Indiana sorts visitors into three groups, and the duty depends on which one you were. An invitee is on the property for the owner’s benefit, such as a customer in a store, and is owed the highest duty: reasonable care to discover dangers and to fix them or warn about them. A licensee, such as a social guest, is owed a warning about hidden dangers the owner actually knows about. A trespasser is owed only a duty not to be willfully or wantonly injured. Most of our cases involve invitees, where Indiana follows the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 343. We must show the owner knew or should have known of the condition, should have expected that you would not discover or protect yourself against it, and failed to use reasonable care to protect you.
An owner who created the hazard or was told about it has actual knowledge. An owner who should have found it through reasonable inspection has constructive knowledge, and that is where most premises cases are fought: the longer a condition existed, the harder it is for the owner to say it could not have been found. The defense will also argue that you should have seen the hazard and avoided it. Indiana’s comparative fault statute, Ind. Code § 34-51-2-6, still allows recovery unless you were more than 50 percent at fault, with the award reduced by your share, and an owner’s failure to fix a condition it had every opportunity to find usually outweighs a visitor’s momentary inattention.
Slip and fall cases involve a surface that gave way underfoot: liquid, ice, grease, or a freshly mopped floor. Trip and fall cases involve a fixed hazard such as a raised sidewalk slab, a parking lot curb stop, or an unmarked step. Each has its own page because the proof is different. Beyond those, we handle structural defects, including floating docks built contrary to the manufacturer’s installation instructions and materials specifications; building-code violations such as a missing handrail or guardrail on a stairway or ramp; inadequate lighting in stairwells and parking areas; and negligent security, where an assault in a parking lot, an apartment complex, or a bar was foreseeable because the owner ignored prior incidents.
A property owner’s duty is reasonable care, and the codes and standards that govern construction and maintenance are the best measure of what reasonable care looks like. The Indiana Building Code and local ordinances set requirements for stair geometry, handrails, guardrails, and lighting. ADA accessibility standards govern the slope of ramps and the rails beside them. ASTM standards describe how walking surfaces are tested for slip resistance. We do not need to prove a code violation to win, but when a stairway is missing the rail the code requires, or a ramp is steeper than the standard allows, the owner’s claim that it acted reasonably becomes very hard to make. We retain architects, engineers, and safety experts to measure and document the condition against the applicable standard.
Indiana winters generate a large share of our premises cases. The weather does not excuse the owner; the question is whether the owner acted reasonably in light of it, and snow-removal contracts, salting logs, and weather records establish what the owner knew and when. In every premises case, the evidence that wins is also the evidence that vanishes fastest. Surveillance video is overwritten in days, and incident reports, maintenance logs, and prior complaints are kept only as long as company policy requires, so we send preservation demands immediately. If the property belongs to a city, county, school, or state agency, a tort claim notice must be served on a short deadline before any suit can be filed. We handle these cases from our Merrillville and South Bend offices, take them anywhere in Indiana, and when the case resolves, you get the check and we handle the bills.
In Indiana, most personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the date of injury (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4). Claims against a city, county, or state agency require a formal tort claim notice much sooner, in some cases within 180 days. Waiting costs leverage, and in some cases it costs the claim entirely.
We represent injured people everywhere in Indiana. Most of an injury case happens by phone, email, and video, so you do not need to live near one of our offices to work with us.
Injury cases are handled on a contingency fee: no retainer, no hourly bill, and no attorney fee unless we recover money for you. The percentage is set in a written agreement before we start and depends on the stage at which the case resolves. How contingency fees work, in plain English.
A decorated U.S. Army veteran who set his sights on the law at age eight, James has represented hundreds of injured clients with a modern, client-first style and a refusal to let insurance companies run out the clock.
Premises liability is the whole category: any injury caused by an unsafe condition on property someone else controls. A slip and fall is one kind of premises case; trip and fall, negligent security, and code violations are others.
The claim is made against the homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy, not against your friend personally. In most cases your friend never pays a dollar.
That is the standard comparative fault defense. Indiana still allows recovery unless you were more than 50 percent at fault, and the owner’s failure to find and fix a hazard usually outweighs that argument.
Nothing up front. We handle these cases on a contingency fee, and you won’t owe us a fee unless we recover for you.
Five minutes on the phone and you will know where you stand. You will not owe us a fee unless we recover money for you, and the bills get handled before the check does.