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Contact Us TodayWhen you walk into a store, apartment complex, office building, parking lot, restaurant, or another property, you should be able to expect that the property is reasonably safe. When property owners, managers, landlords, or businesses fail to fix dangerous conditions or warn people about them, serious injuries can happen.
Maybe you slipped on a wet grocery store floor near East Main Street, tripped over broken pavement outside a business on Reidville Road, fell in a poorly lit parking lot near W.O. Ezell Boulevard, or were injured on unsafe stairs at an apartment complex in Boiling Springs, Duncan, Inman, or Roebuck. These cases are often very fact-specific. The location, the condition of the property, the available video, the witnesses, and the timing of the hazard can all matter.
Premises liability cases are not limited to slip and fall accidents. They can involve unsafe stairs, poor lighting, broken handrails, wet floors, cracked pavement, falling merchandise, negligent security, unsafe parking lots, dog attacks, and other hazards that should have been addressed before someone got hurt.
At the Law Office of Tyler Rody, we help injured people in Spartanburg and across South Carolina pursue compensation after being hurt on someone else’s property. Whether you slipped on a wet store floor, tripped over broken pavement, fell down unsafe stairs, or were injured because a property owner failed to keep the premises safe, our office can help you understand your options.
Premises liability is the area of law that deals with injuries caused by unsafe property conditions. These cases are based on the idea that property owners and those responsible for maintaining a property must take reasonable steps to keep lawful visitors safe.
That does not mean every injury on someone else’s property automatically creates a claim. But when a dangerous condition existed, the responsible party knew or should have known about it, and someone was injured as a result, there may be grounds for a premises liability case.
Common premises liability claims may involve:
For example, a spill in a grocery aisle, a broken curb outside a shopping center, or a missing handrail in an apartment stairwell may look minor until someone falls and suffers a serious injury.
Premises liability accidents can happen almost anywhere. Many occur in places people visit every day, including grocery stores, parking lots, shopping centers, apartment complexes, hotels, restaurants, workplaces, professional buildings, and private homes.
In Spartanburg and nearby communities, these injuries may happen:
A hazard that may seem small to a property owner can cause life-changing harm to the person who gets injured. A spill that is not cleaned up, a broken step that is ignored, or a poorly lit parking lot can lead to serious injuries, expensive medical bills, missed work, and long-term pain.
After an injury on someone else’s property, your first priority should be your health. Report the incident as soon as possible, seek medical attention, and document what happened.
If you can, take photos or videos of the dangerous condition that caused your injury. This may include a wet floor, broken step, uneven pavement, poor lighting, missing warning sign, torn floor mat, loose railing, or merchandise that fell from a shelf. Also take photos of your injuries, shoes, clothing, and the surrounding area.
You should also try to:
If the injury happened near a business, apartment complex, grocery store, hotel, or parking lot, there may be surveillance footage. But that footage may not be saved for long. Acting quickly can make a difference.
Premises liability cases often come down to evidence. The insurance company may argue that the dangerous condition did not exist, that it was obvious, that the property owner did not know about it, or that you should have avoided it.
That is why documentation matters. Photos, video, incident reports, witness statements, maintenance records, cleaning logs, prior complaints, and inspection policies can all help show what happened.
For example, if someone slips on a wet floor in a Spartanburg grocery store, the timing matters. How long was the liquid there? Did employees walk past it? Were warning signs placed? Was there a cleaning policy? Was the store following that policy? The answers can affect whether the business may be held responsible.
If you are injured at work because of an unsafe condition, you may have a workers’ compensation claim. Depending on the facts, there may also be a separate claim against a third party, such as a property owner, contractor, maintenance company, security company, or another business responsible for the dangerous condition.
This can happen when someone is hurt while making a delivery, working at a job site, visiting a customer’s property, maintaining equipment, or performing services at a business, apartment complex, warehouse, or office building.
Report the injury immediately and get medical care. If your employer, the property owner, or an insurance company is not taking your injury seriously, speak with an attorney who can help protect your rights while you focus on healing.
Responsibility in a premises liability case depends on who owned, controlled, managed, or maintained the property where the injury happened. This may include a business owner, landlord, property management company, tenant, maintenance contractor, security company, or another party.
To bring a premises liability claim, you generally need to show:
You must show that the person or company owned, controlled, operated, managed, or maintained the property where you were injured. This may be straightforward in a store, but it can be more complicated at apartment complexes, commercial properties, or shared parking lots where several businesses or vendors may be involved.
You must show that an unsafe condition existed. This may include a spill, broken flooring, poor lighting, unsafe stairs, missing handrails, falling merchandise, cracked pavement, or another hazard.
In many cases, you must show that the property owner or responsible party knew about the danger or should have discovered it through reasonable inspection and maintenance. This is one reason surveillance footage, cleaning schedules, and prior complaints can matter.
