Hotels often consist of lots of people, many floors, recreation areas, and multiple levels of staff. This is especially true in a popular tourist city like New Orleans, but hotel accidents can happen anywhere. Fall accidents are among the most common hotel injuries, often caused by dangerous conditions such as wet floors or poorly maintained stairs.
Hotel accidents may be the result of some unsafe condition on the property or the error and/or carelessness of a hotel employee. In order to have a successful personal injury case, you or your loved one will need to be able to prove that the injured party was harmed by someone’s negligence. The hotel operator has a responsibility to ensure the property is properly maintained to prevent dangerous conditions that could lead to injuries.
If you were injured due to a hotel’s negligence or failure to upkeep a property, you can make a claim against the property owner and their insurance. Identifying the liable parties is crucial, and legal assistance can help injury victims recover financial compensation for medical expenses and other damages.
Many of these claims will require using expert engineers, appraisers, or other construction experts to prove negligence. Due to the complexities of demonstrating a hotel’s negligence, proving these claims requires an experienced personal injury lawyer whose legal knowledge is essential in holding hotels held responsible for guest injuries.
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Premises Liability and Hotel Owners’ Duty to Guests
Under Louisiana law, property owners are responsible for their property and keeping it safe. Otherwise they must provide warnings of the unsafe conditions. This standard comes from premises liability law, which usually governs this type of case. Premises liability cases often arise from hotel injury cases where a hotel or resort fails to take reasonable steps to ensure guest safety. Premises liability applies when a person is injured while on someone else’s property, due to the tenant’s negligence or the property owner’s negligence.
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Causes of Hotel Accidents
Hotel accidents can happen for a variety of reasons, often stemming from a hotel’s negligence or failure to exercise reasonable care in maintaining a safe environment for guests. Hotel owners and operators have a legal duty to ensure that their premises are free from hazardous conditions and that guests are protected from foreseeable harm. Unfortunately, many hotels fall short of these responsibilities, resulting in serious injuries and emotional distress for their guests.
A Premises Liability Case Against Your Hotel
Hotels owe a high degree of care to their guests. In order to show that a hotel is liable, you have to demonstrate that the hotel owed you a duty as a guest, breached that duty, you suffered an injury as a result, and that injury entitles you to monetary damages. You can show a breach of duty by showing that the hotel owner/operator had “constructive knowledge” that the dangerous condition existed. A hotel owner/operator will be held to have constructive knowledge of a dangerous condition if the condition existed long enough to reasonably have been discovered by the staff. There is also a duty on the hotel to exercise a high degree of care in order to protect the guests against the tortious acts of third persons. Hotels are also responsible for protecting guests against unauthorized entry. A hotel breached its duty if it failed to address dangerous conditions or provide adequate security, including properly managed security personnel. If a hotel failed to uphold any of these duties and you believe that caused your accident, you should contact an experienced personal injury attorney to discuss holding the hotel accountable for inadequate security measures that result in guest injuries.
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If you have suffered physical injuries or physical pain due to a hotel’s negligence, you may be entitled to pursue compensation for both economic and non economic damages, and an attorney can help you file a lawsuit to recover these damages.
There are four things you should be sure of before bringing a premises liability case:
- Duty: You have to make sure you bring your hotel accident claim or hotel accident case against the right defendant, such as a negligent hotel or hotel owner responsible for maintaining the property.
- Breach: An unsafe condition existed and someone failed to act in a way to prevent the injury.
- Injury: The injury is a direct result of the Defendant not maintaining a safe property.
- Damages: As a result of their negligence, the accident caused you damages, such as lost wages, permanent disabilities, and the right to recover compensation or financial compensation for your injuries.
An attorney can help you determine if each of these factors weigh in your favor and how much you are likely to recover from a lawsuit.
What Types of Hotel Accidents Are Hotels Responsible For?
