The tragedy that occurred earlier this month at an outdoor music event in Houston, leaving at least eight attendees dead and hundreds more injured, has subsequently spawned more than two dozen liability lawsuits naming everyone from the performer to the promoter, and even the venue.

Liability law is somewhat complicated, but if you were injured because of a slip, trip, fall, or other hazards on the premises you were on, you may be entitled to bring suit against the possessor of the property for your injuries.

Slip and fall cases are based on tort law, which means the burden of proof is on you (the victim). to prove the general elements of a negligence claim. Proving liability or negligence can become complex fairly quickly, which is why it’s important to consult with a personal injury attorney as soon after your accident as possible.

Elements for Establishing Negligence in a Premises Liability Claim

There are four basic elements that you (the plaintiff) must prove in establishing a premises liability claim (e.g. the defendant):

• The defendant owed you a legal duty;
• The defendant breached that duty;
• The defendant’s breach of their legal duty was a proximate cause of your injuries, and;
• The plaintiff suffered damages as a result of the defendant’s breach of a legal duty to keep you safe.

The Caveat: Open and Obvious

Whether or not a hazardous condition is considered “open and obvious” also plays a major role in any premises liability claim. If a hazard is so blatant, referred to in court as “open and obvious,” that a reasonable person would take care to avoid it, the plaintiff may be barred from making his or her claim. Because most defendants will use this issue as a defense in a premises liability claim, “open and obvious” has become the fifth hurdle a plaintiff must establish did not exist.

“Possession and Control” of a Property Establishes Legal Duty

The first step in a premises liability case is to establish that a defendant owed you a legal duty, and the extent of the duty owed. Generally, a defendant’s legal duty arises out of their possession and control over the property.

It’s important to understand that possession and control is not the same as “ownership” of a property. In fact, the Michigan Supreme Court has found that while the same individual or entity may hold both “ownership,” in addition to “possession and control,” they are distinctly different concepts.

For example, the owner of a shopping complex may rent individual retail spaces to small businesses, but still maintain the safety and upkeep of the parking lot and sidewalk. In such a scenario, the mall owner would likely be responsible for the injuries of a patron injured by a slip and fall in the parking lot, but would not be responsible if that same individual fell inside a store; although the owner holds title to the store space, they are not in possession or control of that rented space at the time the injury occurred.

In Michigan, the extent of the duty owed by the possessor of land is dependent upon the purpose for which a plaintiff was on the land at the time they sustained an injury.

To learn more about what the duties of a property owner are, and whether your injury is the result of someone else’s negligence, call the attorneys at Turner and Turner at (248) 355-1727 for a free, no-obligation consultation and let us help determine whether you have a viable legal claim.

IF YOU’VE BEEN involved in an accident you should absolutely consider hiring a personal injury attorney; naturally, many victims can feel intimidated or nervous about visiting a lawyer’s office for the first time.

However, there is no need to worry. Your attorney is your strongest advocate and best chance at recovering compensation due to your injuries.

Expect the Meeting to be Fairly Short

Your case is important and it’s important to your lawyer, too. Most initial consultations last about one hour. While that may not seem like enough time, an experienced lawyer knows what questions to ask to make that hour efficient and productive.

Expect Questions – Lots of Questions

In your consultation meeting, your attorney will ask you a number of questions; basic “who-, what-, when-type” questions. Specifically, in a personal injury case, a lawyer will also want to know the details of the accident. Other pertinent information needed includes some specifics about your insurance policy, injuries, and financial losses. Not to be forgotten is one of the biggest impacts of an accident: how the injury affected you emotionally. Takeaway: expect questions about your physical, mental, and financial health.

While it may seem unsettling giving personal information to a person you’ve just met, set aside any worry. First, Michigan ethic rules require all attorneys – even those you may not ultimately engage — to maintain the “attorney-client” privilege. The attorney-client privilege, with very specific exceptions, prevents members of the Michigan State Bar from discussing your case or its details with anybody. Takeaway: don’t hold back because the specifics matter; a licensed attorney will keep everything confidential.

Most importantly, your potential attorney will be unable to properly evaluate your case unless you provide a true and complete story. Holding back information, or changing a fact that seems minor, might cause your attorney to provide bad information. A good attorney will give you an honest evaluation, but no attorney can do this without all the facts.

Expect to Be Asked for Documents and Other Proof

Not only will you be asked many questions, but your attorney will likely request any proof you have or can get access to (see list of examples below). Before calling for an attorney consultation, or visiting the office, make sure you have these items at the ready.

