While personal injury litigation in Florida courts is not supposed to be a game of “gotcha,” or trial by ambush, Surf Drugs, Inc. v. Vermette, 236 So.108, 111 Fla.1970,” unless attorneys pay careful attention, it can happen in their cases. One of the ripest areas for this gamesmanship to occur…
Most business establishments today maintain some form of video surveillance to capture events, including accidents and assaults, that happen in and around their property. The key to resolving premises liability claims fairly to all concerned — the injured person and the property owner — is by determining fully what happened.…
By failing to comply with statutory (and regulatory) (deJesus v. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, 281 So.2d 198 (Fla.1973)), industry (Seaboard Coast Line R. Co. v. Clark, 491 So.2d 1196 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986), and company safety standards (Steinberg v. Lomenick, 531 So.2d 199 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988), rev. denied, 539…
Comparative Fault — see Florida Statute 768.81 –and the Open & Obvious Doctrine are legal concepts that play a role in many premises liability cases. Under the principle of Comparative Fault, the jury is asked to apportion fault among the parties to a lawsuit, plaintiff and defendant(s), and others who…
Due to flawed record keeping, it is impossible to know with confidence how often violent crimes — murder, kidnapping, battery or robbery — are committed in Florida in conjunction with obtaining cash involuntarily from a victim’s ATM. Most law enforcement agencies do not maintain a separate category for ATM crime.…
The initial question in every premises liability personal injury case concerns the concept of duty. What degree of duty did the landowner (or possessor) owe to the person injured to prevent the accident? Because the next inquiry concerns whether the duty was breached, the answer to the initial question often…
Must a landowner warn a visitor to the property of an open and obvious pothole? Probably not. Does a landowner have a duty to repair the pothole? Probably. In Burton v. MDC PGA Plaza Corp., 78 So.3d 732 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012), the plaintiff was seriously injured when, while loading…
Success for the victim of a premises liability accident requires that he or she prove the defendant knew or should have known beforehand of the existence of the dangerous condition which caused the accident, and that the accident was foreseeable. One of the most effective ways of establishing these elements…
Under Florida law, the duty owed by landowners and/or those in control of properties to individuals other than employees – injuries to employees are governed by Florida’s workers’ compensation system (see Chapter 440 of the Florida’s Statutes) – depends in part on the individual’s purpose for being on the property.…
Premises liability lawyers, both Plaintiff and Defense, know that evidence of prior accidents or events may, by a showing of substantially similar conditions, be admissible to prove one or more elements of a case. Less well recognized is that no-accident history may also be admitted into evidence for a variety…