Premises Liability
Thomas Rubin & Kelley PC defends businesses, commercial property owners, property managers, homeowners associations, and their insurers in premises liability claims throughout Arizona. The firm's premises practice covers slip-and-fall injuries, inadequate security and criminal act cases, negligent maintenance claims, swimming pool and recreational injuries, and multi-party premises litigation. Our attorneys work with security, human factors, and engineering experts to evaluate dangerous condition and inadequate security claims. The firm's managing partner chairs the Premises Liability Practice Group for Your House Counsel®, and we handle these claims through both negotiated resolutions and full trial defense.
Premises Claims Across Arizona Properties
These claims arise at retail stores, grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, apartment complexes, and office buildings, and they include security claims following assaults, robberies, and shootings, as well as dog bite claims involving landlords and property owners.
Many premises claims involve more than one potentially responsible party, such as an owner, a tenant, a property manager, a security contractor, and a maintenance vendor. Our attorneys evaluate contractual indemnity and additional insured rights early so that each party bears its proper share.
Claims at apartment communities and other residential properties can also raise landlord and tenant questions, including who controlled the area where the injury occurred and what the lease required each party to maintain or repair. The answers can determine whether the owner, the tenant, the management company, or a vendor is the proper defendant.
Our Approach to Premises Claims
Our attorneys study the incident report, photographs, video, and the client's inspection practices to address the core questions in a premises case: whether the condition was dangerous, whether the client had actual or constructive notice of it, and whether the plaintiff's own conduct contributed to the incident.
Businesses routinely overwrite surveillance video and discard inspection logs, so we move to preserve them immediately after assignment. In security cases, the firm also collects prior incident history, security contracts, and staffing records, and retains security and human factors experts when the case requires them.
Reports address duty, notice, causation, comparative fault, and damages, and close with a recommendation on resolution and a budget for the next phase.
Juries evaluate premises cases against their own sense of everyday conduct. Our attorneys prepare each file with that audience in mind, which supports cost-effective resolution and readies for trial the cases that should be tried.
Issues That Shape Premises Liability Cases
Duty is the threshold question in many premises cases, and the Arizona Supreme Court has continued to refine how courts evaluate it. We raise duty arguments early, often by motion, when the relationship between the client and the claimant supports them. For further reading, see Determining Duty in Premises Liability Actions: The Arizona Supreme Court Clarifies the Role of Unreasonably Dangerous Conditions.
Notice is the central factual issue in most slip-and-fall cases. Our attorneys build a record of the client's inspection schedules, cleaning logs, and staff training, and we defend against mode of operation theories with evidence of how the business manages recurring hazards.
Security cases call for careful attention to the criminal actor's share of fault, prior incident history, and the security measures in place. We also handle trespasser claims under A.R.S. §12-557, recreational use claims under A.R.S. §33-1551, and strict liability dog bite claims under A.R.S. §11-1025. For further reading, see Strict Liability for a Dog Bite Claim in Arizona and Dog Bite Claims & Punitive Damages.
Reporting a New Premises Incident
Property owners, businesses, and their insurers throughout Arizona can call our premises liability attorneys at (602) 274-8289 to assign a claim or discuss evidence preservation after an incident, or send the details through the contact page.