Getting hurt on someone else’s property is rarely about you just being “clumsy.” A loose handrail, a hidden patch of ice, a store aisle left cluttered, or a landlord who ignores obvious hazards puts you at risk long before you walk through the door. These injuries sometimes happen because basic safety measures were skipped, delayed, or ignored.
Once a claim is filed, the property owner and their insurer start reviewing every detail. They are a business, and part of their process is examining anything that might lower what they owe. They will look at your actions, the scene, your medical history, and even your footwear to argue you share some responsibility.
You should not be the one trying to counter all of that while you are dealing with pain, doctor visits, and time away from work. The team at Wapner Newman steps in to take over that burden. We gather evidence quickly, speak with witnesses, secure video footage, and work with your medical providers to show exactly how the hazard caused your injuries. Our approach is focused on presenting a clear, organized record that leaves little room for doubt.
If a property owner’s negligence left you injured, your focus should stay on your recovery. We handle the legal work, the paperwork, and the back-and-forth with the insurer. For clear answers about your situation, call Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 for a free consultation.
Why Choose Wapner Newman for Your Premises Case?
Since 1978, Wapner Newman has served communities across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, building a reputation for taking on difficult cases and winning. From our offices in Center City, we have the resources and the experience to hold negligent property owners accountable.
Our results speak for themselves. We played a key role in securing the $227 million settlement for the victims of the Market Street building collapse, the largest personal injury settlement in Pennsylvania history. At its heart, that disaster was a massive premises liability failure. This, along with a $7.25 million settlement for an elevator accident and a $5.4 million verdict for a burn victim, shows what we can achieve.
We regularly bring in forensic experts and accident reconstruction specialists to uncover exactly what went wrong and prove it. We have the horsepower to take on large corporations and their insurance carriers.
Our office is at 1628 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Suite 800, a short walk from Suburban Station and LOVE Park. But while we’re in the middle of the city, our focus is personal. When you work with us, you get direct attention from our partners, including respected attorneys like Marc G. Brecher, recognized as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers.
Worried About Fees? Don’t Be
We handle every premises liability case on a contingency fee basis. This is simple: you pay nothing unless we secure compensation for you. The first conversation is always free, and there is no obligation for us to work together after our first call.
How Does Compensation Work in a Premises Liability Claim?
The financial damage from a bad fall or injury is a cascade of expenses: follow-up surgeries, physical therapy, lost paychecks, and a mountain of invoices that never seems to stop growing. It can pressure you into accepting a quick offer that doesn’t come close to covering your real costs.
Our first job is to calculate the full and final value of your claim, making sure every future expense is accounted for. In Pennsylvania, damages are the monetary award paid to a person as compensation for their loss or injury. They are broken into two main types, with a third used only in rare situations.
Economic Damages
Think of these as the itemized receipt for your financial losses.
- Medical Expenses: Covers everything from the ambulance and initial surgery to future physical therapy, prescription drugs, and necessary medical equipment.
- Lost Wages: The income you’ve already missed out on because you couldn’t work.
- Loss of Earning Capacity: If the injury permanently affects your ability to do your job or earn the same living, this calculates that future financial loss.
- Out-of-Pocket Costs: Any other related expenses, like paying for transportation to doctor’s appointments or making your home wheelchair-accessible.
Non-Economic Damages
This is compensation for the human cost of the injury, known as the ways it has impacted your quality of life.
- Pain and Suffering: For the physical pain you’ve had to endure.
- Emotional Distress: This accounts for the anxiety, depression, or sleep disturbances that frequently follow a traumatic event.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: If you can no longer hike, play with your grandchildren, or engage in hobbies that were once a source of joy.
Punitive Damages: These are not awarded to compensate you. They are intended to punish a property owner for exceptionally reckless or malicious behavior and to deter others from acting the same way.
How Your Own Actions Might Affect Compensation
Pennsylvania uses a rule called Modified Comparative Negligence. Here’s what that means: if you are found partially at fault for the accident, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault. If a jury decides you were 20% responsible, your total award is cut by 20%.
But if your share of the blame reaches 51% or more, you get nothing. Insurance companies use this rule aggressively to shift blame onto you. Our job is to build a case that clearly shows what happened and prevents them from assigning you any unfair blame.
Does It Matter Why You Were on the Property?
It does. The first order of business is establishing why you were on the property:
- Invitees: An invitee is someone on the property for the owner’s financial benefit or because the property is open to the public. Think of shoppers in a supermarket, diners in a restaurant, or a plumber hired to fix a leak. Property owners owe invitees the highest duty of care. They must regularly inspect their property for hazards, repair dangerous conditions, and warn visitors of any dangers they know about or should know about.
- Licensees: A licensee is a social guest. You are on the property with the owner’s permission but for your own purposes, like having dinner at a friend’s house. The duty of care is lower. The owner must warn a licensee of any dangerous conditions they already know about, but they don’t have a proactive duty to inspect the property for unknown hazards.