Examples Some things that lawyers often ask for include:

• Communications from insurance companies
• A list of witnesses
• Messages from witnesses
• Pictures of the accident scene
• Pictures showing injuries to you or others
• Pictures showing property damage
• Medical records
• Medical bills
• Police reports
• Records of missed work
• Records of lost wages
• Records of normal wages (e.g. paystubs, W2, receipts)

While not a complete list, it gives you a rough idea of items you’ll need to gather in order to support your claim.

“Loose Lips Sink Ships” (Expect to Be Asked Who You’ve Spoken To)

While the statements you make to your attorney are confidential, things you may have said to others are not. You might have said something about the accident that might hurt your recovery without even knowing it. Your attorney may or may not be able to undo potential damage, but your attorney needs to know what was said and to whom in order to evaluate whether comments made could adversely affect your claim.

Expect an Evaluation and Explanation

Toward the end of your first meeting with a personal injury attorney, the lawyer should be able to tell you the pros and cons of your case. (Note: lawyers cannot, nor should, promise certain outcomes; they can only tell you what they expect, based on past experiences.) The lawyer may offer to take your case on the spot. However, you are under no obligation to agree; you have the right to both visit other attorneys. Takeaway: take time to evaluate the consultation before making a final decision.

Similarly, while some attorneys agree to take cases during a consultation, others may want to take a little time to decide. Note: If the lawyer chooses not to take your case, it is not your fault; there might be many reasons such as conflicts of interest or an inability to devote the time necessary to be the best advocate you deserve. Takeaway: Feel free to visit another office and get another opinion.

Expect to Talk About Money

You can expect the attorney to talk about money, including fees. The attorney should explain – in clear language – how the billing process works. The attorney should explain their hourly rate, charges for items such as investigations, ordering records, or even making copies. Note: Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingent fee basis, which means they receive a portion of any amount you recover after the lawsuit. (However, even in this arrangement, some attorneys still charge clients for certain costs.) Be prepared to ask the attorney specific questions about billing practices.

Be Prepared to Sign Documents

If you decide to engage your attorney after consultation, be prepared to sign documents. Signing a retainer or representation agreement will make the attorney your “official” legal representative in your case. Your lawyer may also ask you to sign releases allowing them to access insurance information, medical records, and other items.

Hopefully, this article has given you some insight answered about what to expect at your consultation visit to a personal injury attorney.

If you have more questions or need to speak to an experienced personal injury attorney, contact the Law Offices of Turner & Turner. Founding member Buzz Turner has more than 30 years of experience as an advocate for clients injured in vehicle-associated accidents, medical malpractice, and other personal injury claims.

Call Turner Law today for your free consultation at (248) 248-355-1727, email Turner Law or visit the Firm’s website.

The law, enacted on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, lets cities defend themselves by saying sidewalk defects are “open and obvious.” The general rule of thumb is that the owner of a premises has a duty to exercise “…reasonable care to protect the invitee from any unreasonable risk of harm caused by a dangerous condition on the land,” according to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

However, the “open and obvious doctrine” is a major exception to this general rule and one used as a defense in many “premise” liability cases. According to the doctrine, an “invitor,” in this case a municipality, is protected from liability if the danger is an open and obvious one.  The foundation for this rule is that the open and obvious nature of the “dangerous situation” serves as a warning to the invitee and the person is expected to recognize the potential danger and protect themselves against it. Supporters of the new law say budget-strapped places such as Detroit pay millions annually in sidewalk-injury settlements and should be able to use a defense available to businesses.

The Michigan Association of Justice, a group of plaintiff’s attorneys, had called for a veto, saying the bill effectively make cities entirely immune and removes the incentive to properly maintain sidewalks. Under existing law, cities aren’t liable unless someone proves the city knew or should have known about the defect “…at least 30 days before the injury and the unevenness in the walkway is at least 2 inches.”

In January 2015, a woman filed suit against the City of Holland claiming the city “breached its duty to the public” by not properly maintaining and repairing an uneven portion of sidewalk on the western side of River Avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets, according an article in the Holland Sentinel.  The woman was walking on the sidewalk May 21, 2014, when she fell “due to a vertical discontinuity of two inches or more in the sidewalk,” the paper noted. As a result of the fall, she claimed to have received multiple fractures of the wrist and a fractured foot; the woman and the city ultimately settled the case in December 2015 for $10,000, according to the article.

