The most common places for people to get needlessly injured are apartment complexes, grocery stores, hospitals and parking lots.

PREMISES LIABILITY STATUTE

The law in Colorado is exactly the same for all of these circumstances.

C.R.S. § 13-21-115 requires that you prove that a landowner either knew or reasonably should have known of a dangerous condition or activity existing on the premises and failed to correct it, thus resulting in a needless injury.  This requirement exists when a person is on a property for business-related purposes which benefit either the landowner or the occupant.

JURORS’ ROLE

Despite what the legislature wrote in the Colorado Premises Liability Act, it is Colorado juries that listen to these cases and make decisions on the worthiness and value of injury claims.

For example, even though we all know how dangerous and preventable injuries from ice on a sidewalk can be, rarely have Colorado juries awarded recovery to people claiming injuries from winter outdoor slip and falls, regardless of the circumstances. However, jurors are generally more sympathetic when the premise is devoted to elderly or sick who are more susceptible to greater injury.

For example, a hospital that fails to recognize patients who should be considered falling risks tends to be more warmly received by Colorado jurors than grocery store spills that often look suspect to jurors. Furthermore, a slip and fall of a resident at an apartment complex devoted to senior citizens tends to have more jury appeal than a similar occurrence at a regular apartment complex. The idea in these type of cases is that the complex should have been more on notice and has a higher degree of perceived responsibility.

Historically, jurors tend to be more sympathetic to injuries caused by objects that fall from above onto people than injuries sustained based on a patron’s slipping and falling. On the other extreme, almost no injury that occurs after a person has consumed alcohol, such as a slip and fall at a bar or a rough encounter with a bar-bouncer, has any jury appeal.

WHY THESE CASES CAN SETTLE

Cases settle when insurance companies view that their failure to settle a case will result in a jury of Colorado citizens awarding substantial money. Considering a jury’s likely reaction to a particular set of circumstances is often a game played on both sides of these cases.

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The above examples serve as the general rule about cases involving premises liability and the level of jury appeal. Please note, however, that every injury case is different and the facts, including the degree of injury, must be considered in each case by a trained legal professional.

At ANDERSON, HEMMAT & LEVINE, we will take the time to consider your case on an individual basis and help you understand the merits and issues associated with it.  Please call us today to discuss your claim.

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When doctors make a mistake and a patient dies, that is a medical malpractice case. As clear as that case might seem, by the time the case rolls into trial, the case, the applicable law, and the medicine is anything but clear.

DIFFICULTIES OF A MED MAL CASE

In fact, percentage-wise, nearly every clear cut medical malpractice case brought in Colorado that goes to trial results in the patient losing and the doctor winning. To prove a case against a doctor you have to prove with a similarly qualified physician that the conduct of the treating doctor was a breach in the standard of care. Not that there was a bad result, or bad injuries.

Doctors get the benefit of the doubt for simply bad results. Basically, what has to be proven is that the doctor drastically deviated from the accepted ways doctors do things, and that it was that deviation from normal standard conduct that was the actual cause of the patient’s injury or death.

Attorneys defending the physician will likely make numerous arguments, including: 1) that the conduct was not a deviation from the standard of care, or 2) that the injury was not related to the doctor’s conduct, or 3) that the injury/death was a coincidence.  It is very hard to prove a case, even in the clearest cut case, against a physician in Colorado.

SIMILAR CASES WITH DIFFERENT A DIFFERENT STANDARD

In complete contrast to malpractice actions, claims arising out of nursing home neglect, hospital negligence or negligence caused by an in-patient rehabilitation facility is not considered a medical malpractice case. There is no required “standard of care expert” and rarely do words like “deviation from acceptable standards” get utilized in these cases.

In these cases a patient would simply have to prove that injury or death was caused due to a lack of reasonable care.  In comparison to a claim against a physician, it is a relative piece of cake.

The type of injuries which are often a relatively easy claim to prove and can be quite successfully pursued in Colorado can include where patients develop pressure ulcers (bed sores) or where a patients falls while unattended even after being identified as a fall risk. Other, claims that would be relatively easy to win would include basically any neglectful care of patients in a nursing home.

Often victims who have a viable claim like this are apprehensive of bringing it because they may erroneously believe that the same impossibly high standard which applies to Medical Malpractice claims also applies to their claim. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Nursing homes, as an example do not carry that level of jury appeal that a silver haired physician defendant does. In fact, by and large the jury sympathies are actually where they should be in these trials, with the vulnerable and injured patient. Pressure ulcers, falls and patient kidney failure due dehydration are exceptionally good cases and are reasonably winnable.

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If you are not sure which standard will apply to your case, call us today at Anderson, Hemmat & Levine and we will help you navigate through this legal maze.

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