251-217-9733
Premises Liability Defense
Somebody was hurt on your property. The question is whether you should have known about the thing that hurt them.
What Premises Liability Actually Turns On
Premises liability is the body of law governing when a property owner or occupier is responsible for injuries suffered on their property. Personal injury defense more broadly covers claims that a business's negligence caused someone harm.
Nearly every premises case turns on one issue: notice. Did the owner know about the hazard, or should they reasonably have known? A spill that occurred ninety seconds before a fall and a spill that had been there for two hours are the same puddle and completely different cases.
Which is why these matters are usually won or lost by evidence created before anyone thought about litigation (inspection logs, maintenance records, incident reports, and camera footage that is often overwritten within days). The defense frequently depends on documents a business either kept routinely or did not.
Who We Defend
Retail and restaurant operators
Slip, trip, and fall claims in customer-facing premises.
Property owners and landlords
Common area, structural, and maintenance-related claims.
Hospitality businesses
Hotels, venues, and tourism operators, including claims arising from events.
Contractors and site operators
Injuries to visitors, subcontractors, and members of the public on active sites.
Employers facing third-party claims
Injuries to non-employees arising from business operations.
Insurers and carriers
Defending insured businesses and coordinating strategy and coverage.
Sound familiar?
How We Defend These
Secure the evidence first
Footage, inspection logs, maintenance records, witness details, and the condition of the area. Most of this has a short shelf life and none of it improves with time.
Establish the notice picture
How long the hazard existed, what the inspection routine was, and whether it was followed. A documented routine that was actually followed is the strongest defense available.
Value it honestly and early
Some claims should be resolved quickly. Fighting a modest, defensible-but-provable claim through discovery can cost more than the claim. We will say so.
Who Does This Work
Jordan W Gerheim
Premises liability and injury defense across retail, hospitality, and construction contexts, as part of a broad civil defense practice.
Benjamin N. Kearns
Premises liability, personal injury, and insurance defense, with experience on both sides of injury litigation.
William R. Lancaster
Four decades defending civil damage claims, including more than a hundred cases tried to judgment.
Five Records That Decide a Premises Case
These cases turn on notice, and notice is proved with paperwork. If you have these, you are in a strong position before a lawyer is involved.
Inspection logs
A documented sweep or inspection routine, actually completed and timed, is the single most effective defense to a notice argument. An undocumented routine is nearly worthless in court.
Camera footage, preserved
Most systems overwrite within days or weeks. The moment an incident occurs, that footage should be exported and stored separately, not left on the system.
Incident reports
Completed contemporaneously, factually, and without speculation about cause. An incident report containing an employee's guess at fault becomes the plaintiff's best exhibit.
Maintenance records
Showing the hazard was addressed on a schedule, and showing what was reported and when.
Prior incident history
You will be asked. Knowing the answer, and knowing what was done about it, is far better than discovering it in discovery.
How These Matters Are Billed
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Frequently Asked Questions
Someone fell in our store. What do we do today?
Get medical help if needed, then preserve everything. Export the camera footage rather than leaving it on the system, complete a factual incident report without speculating about cause, photograph the area as it was, and collect witness details. Then notify your carrier. Almost every strong defense we run was built from evidence gathered in the first twenty-four hours.
Are we automatically liable if someone is injured on our property?
No. Liability generally depends on whether you knew or reasonably should have known about the hazard and failed to address it. A hazard created moments before an incident, with a documented inspection routine showing the area had just been checked, is a very different case from one that had been present for hours.
Our incident report says an employee thought the floor was wet. Is that a problem?
It can be, which is why incident reports should record facts rather than conclusions. Employee speculation about cause, fault, or what should have been done differently is discoverable and frequently becomes the strongest evidence against the business. Train staff to describe what they observed, not what they think it means.
How long do we have to keep camera footage?
Longer than your system's default, once an incident occurs. The moment you are aware of an injury, footage should be preserved separately, allowing an automated system to overwrite relevant footage after notice of a potential claim can create a spoliation issue considerably worse than the underlying case.
Do you represent injured people?
Generally no. This practice is defense-side, representing business and property owners, and we are not structured for plaintiff contingency work. If you have been injured, we will point you toward counsel who handle that.
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If an Incident Happened Today, Preserve the Footage
Then book a Risk-Free Strategy Session, or call 251-217-9733. The evidence that wins these cases has a short shelf life.