It is clear that a hotel owes a duty to its guest, but they cannot be responsible for every accident. That is why it is important to know if what caused your injury was something the hotel has a duty to maintain or eliminate as a hazard. Common hotel duties include things like maintaining adequate lighting, keeping steps dry and unobstructed, and repairing problems with hotel property, furniture, and equipment. Hotels also have a duty to control insect infestation (“bed bugs”), maintain proper security (including guards and cameras) to avoid theft and assaults on guests, exercise reasonable care in hiring hotel staff, training hotel pool staff to prevent injuries to guests, maintain stairs and elevators, and maintain locks on hotel rooms. Hotel lobbies must also be properly maintained to prevent slip and fall accidents, as these common areas can present hazards if not regularly inspected and kept safe. In addition to these duties, hotels are also required to warn of a hazard they know exists if they cannot eliminate the hazard immediately. This would include things like a leak or remodeling a portion of the hotel. The most common places for hotel accidents are elevators, bedrooms and bathrooms, and pools.
Hotels must take reasonable steps to protect hotel guests from hazards in hotel rooms and other areas of the property. This includes ensuring that all areas are safe and free from dangerous conditions that could lead to hotel injuries.
Hotel injuries can occur in any part of the hotel, and hotel injury attorneys or a hotel accident lawyer can help guests pursue claims for injuries sustained due to hotel negligence.
Elevator Accidents
Many people have fears of elevators, but large hotels and casinos make them a necessity. While elevator accidents are rare, they do happen. These accidents are usually the result of poor lift function that could have been prevented if the hotel operator ensured elevators were properly maintained. Elevators must be frequently inspected and maintained by the owner or hotel operator of the building through contracted services of a professional elevator maintenance company. These accidents may be the fault of the owner, hotel operator, maintenance company, electricians who installed faulty cables that affected the elevator system, or the manufacturer of the lift’s parts or replacement parts might have sold a unit that was defective before leaving the factory. Getting at the heart of the incident and identifying all liable parties who are responsible will allow you to create the strongest case for yourself to recover your damages.
Bedrooms and Bathrooms
Many hotel bedroom and bathroom injuries cannot be attributed to the hotel directly. However, incidents that involve bed bugs, slip and falls, and other conditions outside your control can often be attributed to the hotel for causing you injury. Fall accidents are often caused by dangerous conditions in hotel bathrooms or bedrooms, such as wet floors, loose tiles, or inadequate lighting. Bedbugs are beyond your control, but can be prevented and controlled through maintaining cleanliness standards. Bed bugs look like very small apple seeds, measuring only 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. The bites will feel itchy and painful. Bed bugs can also be identified by rust-colored stains along the mattress’s corners.
Additionally, many accidents happen in bathrooms, especially in showers. If a shower suddenly changes temperatures burning a guest and causes the guest to fall, the hotel can be liable for not warning the guest of the shower’s condition. The hotel may also be held accountable if it breached its duty to maintain safe conditions, such as when injuries are caused by any slippery or dangerous conditions that were not cleared or cleaned up before permitting you to enter the room.
Guests who suffer injuries in these situations may require medical treatment and face significant medical bills. Legal action can help them achieve financial recovery.
Pools
Hotels can also be found liable for injuries at their pools. A swimming pool premises may have been designed poorly, failed to warn guests of hazards, or was not provided with sufficient supervision. Hotel pools can cause issues by being shallower than imagined, having loose tiles that can cause people to slip, or contaminated water. Resort accidents are similar to hotel pool injuries and can involve complex legal issues, especially when injuries occur at foreign hotels or resorts. Hotels are required to maintain safe, clean pool areas, post warning signs, and swimming pool rules. They also have to indicate water depth in all pool areas. Hotels and resorts can be held liable for injuries to guests and visitors, as well as negligent acts of hotel employees. Hotel or resort owners may face premises liability claims from injury victims seeking maximum compensation for their injuries. If any of these were the reason for your pool injury, the hotel may be liable for your injuries.
Contact Our Office
If you or a family member was injured while at a hotel, motel, or inn, you should immediately contact an attorney who is experienced in handling these types of cases. Premises liability is complicated, and you need an attorney you trust to help you navigate your case. Contact Cueria Law | New Orleans Injury Attorneys today.
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