Premises Liability and Slip and Fall Lawyers in Colorado Springs

Colorado has a specific statute for injuries caused by the condition of property, the Premises Liability Act. It replaces general negligence law for claims against whoever owns or controls the property, and it makes the injured person’s reason for being there the starting point of every case.

Why you were there matters

The Act sorts people into three categories, and the property owner’s duty depends on which one you were in. The court decides the category.

Invitees are people on the property for business the owner benefits from, or because the owner invited the public in: customers in a store, guests at a hotel, patients in a waiting room. They are owed the most. An owner is responsible to an invitee for unreasonably failing to protect against dangers it knew about or should have known about.

Licensees are on the property with permission for their own purposes, such as a social guest in someone’s home. The owner must take reasonable care with dangers it created and actually knew about, and must warn of unusual dangers it actually knew about.

Trespassers can recover only for harm the owner caused willfully or deliberately.

Most commercial cases involve invitees, and the fight is usually over what the owner knew or should have known, and when.

Slip and fall and trip and fall

Spills, leaks, freshly mopped floors, loose mats, torn carpet, uneven pavement, and changes in floor level cause most falls. The key evidence is how long the hazard was there, whether employees walked past it, and whether the business had and followed an inspection routine. Surveillance video answers those questions better than anything else and is the first thing to request.

Snow and ice

Colorado Springs winters make these claims common. They turn on what the owner did about the hazard, and how quickly, once it existed. Melt-and-refreeze ice from poor drainage or a leaking gutter, snow piled where runoff crosses a walkway, and sidewalks left untreated for days are the typical cases. Weather records and the owner’s snow removal contracts and logs are central.

Parking lots, stairs, and falling objects

Potholes, broken curbs, and dark lots; stairs with missing handrails, uneven risers, or poor lighting; merchandise stacked too high, loose fixtures, and falling signage. Building and fire codes often set the standard, and a code violation is strong evidence that a condition was unreasonable.

Apartments and rental housing

A landlord who controls common areas such as stairways, walkways, parking, and laundry rooms is responsible for their condition. Inside a unit, responsibility depends on who controlled the condition and whether the landlord knew of it. Written repair requests and the landlord’s responses often decide the case.

Restaurants, bars, and pools

Restaurants and bars owe customers safe floors, stairs, and lighting. Pools at hotels, apartment complexes, and gyms raise questions of fencing, gates, depth markings, drain covers, and supervision. Injuries caused by another patron can also be the property owner’s responsibility; see negligent security.

Public property

If the property belongs to a city, county, school district, or state agency, the Governmental Immunity Act controls. Claims are allowed for some dangerous conditions of public buildings and facilities, but written notice is required within 182 days of discovering the injury.

How we handle premises claims

We send preservation letters for video and incident reports right away, get the inspection, cleaning, and maintenance records, and look at the codes that applied. We identify who actually controlled the property, which is often a management company or tenant rather than the owner, and we build the case around what they knew and when.