Austin Hotel Accident Lawyer

An unexpected injury can result in substantial medical costs, missed work, lost wages, an inability to perform tasks and services in the home, and other losses that can be more difficult to quantify in terms of monetary value. The path to obtaining reimbursement for these losses may involve making a premises liability claim, which is a civil action that allows someone injured on someone else’s property to seek financial recovery for the harm done.

To have grounds for a premises liability claim, you must first be able to prove that the person alleged to have caused the injury owns or controls the property. Second, you must prove that you were owed a duty of care. In terms of premises liability, being an “invitee” entitles you to a higher duty of care; if you were on the premises for the mutual benefit of both parties — in other words, as a hotel guest — you were considered invited and owed a higher duty of care.

Last, you must prove that the conditions were unreasonably dangerous, meaning that the danger was foreseeable and avoidable but the person responsible neglected their duty to prevent it. Because of the complexity of many hotel operations, identifying the failure or failures that led to your injury can be complicated and convoluted, so taking steps to ensure evidence is preserved is in your best interest.

No two hotel accident-related injuries are alike, and there are countless contingencies that could affect the outcome of your claim. Here are a few major factors that could have a bearing on your settlement:

• The seriousness of the injury. The nature and severity of the injury will impact the recovery amount. It is not enough to prove that there was an unreasonably dangerous condition that caused the accident; the accident has to have resulted in an injury and therefore loss. Generally, larger losses command larger recoveries.

• Involvement of a third party. There’s a difference between a slip-and-fall case on a wet floor where no warning signs were present and, for example, a vehicle accident in the hotel parking lot. The difference is that in the car accident, there is another party who could potentially be held liable. Or say that someone breaks into your hotel room and injures you; you could seek to hold that person criminally liable, while pursuing civil action against the hotel for not adequately ensuring your safety. The at-fault party may use the involvement of a third party to attempt to downplay their own liability. Also, the egregiousness of the hotel’s conduct can impact the strength of your case.

• Vicarious liability. Vicarious liability is a legal term that means someone can be held liable for injuries caused by someone else. In this case, a hotel owner or manager may be held liable for the negligence of an employee that occurred in the course and scope of their employment. Therefore, pinpointing exactly who was careless and why can be an important step to successful recovery in a hotel accident case.

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