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Premises Liability Claims can stem from several situations:

• Apartment Security & Criminal Acts
• Residential/Commercial Property Safety & Security
• Construction Site Injuries

An owners’ legal duty to provide safe premises for their patrons, renters and guests includes a duty to protect them against harm caused by the criminal acts of third parties when those criminal acts are foreseeable. Criminal acts are foreseeable when their occurrence can reasonably be expected under the circumstances.

When property/business owners fail to provide adequate security measures, residents and guests are put at risk for criminal attack. Adequate security measures can include hiring security guards, installing sufficient lighting, installing security video cameras, keeping bushes and hedges from growing too tall and providing sturdy locks and alarms on doors and windows. The adequacy of the security measures employed may vary depending upon the location and type of business being operated.

Negligent security cases often involve violent criminal attacks such as rape, assault and battery, murder, robbery and more recently, terrorism. These cases have been successfully concluded against owners/operators of businesses including: shopping centers, banks, bars, hotels, restaurants, schools and universities, airlines, parking lots, condominium and apartment buildings, homeowners' associations, event promoters, night clubs, strip clubs, video arcades, bowling alleys, private security companies, daycare facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, and office buildings.

The attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay have successfully litigated many cases where the failure of a land/business owner to provide adequate security resulted in the death of guests or patrons or left them with severe, life altering injuries.

Apartment Security & Criminal Acts

Owners and management companies are responsible for keeping their premises reasonably safe for their tenants and their visitors. They have a duty to provide such reasonable security measures as are necessary to protect these individuals from foreseeable violent crime on their premises.

When property and business owners fail to implement reasonable security measures and someone is seriously injured or killed as a result, the crime victim and their families may be entitled to compensation. While crime victims rarely are able to collect court ordered restitution from their attacker, compensation is often available through other means.

Crime victims' compensation may be obtained for victims of various violent crimes including: murder, robbery, assault, battery, domestic violence, kidnapping, rape, sexual assault, sexual molestation, drunk driving, DUI and acts of terrorism.

Attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay are experienced advocates for crime victims. Our firm has a strong record of results in advancing crime victims' rights and securing crime victims' compensation by filing civil lawsuits for negligent security, inadequate security and/or premises liability.

Our firm has successfully handled many cases arising out of unsafe apartment premises due to negligent or inadequate security in Jacksonville and throughout Florida’s First Coast. Our firm Investigator works with leading security experts and law enforcement agencies to prove the elements of each case and maximize the monetary compensation received by our clients that have been injured or suffered loss directly due unsafe apartment complex premises.

Apartment Security - Rapes & Sexual Assaults

Women, men, teens, and children may all be victims of sexual assault or rape. Severe and long-lasting repercussions in a victim’s life, as well as for the victim’s family, often follow the physical, mental, and emotional trauma of this violent crime. While criminal law can provide severe penalties to the rapist, the physical and emotional costs to victims and their families are often not adequately addressed in the criminal court process.

Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay has strong experience in handling premises liability lawsuits involving sexual attacks that resulted from negligent security in apartment complexes or other properties.

Our attorneys are well aware of the personal nature of these cases. We are sensitive to the nature of these cases and do not want to inflict any further emotional stress. We will listen to you or your family member and take no action beyond that with which you are comfortable. Our goal is to do anything we can to help you/your family member move forward.

Property owners and managers have a legal duty to deter and prevent criminals from committing crimes against others on their property. When property owners/managers fail in this duty, crimes like rape, murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery are more likely to occur to innocent individuals. These crimes often result in death or in life-long suffering to victims and their families. Under premises liability law, property owners may be responsible for paying damages resulting from criminal assaults committed on their premises. Some common failures on the part of property owners include inadequate lighting and security, and negligent hiring, supervision, and retention of employees.

In addition to Apartment Complexes, some examples of establishments that have a legal obligation to ensure that the security measures they provide are sufficient to protect people on their property are as follows:

• Hotels & motels
• Amusement parks
• Shopping centers
• Restaurants and bars
• Nursing homes
• Gas stations
• Healthcare facilities
• Publicly owned parks and beaches

No amount of money can ever erase the scars of trauma inflicted by a sexual assault or rape. However, the lasting effects of these types of crimes often translate into an urgent need to rebuild a life. Medical bills, including those for psychological counseling, and loss of income due to emotional instability are just a few examples of why a monetary award is needed to help a person move forward.

The attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay have developed a deep and broad understanding of sexual assault victims in civil cases, having successfully represented many victims through the years. Most of our sexual assault cases are brought on behalf of victims who are assaulted on apartment properties as the result of the property owner’s failure to provide adequate security. Our attorneys are ready to provide compassionate counsel and aggressive advocacy in order to win the maximum compensation that is rightfully yours.

