Who Should You Sue When You're Injured at a Business?

If a business is legally responsible for causing your injury—you slip and fall in a store, for example—you can usually file a personal injury lawsuit against the company itself (or make a claim against its liability insurance carrier).

Depending on the company's business structure, you might also be able to sue the owner (or owners) of the company. And when a specific employee caused your injury, liability will almost certainly extend to the company.

In this article, we'll describe the potential personal injury liability of a business entity, its owners, and its employees.

You Need to Prove That the Business Was At Fault

At the outset, bear in mind that except for certain limited types of personal injury cases, a business's liability—which triggers the legal obligation to pay for injury-related losses—depends on fault or wrongdoing. This means that typically, either someone acted with negligence (the lack of reasonable care) or intentionally, and you were injured as a result.

Without wrongful conduct, the fact that you’re injured usually isn't enough, in and of itself, to impose an obligation on the part of a business (or anyone else) to pay compensation. We'll get into the particulars of what you need to prove a little later on.

(The main category of cases where the element of fault or wrongdoing is not generally a requirement is product liability. So, if you were injured by a defectively designed or unreasonably dangerous product—or one that came with insufficient safety warnings—that defect or deficiency alone will usually establish liability.)

Businesses Are Usually Liable for the Acts of Their Employees

Under the legal theories of vicarious liability and respondeat superior, a business is responsible for the acts of its employees, when those acts are done in the scope of employment or in the course of business.

So, what do "scope of employment" and "course of business" mean? If you are hit by a delivery truck making its rounds, or injured when tiles are dropped by a roofer, those injuries are caused by someone doing their job, and their employer will also be liable.

On the other hand, if after his shift ends, a store clerk happens to get into a fight with you in the mall parking lot, the store would not be liable—the clerk is doing something (fighting) that is not part of his job, is on his own time, and is not on his employer’s premises.

Can You Sue a Business Owner Personally?

The way the business operates and is owned is the crucial issue here.

One of the most important—if not the most important—purposes of a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation (inc.) is to shield the owners from business-related liability. If a business is an LLC or corporation, except in very rare circumstances, you can’t sue the owners personally for the business's wrongful conduct. That includes when the business is responsible for causing your injuries.

However, if the business is a sole proprietorship or a partnership, you may well be able to sue the owner(s) personally, in addition to suing their business. This is advantageous, since the more people or entities you can sue, the greater your chance of collecting a judgment or settlement.

How Do You Prove That the Business Or Its Owner Is to Blame for Your Injury?

There are three basic elements of a personal injury lawsuit against a business (these make up a typical negligence claim):

• a duty of care owed by the business to the customer
• a breach of the duty of care, and
• harm caused by the breach.

Let's leek at each of these elements, and the type of evidence that the injured person might use as proof of the business's liability.

Proving Duty of Care

A business that welcomes customers onto its property has a duty to act reasonably to ensure the safety of those customers. This doesn't mean businesses are liable for any injury suffered by a customer or visitor. Courts understand that a business could never prevent all injuries, and the cost of coming close to that standard would be overly burdensome.

So, courts impose a "reasonableness" standard on businesses, which might require the owners and employees to:

• create and follow a procedure to regularly inspect the premises for hazards that could cause harm to customers
• regularly clean the premises to prevent accidents
• warn customers of hazards by placing signs near the location of any danger, and
• immediately repair damage and dangers that could pose a risk to customers.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it provides some examples of what safety standards may be required of businesses.

In many situations, expert testimony may be necessary to determine the proper standard in a particular case. In such a situation, an expert with knowledge of safety standards in the business's industry will testify as to the safety standards expected in particular contexts.

Proving Breach of Duty

When a business fails to fulfill its duty of care, the business is said to have "breached" the duty. For example, if a customer at a supermarket slips on a spilled product, there are several different ways in which the business may have breached a duty of care. Perhaps the business failed to create a cleaning schedule that would regularly remove spills from the floor. Perhaps the business did create such a cleaning schedule, but failed to adhere to the schedule on the day in question. Perhaps an employee noticed the spill and had intended to clean it up, but became distracted by another task and forgot about the mess.

Any one of those errors could be considered the breach of a duty of care.

Proving Harm Caused by the Breach

In order to win a personal injury lawsuit, the injured person must also prove that the breach caused harm. This harm can take many forms, including:

• pain and suffering
• cost of medical bills
• loss of earning capacity, and
• loss of the ability to enjoy life’s pleasures in the same way as prior to the injury.

Next Steps If You're Injured at a Place of Business

When your injury is caused by the negligence or wrongdoing of a business or one of its employees, it's part of your lawyer's job to figure out who might be on the legal (and financial) hook for your medical bills, lost income, "pain and suffering", and other losses ("damages"). A lawyer will also build your best case and represent your interests during settlement talks and in court.

Learn more about finding the right personal injury lawyer for you and your case.