New York City Attorney for Injuries at Hotels
When staying in a hotel, you should be able to expect a clean and safe environment. While most hotels take care to ensure the safety of guests, accidents can still happen. If you were injured in a hotel, the hotel can be held liable for your injuries.
According to premises liability law, property owners can be held liable for injuries to guests. If a guest is injured, the hotel can be held liable for negligence. In such cases, an injured guest can make the hotel pay for the costs related to their injuries.
If you were a guest in a hotel in New York City and unfortunately suffered an injury, you should speak to an attorney about your case. Our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels can help you get compensation from the hotel. Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 for a free case review.
Common Injuries and Accidents in New York City Hotels
Hotels tend to be big spaces with many possible causes of injuries and accidents. Your injury might have occurred in a common area, like the lobby or an elevator. Your injuries could instead have happened in your room. Possible sources of accidents and injuries to hotel guests include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Falling on the stairs
- Slipping on a wet floor
- Fire code violations
- Unclean conditions
- Structural defects
- Negligent hotel security
- Swimming pool or hot tub accidents
- Defective gym equipment
After an accident, you might feel embarrassed or ashamed, and it can be easy to blame yourself. However, our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels can help you prove you are not to blame. We can gather evidence, including hotel security camera footage, medical reports from your doctor, and eyewitness testimony to prove that the hotel was responsible for your injuries.
Is a Hotel Liable for Injuries to Guests in New York City?
A hotel can be held liable for injuries sustained by guests. Guests are legally considered “invitees” when they check into a hotel. The property owner is responsible for making the hotel safe for invitees.
Premises liability cases are based on the idea that property owners owe a duty of safety to guests. If a guest has been welcomed or permitted to enter the property, the owner is legally obligated to make the property safe. If certain hazards cannot be remedied, the owner must at least warn the guest of the hazards.
When filing a lawsuit against a hotel based on premises liability, you must be ready to prove that the hotel acted negligently. Gathering sufficient evidence is often challenging, but our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels have experience handling these kinds of cases and are ready to assist.
Numerous circumstances or conditions might lead to a guest being injured in a hotel. Many hotel accidents are related to structural defects that make walking through the hotel dangerous. Small mishaps like wet floors can also lead to serious injuries. Other times, guests are injured by other people who entered the hotel because of negligent security.
Who Can File a Lawsuit for Injuries that Occurred at a Hotel in New York City?
In many cases, you can certainly sue the hotel where you were injured for compensation for your damages. A hotel is obligated to protect the health and safety of its guests, and a violation of this duty should not go unreported. Our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels have experience representing injury victims in cases against negligent parties and are prepared to help you.
An injury in a hotel may allow a premises liability lawsuit. Such a lawsuit involves proving that the property owner was negligent in making the premises safe for guests and visitors. This area of law covers many types of properties, including private homes, retail stores, and hotels.
Your accident need not be caused by some sinister intentional act. Cases of negligence in premises liability cases typically involve unintentional acts or failures to act that led to an accident. Negligence involves several key factors that you must prove to win your case.
You must show that the hotel owed you a legal duty, that the hotel violated this duty, that the hotel’s violation directly caused your accident, and that your injuries are real. While this might sound simple, it is a long and complex legal process that most people are unprepared to take on alone. An attorney can help you fight for the compensation you deserve.
Proving a Hotel Is Liable for Your Injuries in New York City
Premises liability cases are usually based on theories of negligence. Legally speaking, negligence is a legal standard that involves four specific elements. Proving negligence is often challenging as each of the four elements listed below must be proven. Our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels can help you prove your case.
First, we must prove that the hotel owed you a duty of care. This duty is not a mere courtesy but a legal obligation. Second, we have to show that the hotel breached its legal duty of care. A breach might be an action that caused your accident or a failure to prevent the accident. Third, we need to show that the breach is the direct or proximate cause of your accident. If your accident was caused by something independent of the hotel’s breach, we will not be successful. Finally, we have to show that your damages are real and not just possible or hypothetical.
Evidence of the Hotel’s Negligence and Liability for Your Injuries
The way our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels will work to prove the hotel’s negligence will depend on your unique circumstances. Liability is proven with evidence, and the evidence will vary depending on the circumstances of your injuries.
Hotels typically owe a legal duty of safety and care to their guests. If you were not a guest but were still injured on hotel property, there might be other reasons why the hotel would owe you a duty of care. This is common in cases where someone is injured at a hotel bar or restaurant or in an area used for a conference or convention. Evidence that you checked in, such as a booking confirmation or the hotel’s business records, can be used to prove the hotel’s duty.
It is also important to examine the hotel’s breach of its duty from all angles. Were you in a common space or somewhere off-limits to guests? Were there warning signs posted? Did hotel staff advise you of the hazard? Did the hotel staff even know about the hazard? The answer to these questions and more may influence the outcome of your case. Much of this might come down to your testimony and the testimony of witnesses.
Proving damages in a negligence case may involve showing medical records or providing testimony from a doctor to prove the extent of your injuries. We must also prove your injuries happened because of the hotel’s breach. The hotel might argue that something beyond their control caused your own injuries. Alternatively, they might argue that you caused your own injuries. Security camera recordings of the accident may be extremely helpful to your case. Additionally, medical records can be used to help prove the existence and severity of your injuries.
What Will the Hotel Do After I File a Lawsuit for My Injuries?
Once you file your lawsuit, the hotel will immediately go on the defensive. Understanding the hotel’s arguments against you is important for our attorneys for injuries at hotels to make effective counterarguments.
A hotel will try to get around their own liability by claiming they did not owe you a duty of care. Hotels owe a duty of care to guests who have checked in, but not everyone who walks through a hotel is a guest. Instead, you might be a tourist who came in to ask the front desk for directions. Even still, a hotel might reasonably expect people to enter and make inquiries or visit the hotel bar. They still owe a duty of safety to these people even if they are not guests at the hotel.
The hotel might instead argue that you are responsible for causing your own accident and the hotel was not negligent. We can use the evidence we have gathered in your case to prove that your accident happened because of the hotel’s negligence.
Contact Our New York City Hotel Injury Lawyers
If you recently checked into a hotel and ended up in an accident, our New York City attorneys for injuries at hotels can help you recover damages from the hotel. Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 for a free evaluation of your case today.