Albuquerque Premises Liability Lawyer
One of the scariest things about an unexpected injury is that it can happen any time, at any place.
If you were hurt while on someone else’s property, you may have legal standing to recover financial compensation for everything that you’ve been through, are currently dealing with, and are expected to face in the future. An Albuquerque premises liability lawyer from Barrera Law Group LLC is here to make sure that you have the legal support to recover the compensation you deserve.
We believe that access to legal knowledge shouldn’t ever come with a price tag. That’s why we provide completely free informational meetings to injury victims and their families. Call or fill out our convenient online form to learn more about holding a negligent property owner responsible for the harm you suffered.
How Do I Know if I Have a Premises Liability Claim?
You were injured, and it wasn’t your fault. But how do you know if you have the legal standing to file a premises liability claim?
Here are some questions to ask yourself if you’re not sure what your legal options are:
- Was I lawfully present on the property?
- Was I being safe and careful?
- Were there any signs or warnings about dangerous conditions?
- Did the property owner or manager know there was a risk for harm?
- Was my accident or injury foreseeable?
It’s OK if you don’t have the answers to these questions. At Barrera Law Group LLC, we represent accident and injury victims in New Mexico. We’re ready to put our experience and knowledge to work for you. Contact us today so that we can schedule you for a free initial informational meeting, where we’ll help you understand your rights.
Understanding and Defining Premises Liability in New Mexico
The terms “premises liability” and “slip and fall” are often used interchangeably. However, slip and fall accidents are a type of premises liability accident.
In New Mexico, premises liability refers to a legal concept specific to personal injury cases. These types of cases typically involve negligence on the part of the property owner or the individual in charge of the property’s maintenance and safety.
At its most basic, a premises liability injury is an injury that occurred on someone else’s property.
Why Work with Barrera Law Group LLC?
Barrera Law Group LLC is an accomplished law firm with more than 18 years of experience advocating for accident and injury victims. We’re professional litigators with real-life experience both in and out of the courtroom.
Our dedication to our clients is unparalleled. With every case we take, our team of lawyers dedicates the time, resources, and effort needed to secure the most favorable outcome possible.
You can count on our team of Albuquerque premises liability attorneys to:
- Meet with you for a free informational meeting. We’ll help you understand your legal rights and whether we’re the right law firm to represent you.
- Conduct a thorough and in-depth investigation into your claim.
- Identify all at-fault parties to ensure that you don’t miss out on any opportunities for financial recovery.
- Correctly evaluate the full extent of your losses to ensure that you receive maximum compensation for your injuries.
- Negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf. Your focus should be on your recovery, not fighting with a big, for-profit company.
- Elevate matters to court if the insurance company refuses to play fair.
Ready to learn more about how we can help? Your first free meeting is just a call or click away.
Types of Premises Liability Claims We Handle
Our skilled legal team handles a wide range of premises liability claim types. We are ready to provide expert legal guidance for accidents that happened at:
- Restaurants
- Grocery stores
- Shopping centers
- Malls
- Parking lots
- Big box stores
- Swimming pools
- Gyms
- Community and rec centers
- Amusement parks
- Apartment buildings
- Private residences
- Public sidewalks
It’s important to work with an attorney who has experience handling a variety of accident types. Within the subset of premises liability, our legal team handles cases involving:
- Slip, trips, and falls
- Negligent security
- Dog bites
- Animal attacks
- Construction accidents
- Inadequate maintenance
- Elevator and escalator accidents
- Chemical exposure
These are just examples of the possible accidents that fall under the wider umbrella of premises liability.
If you’ve been hurt and need to know if you have a case, don’t wait to take action. New Mexico state law only allows only three years from the date of the accident to file your claim. While this might seem like a long time, it takes time to build a strong case, and evidence can disappear quickly.
The sooner you reach out to an attorney, the sooner you can begin preserving essential evidence like security footage, eyewitness statements, dashcam footage, maintenance logs, physical evidence, property records, and more.
Exploring Common Injuries from Premises Liability Accidents
You were shopping for groceries when you slipped and fell in a puddle. Or you were navigating a parking lot when you tripped on a pothole. Maybe you were on an escalator when it malfunctioned, causing you to tumble.
Most accidents that occur on other people’s properties happen suddenly and without warning. There is often little to no time to react or take any kind of protective action. For this reason, injuries related to premises liability accidents tend to be severe.
Barrera Law Group LLC has the experience representing clients with severe, catastrophic, and traumatic injuries, such as:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Head, neck, and shoulder injuries
- Broken bones
- Spinal cord injuries (SCIs)
- Upper and lower back injuries
- Puncture wounds
- Cuts and lacerations
- Organ damage
- Soft tissue injuries
- Nerve damage
Financial limitations should never be a barrier to accessing and receiving necessary medical care.
If you’ve been hurt on someone else’s property, let our legal team fight for the compensation you deserve.
Were You an Invitee or Licensee? (And Why It Doesn’t Matter)
There are three visitor statuses you should be aware of: invitee, licensee, and trespasser.
Invitees and licensees are individuals who have the legal right to be on a property, whether through the express or implied consent of the owner. A trespasser is an individual who has entered or used a property without consent.
For purposes of premises liability, New Mexico state law does not differentiate between invitees and licensees in terms of owner responsibility. A property owner, manager, or maintainer owes everyone who is lawfully present on their property a duty of care.
This duty of care is an owner’s legal obligation to maintain their premises in a way that is safe and free from the presence of dangerous conditions.
