virginia law may hold them accountable. Our attorneys help families understand their rights and pursue compensation for medical care, therapy, and the harm their child suffered.
Learn more about daycare injury claims in Virginia.
Falling Objects and Merchandise
In retail and warehouse settings, improperly stacked or stored merchandise can fall and cause serious injuries — including head injuries — to customers and employees alike. Many retailers have their own internal safety standards for shelving and stacking, and a failure to follow those standards can be powerful evidence of negligence.
Building and Structural Hazards
Collapsed ceilings, unstable floors, broken railings, and other structural failures often point to deferred maintenance or code violations that the property owner knew about — or should have known about — long before someone got hurt.
Elevator and Escalator Accidents
Elevators and escalators are required to be regularly inspected and maintained. When maintenance records show gaps, deferred repairs, or known issues that weren’t addressed, that history can become central to a premises liability claim.
Swimming Pool Accidents
Pools — particularly at apartment complexes, hotels, and private residences — carry unique risks, especially for children. Property owners have specific obligations when it comes to fencing, supervision, and warning signage.
Apartment and Rental Property Injuries
Landlords have ongoing obligations to maintain rental properties in a safe condition. That can include everything from structural issues to broken locks to inadequate lighting in common areas. When a landlord ignores a known hazard, tenants and their guests can be seriously injured.
Who Is Owed a Duty of Care? Invitees, Licensees, and Trespassers
The specific duties a property owner owes to someone visiting their property depend, at least in part, on that person’s legal status:
Invitees are individuals who have been expressly or implicitly invited onto the property — a shopper at a grocery store, for example. Property owners owe invitees the duty to use ordinary care to keep the premises reasonably safe. This means removing hazards the owner knows about or should know about, and if a hazard can’t be removed, warning visitors about it (unless the hazard is open and obvious).
Licensees are individuals who enter a property for their own purposes, with the owner’s knowledge and consent — a social guest, for example, or a firefighter responding to an emergency. A property owner is liable to a licensee for injuries caused by a dangerous condition if the owner knows or should know about the condition, understands it creates an unreasonable risk, has reason to believe the licensee won’t discover it on their own, and fails to either fix it or warn about it.
Trespassers enter property without permission, and property owners generally don’t owe them a duty of care. However, once an owner becomes aware that a trespasser is on the property, the owner owes that person a duty of ordinary care to avoid injuring them.
Charlottesville Premises Liability Lawyer Near Me (434) 817-3100
Open and Obvious Hazards — and Why That Defense Doesn’t Always Win
Property owners and their insurance companies often argue that a hazard was “open and obvious,” and that the injured person should have simply avoided it. While Virginia law does recognize this defense, it doesn’t apply automatically — and it doesn’t mean your claim is over. Whether a hazard was truly open and obvious, and whether a reasonable person in your position would have noticed and avoided it, often becomes a key factual question in these cases.
Virginia’s Contributory Negligence Rule
Virginia is one of only a handful of states that still follows the rule of contributory negligence. Under this rule, if you are found to be even slightly at fault for your own injury, you may be barred from recovering any compensation at all — regardless of how negligent the property owner was. This makes Virginia one of the more difficult states in the country for injury victims, and it’s one of the biggest reasons to have an experienced premises liability attorney investigate your case early, before the property owner’s insurance company has a chance to build a narrative that shifts blame onto you.
Click to contact personal injury lawyers today
Where Premises Liability Claims Commonly Arise
While premises liability cases can happen anywhere, we most often see them connected to:
- Grocery stores, retail shops, and shopping centers
- Restaurants and bars
- Apartment complexes and rental properties
- Hotels and motels
- Parking lots and garages
- Private residences, including pools, decks, and stairs
What to Do If You’ve Been Injured on Someone Else’s Property
If you’ve been hurt due to a dangerous property condition, what you do in the days and weeks afterward can make a real difference in your case:
- Seek medical attention, even if your injuries seem minor at first
- Report the incident to the property owner, manager, or landlord, and get a copy of any incident report
- Take photos of the hazard, the surrounding area, and your injuries, if possible
- Get contact information for any witnesses
- Avoid giving statements to the property owner’s insurance company before speaking with an attorney
- Don’t wait — evidence like security footage, maintenance records, and incident reports can disappear or be deleted quickly
Complete a Case Evaluation form now
Why Acting Quickly Matters in a Premises Liability Case
The evidence that proves your case can disappear fast — sometimes within days, sometimes within hours.
Unlike a car accident, where police reports and vehicle damage tend to stick around, the hazard that caused your fall or injury often doesn’t. Property owners frequently fix the problem, clean up the spill, or replace the broken step almost immediately. That may happen even before you’ve left the building. That can mean the most important piece of evidence in your case is gone before you’ve had a chance to document it.
Here’s what tends to disappear quickly, and why:
Security camera footage.
Many businesses only retain footage for a few days to a few weeks before it’s automatically overwritten. If we don’t request it early, it may be gone for good — and footage showing the hazard, how long it was there, or how the property’s staff responded can be some of the most powerful evidence in a premises liability case.
The hazard itself.
A wet floor gets mopped up. A broken handrail gets replaced. A torn carpet gets pulled. Once the condition is fixed, there’s often no physical evidence left showing what it looked like when you were hurt.
Witnesses.
Other customers, tenants, or bystanders who saw what happened may be hard to track down once they’ve left the property. And their memories fade with time.
Incident reports and internal records.
Some businesses document hazards and complaints internally, but those records aren’t always preserved long-term unless someone formally requests them.
This is why it’s so important to act quickly after an injury. Not just for your health, but to protect your legal claim. An attorney can send what’s called a spoliation letter, formally notifying the property owner or business that they have a legal obligation to preserve evidence. That can include video footage, maintenance records, and incident reports — related to your injury. The sooner that notice goes out, the better the chance that critical evidence is preserved before it’s lost.
Why Choose MartinWren, P.C.?
Premises liability cases often look simple on the surface but involve real legal complexity. These cases raise questions about who had control over the property, what they knew and when, and what duty they owed to the person who got hurt. Our attorneys have the experience to investigate these cases thoroughly, work with the right experts, and build the strongest possible case on your behalf.
If you or a loved one has been injured on someone else’s property in Charlottesville or anywhere in Virginia, contact MartinWren, P.C.’s Charlottesville personal injury lawyer team today for a free consultation. Call (888) 991-1980 — available 24/7.
You will not owe any legal fees unless we recover money for you.
Call (434) 817-3100 or complete a Case Evaluation form