Personal Liability for Slips and Falls

Under our Products & Services link, we share the following information:

Standard Casualty offers Personal Liability coverage limits as high as $300,000.   “As a homeowner, you may be held legally responsible for accidents that happen to someone else on your property. If you choose liability coverage for your manufactured home, you will be protected from losses suffered from personal liability claims. For example, if someone falls while on your property, you could be held responsible for doctor bills, hospital bills, the ambulance ride and the victim's loss of pay. You could be liable for all this before you even get to damages awarded for pain and suffering. This optional liability coverage will protect you from these claims as well as legal fees and other various costs.”

Maybe you’ve heard of the case where a burglar broke into a home, broke his leg as he misjudged the distance from the window to the floor and is now suing because he was injured?
Are you responsible if someone was injured on your stairs, landscaping, wet floor, or walkway?  A homeowner is not always responsible for someone slipping, tripping or being injured on their property.  We all have a responsibility to watch where we’re walking and pay attention to our surroundings.  With that said, it’s important to ensure you keep up your property.  If a judge were to rule on your case and found it to be well-kept except for a small area immediately after a storm or some other event, he may be more inclined to side with you rather than the person suing you.

Do you feel the need to sue a person because you slipped or tripped on their property?  Among the items you’ll have to prove is whether the owner knew about or caused the dangerous condition and did nothing about it.   Sometimes it’s our own carelessness that contributed to the accident.  There are some questions you should ask yourself about your own actions before deciding on whether to sue.
It’s a really good idea to have liability insurance if you have children.  Why?  Kids have friends over and they always get hurt or injured.  You can be at risk for being sued. Own firearms?  Entertain a lot?  These
There are some specific instances where liability insurance will NOT be provided to homeowners because they have one or more of the following: trampolines, specific breeds of dogs, swimming pools.  It makes sense to have personal liability insurance especially because it’s inexpensive.

Finally, the burglar that decided to sue because he broke his leg during the Breaking & Entering shouldn’t be allowed to sue because burglars don’t have permission to be in your home.