- Trespassers: A trespasser enters a property without permission. Here, the owner owes the lowest duty of care. They only need to avoid intentionally or recklessly harming the trespasser. One major exception is for children. The “Attractive Nuisance” Doctrine may hold an owner liable if something on their property (like an unfenced swimming pool) is likely to attract a child who is too young to understand the danger.
Common Places for Accidents in Philadelphia
Slip and fall incidents increase dramatically when snow and ice arrive. Pennsylvania follows the “Hills and Ridges” doctrine, which says a property owner generally isn’t liable for naturally accumulating snow. However, they may be held responsible if they allow that snow and ice to remain for an unreasonable amount of time and form into dangerous ridges or elevations that make walking unsafe.
Some locations in the city pose a higher risk for these types of accidents:
- SEPTA Stations & Platforms: Worn stairs, broken escalators, and slick platforms are frequent problems. Be aware that claims against government-related bodies like SEPTA have tight deadlines—you usually have just six months to provide official notice of your intent to sue.
- Commercial Parking Garages: Bad lighting can easily hide potholes, cracks in the concrete, or slippery oil spills.
- Rittenhouse & Old City Sidewalks: Tree roots can buckle brick and concrete, creating trip hazards that are hard to see.
- Construction Sites: In rapidly growing areas like Fishtown and Northern Liberties, it’s common for construction debris, tools, and materials to spill onto public sidewalks, creating a danger for anyone walking by.
What Does It Take to Win a Claim?
Just because you were hurt on someone else’s property doesn’t automatically mean you have a case. To succeed, we have to prove the property owner was negligent. This requires proving four distinct things:
- A Duty of Care Existed: As explained above, the property owner had a legal responsibility to provide a reasonably safe environment for you.
- The Owner Breached That Duty: The owner knew, or should have known, about a hazardous condition and failed to fix it or warn you about it. For example, if a grocery store employee spills a jar of pickles and doesn’t clean it up for an hour, that’s a breach of duty.
- Causation: The owner’s failure (the hazardous condition) must be the direct cause of your fall and your injuries.
- You Suffered Damages: You must have actual losses, such as medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.
The Two-Year Deadline Is Deceiving
In Pennsylvania, you typically have two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. This is called the statute of limitations. It sounds like a long time, but waiting is a serious mistake. Key evidence disappears fast.
- Surveillance video is frequently recorded over within 30 days.
- Witnesses move away or their memories get fuzzy.
The legal clock may run for two years, but the evidence clock runs much faster.
Understanding the Insurance Company’s Playbook
Common Strategies You Can Expect
- The Recorded Statement Request: Soon after the accident, an insurance adjuster will probably call and ask for a recorded statement. The goal is to get you on the record while you are still recovering, possibly on pain medication, and might say something that could be misinterpreted to hurt your claim later.
- The Low, Fast Settlement Offer: They might offer you a check right away, often before you even know the full extent of your injuries. If you take that check and sign a release, you lose your right to ask for more compensation, even if you find out later you need surgery.
- The Blame Game: They will actively look for ways to argue you caused your own fall. Were you looking at your phone? Were you wearing the “wrong” shoes? They will explore every angle to apply the comparative negligence rule and reduce what they owe.
Our job is to get between you and the insurance company. We manage all communications, present the evidence methodically, and ensure your claim is valued correctly from the start.
FAQ for Philadelphia Premises Liability
I was injured at a friend’s apartment. Do I have to sue my friend?
Almost never. You are not filing a claim to take money from your friend’s pocket. You are filing a claim against their renter’s or homeowner’s insurance policy. This is exactly why people have insurance, to cover these kinds of unexpected accidents.
What if there was a “Wet Floor” sign, but I fell anyway?
A sign doesn’t automatically get the property owner off the hook. Was the sign hidden behind a display? Was the spill so widespread that it was impossible to avoid? These details matter, and you may still have a valid claim.
The owner fixed the hazard right after I fell. Does that hurt my case?
No, and in some ways, it can help. Under Pennsylvania law, a “subsequent remedial measure” (like fixing a broken step after a fall) generally can’t be used to prove the owner was negligent. The policy behind this is to encourage owners to make repairs. However, we can sometimes use that evidence for other purposes, like proving who was in control of the property if that’s in dispute.
I had a bad back before my fall, and the fall made it much worse. Can I still get compensation?
Yes. This is covered by a legal concept called the “eggshell plaintiff rule.” This rule says that a negligent property owner is responsible for the full extent of the harm they cause, even if your pre-existing condition made you more susceptible to injury. They take the victim as they find them.
Don’t Let Self-Doubt Stop You
After an injury, it’s easy to second-guess yourself. The property owner and their insurer are counting on that hesitation. They already have a team working to protect their interests.
At Wapner Newman, we’ve spent decades investigating negligence and forcing property owners to take responsibility for unsafe conditions. The law gives you a limited time to protect your rights.
Call us today at (215) 569-0900 for a free, confidential case review. Let us do the work so you can focus on getting better.