However, an owner has no such duty of care or legal obligation to protect and preserve the safety of trespassers. While they are barred from setting traps or causing intentional harm, a trespasser who is injured on someone else’s property generally cannot collect compensation for their injuries.
So even though state law doesn’t necessarily separate invitees and licensees into two separate categories for the purpose of liability, it is still important to work closely with a lawyer to correctly determine your visitor status. If the at-fault party’s insurance company unfairly determines that you were a trespasser, they can deny you compensation altogether.
Calculating Compensation After an Accident on Someone Else’s Property
The purpose of a premises liability claim is two-fold.
First, is to hold the at-fault party legally responsible for their negligent actions or omissions. Second, is to recover compensation that makes you “whole” again.
The amount of compensation it takes to make you whole will be highly contingent on the unique factors of your case.
When we calculate the total value of a premises liability claim, we do so with the whole client in mind.
That means we look at more than just the immediate impact on your life. Our attorneys will get to know who you are as a person so that we can correctly and effectively evaluate the totality of your losses.
Our lawyers will accurately value the total of both your economic and noneconomic losses.
Economic Losses
In premises liability law, economic damages refer to your direct financial losses. These are the monetary losses that you’ve experienced following your injury, or that you are expected to incur in the future.
These can include:
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning power
- Loss of benefits
- Past, current, and future medical bills
- Property damage (including broken phones and other items of value)
Noneconomic Losses
Your noneconomic losses are all the ways that your life has been impacted that don’t have a direct financial loss. That’s because damages don’t always come with a price tag.
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Decreased quality of life
- Loss of companionship and consortium
- Disfigurement or scarring
Understanding Punitive Damages
In general, punitive damages are exceptionally rare in premises liability cases. They are only awarded when a judge or jury deems that the liable party acted intentionally, with extreme negligence, or maliciously.
Also called exemplary damages, they do not compensate you for any type of loss you’ve suffered.
Instead, they are leveraged as a financial punishment against the party responsible for your injury.
Who Pays for My Injuries?
Your injuries weren’t your fault, so the financial burden shouldn’t be yours alone to bear. In premises liability cases, it’s typically the at-fault party’s insurance company who pays for your damages.
Identifying the liable person(s) is key, though, as there can be more than one at-fault party in a singular premises liability claim. Individuals and entities who may be responsible for an injury that occurs on someone else’s property include:
- Property owners
- Property managers
- Maintenance workers
- Landlords
- Tenants
- Real estate agents or brokers
It’s important to correctly identify everyone who played a role in your accident. If you don’t, you could be missing out on compensation that’s essential for your recovery.
Top 6 Steps to Take After a Premises Liability Accident
What you do after an accident matters. That’s why Barrera Law Group LLC recommends that you take the following six steps after a premises liability accident:
- Call 911 for medical help or seek prompt medical care. You can go to the emergency room or schedule an appointment with your regular doctor. Be cautious when seeking treatment at an urgent care center—some facilities don’t treat patients for accident-related injuries.
- Take pictures and videos of the condition that caused your accident. Capture images of the broad scene, and any other hazardous conditions you notice.
- Report the accident to the owner of the property or whoever is in charge. For example, if you fell while in a store, report what happened to the manager on duty.
- Speak with eyewitnesses. Ask if they would be willing to provide a statement about what happened and, if yes, get their contact information.
- Keep copies of all important information and documents, such as communication from the insurance company, eyewitness statements, and medical bills.
- Schedule a free meeting with a premises liability lawyer to learn about your legal options.
It’s okay if you don’t accomplish every step on this list. As attorneys, it’s our job to meet you wherever you are in the process.
Why Work with an Albuquerque Premises Liability Lawyer?
There’s no law or regulation that requires you to work with an attorney when pursuing compensation for a premises liability accident. Still, it’s strongly recommended that you only take this type of legal action when under the careful guidance of an experienced legal team.
These types of legal actions can seem straightforward enough. You were on someone else’s property, there was a dangerous condition, and you got hurt. Now the liable party should pay for your damages, right?
Unfortunately, things are rarely this straightforward.
What is much more likely to happen is that the property owner’s insurance provider will fight to limit or deny you the compensation you are rightfully owed.
The insurer may pick apart your behavior or actions the day of the accident, or might even call into question your legal status on the property. The smallest comment you make to an insurance adjuster can be purposely twisted or misconstrued to mean something entirely different.
Insurance companies aren’t here to help. They are big, for-profit companies who preserve their bottom lines by denying compensation to victims.
An attorney will be your steadfast advocate in the face of adversity and pressure from the insurance company. We don’t allow anyone to push around or bully our clients. Every member of Barrera Law Group LLC’s legal team is familiar with the tricks and tactics that the big insurance companies use to minimize payouts.
We are accomplished lawyers who provide exceptional legal representation to accident and injury victims in Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, and elsewhere in New Mexico.
Barrera Law Group LLC—New Mexico’s Trusted Injury Law Firm
It doesn’t matter whether you’re shopping for groceries or visiting someone else’s home—you should never be put in harm’s way because of a property owner’s or manager’s negligence.
But if another person’s or entity’s negligence caused you to be involved in an accident or suffer a serious injury, you need someone on your side. Barrera Law Group LLC wants to be the law firm that you can rely on during life’s toughest times.
Get in touch today and we’ll match you with an Albuquerque premises liability lawyer that best meets you and your needs.