You must connect the unsafe condition to the injuries you suffered. Medical records, photographs, witness statements, and the timeline of your symptoms can all help.
You must show that the injury caused real harm, such as medical bills, lost income, pain, disability, or other losses.
Premises liability accidents can cause more than minor bruises. These incidents can lead to serious injuries that affect your ability to work, care for your family, and live your normal life.
Common injuries include:
Even if you believe your injury is minor at first, it is important to get checked by a medical professional. Some injuries get worse over time, and medical records can be important if you decide to make a claim.
If you were injured because of unsafe property conditions, you may be entitled to compensation for the losses caused by the accident.
Depending on your case, damages may include:
This can include emergency care, hospital bills, doctor visits, surgery, physical therapy, medication, injections, specialist visits, and future medical treatment.
If your injury keeps you from working, you may be able to recover income you lost while you were out.
If your injury affects your ability to do your job long-term, you may be entitled to compensation for reduced future income.
Serious injuries can cause physical pain, emotional distress, anxiety, loss of sleep, and a reduced quality of life.
If the injury causes lasting limitations, that harm should be included in your claim.
This may include travel for medical care, assistive devices, home modifications, and other costs related to the injury.
In South Carolina, many personal injury claims, including many premises liability claims, generally must be filed within three years. Waiting too long can hurt your case and may prevent you from recovering compensation.
It is also important to act quickly because evidence can disappear. Video footage may be erased, dangerous conditions may be repaired, witnesses may become difficult to locate, and insurance companies may begin building a defense right away.
If your injury involved a government property, public school, municipal building, sidewalk, or another public entity, different notice rules or shorter deadlines may apply. It is better to ask questions early.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes, and every case depends on its own facts. But real case examples can help show the kinds of injury claims Tyler Rody has handled.
For additional settlements and verdicts, visit our Notable Cases page.
These results are specific to the facts of those cases. They do not guarantee or predict the outcome of any other case.
“Premises cases are not always as simple as saying someone fell. The important questions are what caused the fall, who was responsible for the property, how long the danger was there, and what the business or property owner should have done before someone got hurt. When a client is injured because a hazard was ignored, the case deserves serious attention from the start.”
If your injury did not happen because of unsafe property conditions, the Law Office of Tyler Rody may still be able to help. Explore our related practice areas:
If you were injured on someone else’s property, do not assume it was “just an accident.” Property owners and businesses have a responsibility to keep their premises reasonably safe. When they fail to do that, injured people deserve answers.
The Law Office of Tyler Rody helps people in Spartanburg and across South Carolina understand their rights after serious injuries caused by unsafe property conditions. If you were hurt at a store, restaurant, apartment complex, parking lot, office building, hotel, or private property, our office can help you understand what may come next.
A premises liability case is a personal injury claim based on an unsafe property condition. These cases may involve slips, trips, falls, poor lighting, unsafe stairs, broken handrails, falling objects, negligent security, dog attacks, or other hazards that cause injury.
Possibly. You may have a claim if a dangerous condition caused your fall and the store knew or should have known about it. For example, a spill, broken flooring, loose mat, or unsafe display may support a claim if it was not handled properly.
A parking lot injury may support a claim if it was caused by a dangerous condition such as broken pavement, potholes, poor lighting, missing markings, unsafe curbs, or a failure to maintain the property. These cases often depend on photos, witness statements, maintenance records, and whether the property owner had notice of the hazard.
You may have a claim if your injury was caused by an unsafe condition in a common area, stairwell, hallway, parking lot, sidewalk, pool area, or another part of the property the landlord or management company was responsible for maintaining. Apartment complex cases can involve landlords, property managers, maintenance contractors, or security companies.
The insurance company may argue that the condition was open and obvious or that you should have avoided it. That does not always end the case. The facts matter, including whether the property owner should have anticipated that someone could still be harmed.
You may have a workers’ compensation claim and possibly a separate claim against a third party. This can happen when a worker is injured at a customer’s property, commercial site, apartment complex, store, warehouse, or another location controlled by someone other than the employer.
In many cases, compensation may come from a business liability insurance policy, homeowner’s insurance policy, renter’s insurance policy, landlord policy, or commercial property insurance. The available coverage depends on who was responsible for the property and what policy applies.
Many South Carolina personal injury claims must be filed within three years. However, certain claims may have different rules, especially if a government entity is involved. It is important to ask questions early so deadlines are not missed.
It is usually better to speak with an attorney first. Insurance companies may use recorded statements to argue that your injury was not serious, that you were at fault, or that the property owner did not know about the hazard.
Bring photos or videos of the hazard, photos of your injuries, medical records, incident reports, witness information, insurance letters, bills, and any communication from the property owner or insurance company. If you do not have all of those items, you can still ask questions and learn what may be needed.