Slip-and-fall lawsuits have become extremely difficult in Michigan courts, especially after another strict standard was set in 2012 by the state Supreme Court. Feet flying in the air because of water, ice or snow? Case dismissed — unless someone absolutely can’t avoid the hazard. The annual number of slip-and-fall cases filed in state courts is hard to come by since Michigan court statistics don’t break down lawsuits that way. But Nelson Miller, a professor of tort law at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Grand Rapids, said there has been a significant decline based on his expertise in the field and conversations with lawyers. “We underestimate the seriousness of these cases,” Miller said. “There can be job loss and everything that follows from it. In the elderly population, falls can cause death.”

Miller noted that the state Supreme Court began limiting slip-and-fall lawsuits years ago, but the bar was raised even higher in 2006 resulting from a case involving a woman who fell and cracked a bone in her lower back while walking into a fitness club. Apparently, ice had formed at the entrance, despite the owners insisted that the walkway had been salted earlier that day. The ice was “open and obvious,” and nothing forced the plaintiff to enter the club at that particular time, the court’s Republican majority said. “Michigan, being above the 42nd parallel of north latitude, is prone to winter,” Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. wrote in the court’s 4-3 decision. “And with winter comes snow and ice accumulations on sidewalks, parking lots, roads, and other outdoor surfaces. … Landowners are not charged with a duty of ensuring absolutely the safety of each person who comes onto their land, even when that person is an invitee.”

The test to determine if a danger is open and obvious is whether “…an average user with ordinary intelligence would have been able to discover the danger and the risk presented upon casual inspection,” according to Michigan law. Because the test is ostensibly objective, the court “…looks not to whether plaintiff should have known that the condition was hazardous, but to whether a reasonable person in his position would foresee the danger,” according to the Michigan Court of Appeals.  The open and obvious doctrine was initially based on Restatement of torts, which “…formulates clear principles of law governing apportionment of liability in cases where there are more actors than a single plaintiff and single defendant, different degrees of blameworthiness, derivative claims, or different tort claims against different defendants in the same case,” according to the American Law Institute.

According to Restate of Torts, “…a premises possessor is not liable to the invitees for harm caused by known or obvious dangers unless the possessor anticipates that harm despite the knowledge and obviousness. A possessor when he anticipates the harm should warn or protect an invitee against open and obvious dangerous conditions.”

The bottom line is that it has become much more difficult for injured or aggrieved parties to seek redress and compensation from Michigan municipalities because of both the new law and a series of erosions in plaintiffs’ rights by the legislative and judicial branches of the state.

CARE stands for Costumes, Accessories, Reflective Surfaces and Examine.

Costumes: Make sure your child can move around safely in his or her costume. We recommend face paint instead of masks, which are often implicated in falls and scrapes. Have your child try on the costume well before Halloween (avoid last minute purchases) and make necessary alterations to make the costume more user-friendly. It’s better to cut the bottom of a costume so that legs move freely than to risk a trip or fall. Try to purchase costumes that are made with flame retardant material. If you think your kid’s movement is impaired and you can’t alter the costume, please hold their hand the entire evening and take extra care as they ascend and descend steps.

Accessories: For little children, fewer accessories are better. It’s enough for them to walk around, holding their treat bag and stay together with the group. When they are holding that light saber or Toto in a basket, it means that their hands are not free and if they do trip or fall, they can’t use their hands to steady themselves or break their fall. If you must accessorize, make sure everything is attached securely (like crowns and butterfly wings). Swords and light sabers should be flexible and should not have pointy ends.

Reflective surfaces: Lots of costumes are dark, like vampires and witches and wizards. But being able to be visible is important for safety. So be sure the kids are wearing something reflective (we love the light up sneakers), or just attach some reflective tape or bike reflector lights on their backs or on their coats as well as on their treat bag. Be sure you travel with flashlights (you can use the one on your phone, as long as you have enough juice on your phone to last through the night). Parents should wear light colored clothing, so at least they will be highly visible.

Examine the Treats Before Eating Them: Please tell the kids not to eat from the treat bag until you have gotten back home. Consider packing a few treats from home for them to eat during the walk so they won’t be tempted. For the most part, the treats are going to be just fine, but do examine everything and make sure nothing is opened. Certainly for kids with allergies, their parents or guardians need to check to be sure it’s safe to eat what has been gathered.

Finally, we implore you: Don’t send your kids out alone. Even teens and tweens should have parents nearby to be sure they are safe.