Salt Lake City Premises Liability Lawyer

Stores, apartment complexes, restaurants, hotels, and parking lots all make money by inviting the public in — and with that comes a duty to keep those spaces reasonably safe. When an owner ignores a known hazard, cuts corners on maintenance, or fails to provide basic security, people get hurt. That's premises liability: the area of law that holds property owners accountable for injuries their negligence causes.

At West Injury Law, we investigate what the property owner knew, what they should have done, and why they failed to do it — and we hold them responsible.

What Premises Liability Covers

Premises liability is broader than a single kind of accident. It applies any time an unsafe condition on someone else's property causes an injury, including:

• Slip, trip, and fall accidents — wet floors, ice and snow, uneven surfaces, broken stairs. (See our Slip & Fall page for more.)
• Negligent security — assaults, robberies, or attacks that happen because a property owner failed to provide reasonable security (adequate lighting, working locks, cameras, or guards) in a place where they should have foreseen the danger.
• Dog bites and animal attacks — often on or near the owner's property. (See our Dog Bite page for more.)
• Falling merchandise or objects — items stacked or displayed unsafely.
• Swimming pool accidents — unfenced or unsupervised pools, especially involving children.
• Inadequate maintenance — broken railings, hidden hazards, poor lighting, and structural problems.
• Elevator and escalator injuries.
• Fires and toxic exposure caused by code violations or neglect.

If you were hurt by a dangerous condition on someone else's property, there's a good chance premises liability law applies — and a free case review will tell you for sure.

A Property Owner's Duty of Care in Utah

Utah property owners must keep their premises reasonably safe and warn of known hazards. How much they owe depends on why you were there:

• Invitees — customers, tenants, and business guests — are owed the highest duty: reasonable care to keep the property safe and to inspect for dangers.
• Licensees — social guests — are owed a duty to be warned of known hazards.
• Trespassers are generally owed only a limited duty.

To hold an owner responsible, you typically have to show they knew, or reasonably should have known, about the dangerous condition and failed to fix it or warn you — and that it caused your injury. Proving that "should have known" piece is where experience matters, and it's where we focus.

Negligent Security — A Hazard People Overlook

Not every property injury is a fall. If you were assaulted or robbed in a poorly secured apartment complex, parking garage, hotel, or business — somewhere the owner should have anticipated the risk and taken reasonable precautions — the property owner may share responsibility for what happened to you. These cases turn on what the owner knew about prior incidents and crime in the area, and whether they responded reasonably. We know how to investigate them.

Utah Law and Your Deadline

Utah follows modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar — your recovery is reduced by your share of fault and barred if you're 50% or more responsible, so expect the insurer to try to shift blame onto you. You generally have four years from the date of injury to file a personal injury claim. Because evidence on a property — a spill, a broken lock, a burned-out light — is fixed or lost quickly, it's best to act early.

Compensation You Can Recover

• Economic damages: medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity.
• Non-economic damages: pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Long-term care costs: for serious or permanent injuries.

How Insurance Companies Try to Pay You Less

Property and business insurers argue that the hazard was "open and obvious," that you weren't paying attention, that the danger appeared too quickly to fix, or — in negligent-security cases — that the attack was unforeseeable. They'll often offer a fast, low settlement before the injury is fully understood. We answer with evidence: incident reports, maintenance and security records, prior-incident history, and witness statements — and we hold them to the real value of your claim.