Hotel Injury

Hotel and resort accidents happen every day in South Florida. Many of those accidents can be avoided with the exercise of reasonable care and common sense. Hotel operators and owners are required to keep their property well-maintained, clean and safe. Additionally, hotels and resorts are supposed to provide a reasonable degree of protection for all of their visitors and guests.

Here are some of the most common causes of accidents and injuries from hotels and resort in Miami:

• Parking lot and garage car accidents at hotels
• Slip and fall accidents involving slippery substances
• Broken steps in hotels
• Trip and fall accidents in hotels caused by Debri
• Injury or death at hotel or resort due to negligent security
• Violations of the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act)
• Car accidents involving hotel valet drivers
• Defective furniture in hotels or resorts
• Injuries or deaths resulting from foreseeable criminal actions
• Personal injury caused by hotel employees or contractors
• Landscaping errors or hazards
• Swimming pool accidents
• Defective elevator or escalators

The last thing that you think of when you are planning your vacation is what to do if you or one of your family members or friends are injured in an accident. Sadly, accidents do happen, and it is better to be safe than sorry. If you or a loved one is injured at a hotel or resort while on vacation, it is important for you to take certain steps to protect yourself.

Step 1: Seek medical attention to have them documented by a medical professional.

Step 2: Take pictures of anything around you, and especially take pictures of whatever led to your injury. Also, try and look for any surveillance cameras in or around the area where you are injured. Hotels and resorts utilize surveillance cameras for a variety of uses including loss prevention, fraud and criminal act prevention.

Step 3: Get the contact information of any witnesses who saw what transpired and can verify your version of events.

Step 4: File an Accident Report with hotel management. If you are not given a form to complete, write down the employee’s name and phone number. If you fail to file a report with the hotel, they may claim you were not actually injured on their property but were instead injured somewhere else and are falsely trying to file a claim against them.

Step 5: Contact a Miami hotel injury attorney at Suarez & Montero as soon as it is convenient during steps 1 through 4 above.

If you were injured at a hotel or resort in South Florida, the person or entity responsible for maintaining the premises can be found liable. In Florida, a hotel or resort owner is ultimately responsible for the care, maintenance and inspection of their property.

Premises liability is the area of law which makes the person or entity in possession of a hotel or resort responsible for injuries suffered by individuals on the property. A hotel or resort owner has a duty to exercise reasonable care for the protection of their guests. Laws can vary from one state to the next but, generally, hotels and resorts always have an obligation to take reasonable steps to make their premises safe and to prevent foreseeable injury. Reasonable means common-sense. Examples of reasonable steps are things like mopping up a spill or performing routine maintenance on an elevator or escalator.

Hotels can be held liable for injuries to guests and can be also held responsible for negligent acts of hotel employees. In order to hold a hotel or resort legally responsible for injuries that occurred on their premises, a plaintiff must prove that the hotel was somehow negligent. That means showing that the hotel breached a duty owed to a person who was injured on the premises, and that the breach of duty caused the injury.

A hotel has a general duty to exercise reasonable care in operating its business and protecting guests. A hotel guest, considered an “invitee” under premises liability law, is legally entitled to a high amount of protection. A hotel must inspect the hotel grounds and maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition. This duty includes quickly repairing dangerous conditions and taking affirmative steps to protect guests from known or reasonably discoverable conditions. When a hotel does not inspect the premises, keep the premises reasonably safe, or fails to warn of dangerous conditions, it has breached its duty to guests. The duty to protect invitees from unreasonably dangerous conditions is further broken down into two specific and independent duties:

(1) to use reasonable care in maintaining the property in a reasonably safe condition; and
(2) to warn of dangers of which the owner knew, or should have known, existed and which are unknown to the invitee and cannot be discovered through the invitee’s use of reasonable care.

In a premise liability case, injury victims must prove negligence. This means simple carelessness. Negligence states that we owe a duty of care to others. This means that property owners or business entities must manage or control their premises in a way that does not put others at risk of bodily harm. Under Florida law, injury victims are required to prove their claims by the greater weight of the evidence. This is known as the burden of proof. If the burden of proof is met, property owners and business operators must pay money damages for the harm they cause.

The Miami hotel injury attorneys at Suarez & Montero have been representing those injured in hotel or resort accidents for over 19 years. Our record of settlements and case results speak volumes. Our team will work hard to determine the cause of your injury and develop a strong premises liability case against the hotel or resort responsible for your injury. When you hire our firm, your case will receive the care and attention it deserves.

We represent victims and families in all types of premises liability claims against hotels and resorts. We know families have many concerns following an injury. As legal advocates, we make it our job to help you understand your rights, including the right to recover damages.

If you sustained injuries on someone else’s property, you shouldn’t have to bear the entire financial weight of those injuries. Property owners should be held accountable for maintaining their properties in a reasonably safe manner. Assess the strength of your claim by speaking with a Miami hotel injury lawyer who is familiar with Florida’s premises liability laws. Our skillful lawyers are genuinely committed to our clients. We will fight to make sure that you get the maximum amount of compensation owed to you. Let us help you get the medical care you need and fight to make sure you are compensated for your injuries! Our attorneys are ready to provide proven legal representation in pursuing your claim and stand ready to protect your rights.

We are available 24/7 to give you a free, no risk case consultation.