Property owners and occupiers in New York City have a duty to keep places reasonably safe for people who are lawfully there. When a hazardous condition is left unaddressed, a visitor, tenant, customer, or worker can be hurt. Bisogno & Meyerson, LLP handles premises liability matters for people in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the other boroughs. The firm’s office is at 7018 Fort Hamilton Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Staten Island and other NYC clients are represented from Brooklyn.
A premises claim is a negligence case tied to the condition of land or a building. It is not enough that an accident happened on someone else’s property. New York law looks at whether the owner or occupier failed to use reasonable care, whether the condition caused the injury, and whether the responsible party had enough notice to act.
This page is a city-focused overview. For the practice-area overview, see premises liability. For a step-by-step look at how a claim is assembled, read what a New York City premises liability claim involves. Related injury work is described under personal injury law.
What Premises Liability Means in NYC
New York no longer sorts injured people into rigid categories such as invitee or licensee for the basic duty of care. In general, a person who owns, leases, or controls property must maintain it in a reasonably safe condition. That duty can apply to stores, apartment buildings, restaurants, parking lots, offices, sidewalks next to certain buildings, and other locations.
Control matters as much as ownership. A managing agent, tenant in possession, or contractor may share responsibility if that party had the authority and opportunity to fix the hazard. NYC buildings often involve owners, supers, management companies, and outside vendors. Identifying who had control is part of the early investigation.
Common NYC Property Hazard Claims
Slip, trip, and fall
Slip, trip, and fall cases are a large share of NYC premises work. Typical fact patterns include wet floors without warning signs, tracked-in rain in a lobby, missing stair treads, uneven sidewalk flags, poor lighting in a hallway, and debris left in a walkway. Snow and ice on walks and steps also appear in winter months.
New York courts look closely at how long the condition existed and whether it was visible. A just-created spill may present different notice issues than a long-standing floor defect. Photographs, video, incident reports, and witness names taken soon after the event often become the backbone of the file.
Inadequate security
Inadequate security claims arise when a person is assaulted or otherwise attacked on property and the owner or operator failed to take reasonable steps in light of foreseeable crime. The focus is whether prior incidents, the nature of the property, and the layout made a criminal act reasonably foreseeable, and whether lighting, locks, cameras, staffing, or access control were handled with ordinary care.
Sidewalks, stairs, and building conditions
New York City’s sidewalk law can shift civil responsibility for many sidewalk defects to the adjoining property owner, with important exceptions for certain one-, two-, and three-family owner-occupied homes. Interior stairs, broken handrails, missing landing lights, elevator misleveling, and falling ceiling materials are other recurring building issues.
If the property is owned or operated by a city agency, a public authority, or another public entity, extra notice rules may apply. Those rules are strict. Missing an early deadline can limit or bar a later lawsuit even when the underlying facts are serious. Some injuries on a job site overlap with construction accidents or workers’ compensation. The premises analysis still asks who controlled the area and whether that party used reasonable care.
Notice, Proof, and Deadlines
In many premises cases the central dispute is notice. Actual notice means the defendant knew about the condition. Constructive notice means the condition was visible and apparent and existed long enough that the defendant should have discovered and remedied it through reasonable inspection. Recurring conditions can also support a notice theory when the same hazard kept returning.
Practical steps help: seek medical care, report the incident in writing if you can, keep shoes and clothing as they were, and preserve photos of the scene. Do not post a detailed account on social media or give a recorded insurer statement before you understand the claim.
Ordinary personal injury lawsuits in New York are often subject to a three-year statute of limitations. Claims against municipal and public-authority defendants can have much shorter notice-of-claim periods, commonly measured in days, not years. A consultation is a place to review dates, not a promise that a claim will be timely or successful. If a death results from a property hazard, a separate wrongful death claim may need to be reviewed on its own statutory rules.
How Bisogno & Meyerson, LLP Reviews These Matters
Bisogno & Meyerson, LLP has concentrated in personal injury and workers’ compensation work since 1994. Our lawyers handle premises liability claims arising from commercial, residential, and mixed-use property in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.
When we take on a matter, the work typically includes gathering medical records, identifying the parties who controlled the property, requesting maintenance and inspection logs, and locating video before it is overwritten. We also look at whether a separate product or construction issue contributed to the hazard. None of that work predicts a result. It is the ordinary process of building a factual record. A short firm overview describes the practice.
Talk With Our Firm About an NYC Premises Claim
If you were hurt on someone else’s property in New York City, Bisogno & Meyerson, LLP can review what happened and explain possible next steps. A free consultation is a conversation about facts, deadlines, and options. It is not a prediction of liability or of any recovery.
Call (718) 745-8880 or contact us. Attorneys on the site are Patrick Bisogno, Esq.; Michael C. Meyerson, Esq.; and George A. Silva, Esq. Bring any photos and medical paperwork.
Attorney Advertising. This page is general information from Bisogno & Meyerson, LLP, not legal advice. Contacting the firm does not, by itself, create an attorney-client relationship.