A woman slips, falls and injures her ankle while walking across loose planks on the deck of her rented house. Does she have legitimate grounds for a personal injury case?
The short answer is yes. But in order to pursue a case, she needs to hire an attorney who, with her help, will attempt to prove negligence on the part of her landlord.
Negligence in her case might well depend on whether the landlord was aware of the defective deck planks, and if so, whether he or she had ample time to fix them. Property owners are required by law to keep their properties safe and failure to do so can leave them open to liability.
Negligence can include intentional and careless negligent actions, or inactions. However, most private injury cases are not clear since victims also must adhere to a standard of reasonableness. Was your friend aware of the rotten deck planks? Had she and her roommates told the landlord about the danger they posed? And could she, within a standard of reasonableness, have avoided her injury? Answers to these and other questions would probably be considered when deciding your friend’s case.
Many private injury claims are justified and winnable, even without ever going to court. But most cases are complicated and require hiring a Maryland personal injury lawyer in order to win a fair and equitable settlement.