Residential/Commercial Property Safety & Security

Every year thousands of people are injured, some seriously, because of the negligence of property owners. Many people are hurt while in someone else's home or place of business. People may be injured on a flight of stairs, on a patch of ice or snow, by a building defect, or by the intentional, criminal act of a third party. The area of the law that applies to these types of situations is known as premises liability. Premises liability law covers slip, trip, and falls due to dangerous conditions on public or private property, and holds the property owner (or owners) responsible for any resulting medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, etc.

Premises liability law establishes guidelines regarding duties that a property owner or occupier has to protect entrants from dangerous conditions or defects on the property. Generally, the law provides that property owners must keep their premises reasonably safe for people who are on the property.

The attorneys of Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay have had success in many complex premises liability cases. Contact our attorneys and we can meet with you free of charge to discuss your situation, and your potential case. If we can help you, we will work directly with you on all aspects of your case, charging no attorneys' fees unless and until you recover monetary damages.

Premises liability cases generally proceed under the theory that the defendant (the landowner or occupier) was negligent. To establish negligence, an injured individual must establish the existence of a duty by the defendant to conform to a specific standard of conduct; breach of that duty by the landowner or occupier; that this breach was the actual cause of the injury; and that the individual was actually injured.

The duty of an owner, occupier or possessor of land to a person who is injured as a direct result of a condition of the premises depends on the status of that entrant. Entrants are typically classified as invitees, licensees or trespassers, and the duty that the landowner or occupier owes to each class of entrant is different. An invitee is someone who enters the land in response to an express or implied invitation from the landowner. A licensee is a person who enters the premises with the landowner's express or implied permission for his or her own purposes rather than the landowner's benefit, such as a social guest. A trespasser is someone who enters the land without the owner's permission. However, sometimes the landowner has knowledge of the trespasser before the injury is suffered.

One of the most common  liability situation occurs when a member of the public is injured by a defect on a public sidewalk or roadway. In these cases, it would seem clear that the governmental unit responsible for maintaining the road or walkway should be held legally responsible for the person's injuries. Traditionally, however, governmental entities enjoy protection from suit under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which provides the government complete immunity from suit. State and federal governments have reduced this broad sovereign immunity over the years by passing laws that limit or reduce the immunity of government entities in certain situations. These laws vary from state to state, but most are modeled on the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which is a federal law that waives the sovereign immunity of the federal government under certain circumstances and allows it to be sued.

The Federal Tort Claims Act (28 U.S.C.A. §1346, 2674 et seq.) waives the immunity of the United States from tort liability for the acts of its officers and employees. Generally, a person who is hurt by a dangerous condition on federal property can recover damages from the United States in a premises liability suit if he or she can establish that the US's negligence was caused by a government employee acting within the scope of his or her authority; that a duty was owed to the injured party; and that the duty was breached by a hazardous condition about which the government knew or should have known.

Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay attorneys have handled hundreds of cases involving slip and fall accidents caused by unsafe conditions. Most of these cases have involved one of the three following area:

Dangerous Indoor Conditions

Flooring problems often result in slips and falls, and include an owner’s failure to provide adequate signs for wet spots, failure to provide proper barriers to closed-off areas, using excessive or uneven floor waxing, and allowing torn, uneven, or bulging carpet areas to go unrepaired.

Stairs undergo normal wear and tear, and the property owner is responsible for maintaining their upkeep. Edges can become rounded, the stairs' non-stick surface (which is required in most states) can wear out, and a handrail can be broken or missing. All of these dangerous conditions can be attributed to owner negligence and result in injury and liability.

Escalators and Elevators are held to high standards under the law because they are designed to carry passengers. Property owners must fulfill these high standards or risk a lawsuit when users slip, trip or fall.

Dangerous Outdoor Conditions

Inadequate Outdoor Lighting: Inadequate lighting can lead to pedestrian injuries in parking lots or on sidewalks. The property owner can be held liable if they knew or should have known about the dangerous situation and failed to remedy the problem in a reasonable amount of time.

Sidewalks: Most sidewalks are owned and maintained by the city or county. However, if a public sidewalk is used exclusively by the property owner’s clientele, the owner can be held liable for the sidewalk’s dangerous conditions.

Parking Lots: Parking lot owners are legally responsible for maintaining the safety of their lots. This includes any protrusion in the surface of the parking lot that contributes to an injury.

