Historically, whether or not a property owner/occupier was liable for injuries was dependent upon the status of the person entering the land. The Standard of Care Owed to Persons Who Enter Property Reasonable care and maintenance of property includes repairing dangers or warning of their presence with signage. Reasonable Care. The most common standard of care is reasonable care: a property owner/occupier must exercise reasonable care in maintaining safe conditions on his or her property. If a property owner/occupier does not meet the standard of care and someone is injured as a result, the property owner/occupier is negligent, meaning he or she can be liable for the injuries suffered by the injured person. What does “standard of care” mean? Standard of care is a legal term for the amount of attentiveness, prudence, and caution that a person must exercise under the circumstances. (See this overview of negligence claims for more detail). To prove negligence, an injured person must show that the property owner/occupier breached a duty owed to the injured person by not meeting the standard of care required by law, that there was an injury, and that the breach of duty resulted in the injury. The legal concept of negligence holds people accountable in civil court for the unintentional harm they cause to others.

What is negligence? The primary legal principle that holds property owners/occupiers liable for injuries suffered on their property is called negligence. Whether or not a warning sign is required is governed by a legal principle called “negligence”. If a warning sign is not required, then its presence (or absence) does not affect liability. The first step in determining the effect a warning sign has on personal injury liability is to determine whether a warning sign is required at all. There are several misconceptions about the legality of liability and warning signs.

A property owner/occupier’s liability for injuries sustained on his or her property can be affected by whether or not warning signs are present.

What does owner occupier mean