Landowners have protection against claims from those that might walk on their property. Still, an injured hiker might be able to seek some form of compensation with the help of a personal injury lawyer in Niles.
Responsibility placed on occupier of property
The occupier has a duty of care towards those that might elect to enjoy that occupied land, unless a “No Trespassing” sign has been posted.
The occupier should make sure that all those that have chosen to come onto the occupied area could remain safe.
Who is an occupier?
An occupier is someone in possession of premises, or in control of the conditions on a given premises.
The occupier of any type of property needs to demonstrate a duty of care towards those that come onto any of the occupied premises.
What sorts of premises would fall under the regulation that pertains to the occupiers’ required actions?
Any body of water
Any vessel on the water
Any trailer, or other means of transport
Any motor vehicle that is not being used for purposes of transportation
A trail might also belong on that list
What does it mean that any person occupying a trail must adhere to the premises’ regulation?
That same person is not allowed to impose intentional harm on anyone that might come onto the occupied area, including any hiker on the trail.
Occupiers of trials must make sure that hikers do not encounter any unsafe conditions.
If an occupier’s reckless or careless actions have resulted in creation of some type of danger along a controlled hiking trail, then an injured hiker would have grounds for suing the same careless person/occupier.
How might an injured hiker benefit from hiring a personal injury lawyer?
The hired lawyer could study the spot where the hiker got injured. The lawyer’s investigation might uncover evidence of neglect on the occupier’s part.
For instance, it might be found that some part of the trail has undergone a great deal of erosion. While occupiers cannot always prevent erosion, their control of a trail should include the completion of steps that would remove any dangers that might have been introduced by the erosion process.
A good personal injury lawyer should be able to demonstrate the existence of a link between neglect on the occupier’s part and injuries that the lawyer’s client has sustained.
A lawyer’s time could be devoted to learning who was responsible for maintaining a given trail. That same person would qualify as someone that belonged on a list of occupiers. Hence, that particular person could become the target of a lawsuit, one that an attorney might file on a client’s behalf. Any hikers could become injured, and thus become some attorney’s client. In that way, any of them might acquire compensation.