Falls and Falling Objects: Slips and falls are among the most common injury-causing trauma to occur on commercial property. We represent clients who have fallen on spilled merchandise in stores, slipped on wet surfaces or ice and tripped over uneven pavement or turned-up rugs. Other types of injuries on commercial property involved falling objects. When merchandise falls from a store shelf, a hotel room television falls from a shelf or construction supplies fall onto passersby, the property owner may be liable.

Inadequate Safety and Security: Inadequate lighting and inadequate attention to security can result in assaults, sexual assaults and homicide. If you or your loved one was injured because inadequate safety and security measures contributed to a violent attack, we will pursue financial compensation for your medical bills, pain and suffering, rehabilitation expenses and lost wages or income.

Store Owner Liability

Because people in stores are there primarily for the benefit of the store owner (i.e. to purchase their goods or services), owners have a considerable responsibility to keep their premises safe. Store owners must inspect their property for potential dangers and then fix the problem in a reasonable amount of time or adequately warn the public of the dangers. If they do not, they can be liable for any injuries that may result.

Private Property Liability

If you have been injured at a friend’s home or by their dog, you may be hesitant to file a personal injury claim. It is important to note that your friend or neighbor will typically not be paying your claim out of pocket. You will typically be compensated by his or her homeowner's insurance company. Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay attorneys can help you recover financial compensation for the full amount of your losses including medical and rehabilitation expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages or income.

If you have been injured in an accident, or in a criminal act that took place on private or public property, contact our office to discuss your injuries and situation and we will evaluate whether you have a case and what type of claim would be appropriate to make on your behalf.

Construction Site Accidents

Construction workers who suffer on-the-job injuries need a lawyer who will have their interests at heart, not those of the insurance company or employer. At Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay our attorneys represent workers and others injured in construction site accidents.

Construction workers face some of the most dangerous working conditions in the country on a daily basis. Although there are regulations, statutes, ordinances and industry standards that mandate employers must provide a reasonably safe working environment, construction workers still suffer serious injuries at an alarming rate.

The number of hazards on a construction site is enormous. These hazards include falls from scaffolds and other elevations, being struck by moving or falling machinery, electrocution, health hazards resulting from exposure to asbestos and chemicals, injuries caused by defective or unsafe equipment, and lifting and repetitive motion injuries.

Who May Be Responsible & Liable For A Construction Site Injury?

Numerous parties may be liable when a construction worker suffers a work-related injury:

• Property owners
• General, prime and sub-contractors
• Architects, engineers or other designers
• Construction managers
• Suppliers and manufacturers of equipment and materials
• Insurers

The liability of these various parties depends on the type of management and oversight system of the construction project. The main legal question with regard to liability for construction workers' injuries concerns who maintains control and authority over the property where the work is being done and the type of work that is being done. For example, in larger projects, much of the work is delegated out, whether by general contractors or a construction management organization. It is important to name all potential liable parties at the outset of any litigation to preserve your claim against them. An experienced construction litigation attorney can help you determine who the responsible parties may be according to the specific circumstances of your case.

OSHA & Safety Regulations

Safety regulations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) have been adopted by most states in some form, and these regulations apply to work done at construction sites. The issue of who is responsible for ensuring compliance with OSHA regulations (i.e. general contractor or sub-contractor) often turns on who was in control of the job site or job activity when the injured employee was hurt. The legal effect of a violation of OSHA regulations will vary depending on the state in which the injury took place. In certain jurisdictions, if it can be shown that an OSHA regulation was violated and an injury resulted, no additional evidence is needed to establish that the employer was negligent.

OSHA regulations are not the only legal standards to which a property owner, general contractor or sub-contractor may be held in determining liability for a construction accident. Often the property owner or general contractor will have his or her own set of safety rules, either generally applicable or specific to the construction project at hand, designed to protect those performing work on the project. Violations of these regulations may serve to support a claim for a construction accident.

Pursuing A Construction Accident Injury Claim

If you have been injured by a construction site accident, there are several things you can do to protect yourself and your legal rights:

• Report the injury to your employer and/or construction site manager as soon as possible, and note the name and position of the person you notified.
• Get the names and contact information of anyone who may have witnessed the accident.
• If possible, try to preserve any evidence related to your injury by taking photographs of the area where you were injured (and the injuries themselves), or keeping the equipment or tool that was involved in your injury.
• Get medical attention for your injuries as soon as possible.
• Consult an experienced attorney as soon as possible to help you evaluate any potential claims and discuss your state's workers' compensation laws. Click here to learn more about our firm’s workers' compensation practice and cases.

To view representative Premises Liability cases our firm has handled, please click here.