Premises Liability
Examining site conditions and safety.
Was the Site Safe?
Aperture investigates injuries that occur on a property and determines whether the property’s condition or maintenance played a role. We have analyzed thousands of slip, trip, and fall cases, along with a wide range of other premises hazards. Our safety engineers test walking surfaces and evaluate sites against the applicable codes and standards, and we reconstruct how an incident occurred using the firm’s accident reconstruction, biomechanics, and human factors expertise. We provide objective analysis and expert testimony for attorneys and insurers on either side of a claim.
Slip, Trip & Fall Analysis
Investigation of falls on walking surfaces. Includes coefficient-of-friction (slip resistance) testing, stairways, ramps, sidewalks, parking lots, tile floors, and floor-maintenance practices.
Code & Safety Compliance
Evaluation of a site against applicable codes and standards. Includes ADA requirements, building codes, guardrails, lighting, and the adequacy of signs and warnings.
Site & Recreational Hazards
Assessment of premises features and conditions. Includes swimming pools, playgrounds, electric gates, and related hazard identification and safety recommendations.
Related practices: For injury causation and how a fall produced specific injuries, see Biomechanics and Human Factors. For structural or building-condition questions, see Built Environment.
Our Capabilities
Key Experts
Related Insights
The Power of Safety: A Look into Premises Liability
Frequently Asked Questions
A premises liability expert is useful when the dispute involves the condition, maintenance, design, code compliance, lighting, warnings, or safety of the property. Aperture’s experts investigate walking surfaces, stairs, ramps, sidewalks, parking lots, guardrails, pools, playgrounds, gates, and other site hazards. Early inspection is especially important when the surface may be cleaned, repaired, resurfaced, removed, or affected by weather and use.
Coefficient of friction testing measures the slip resistance of a walking surface under defined conditions. It may help evaluate whether flooring, tile, a ramp, sidewalk, parking area, or other surface presented a slipping hazard and how maintenance or contamination affected traction. The result should be interpreted with the incident conditions, test method, surface condition, footwear, applicable standards, and other evidence rather than treated as a stand-alone answer.
Yes. Aperture’s premises liability capabilities include ADA regulations, building codes, guardrails, lighting, signs and warnings, stairways, ramps, and related safety conditions. The expert can compare the site with the codes or standards applicable to the location and time of the incident. Counsel should distinguish a technical code or safety opinion from the legal conclusion about duty, breach, or liability.
The expert may inspect and measure the site, review photographs and video, evaluate the walking surface, examine maintenance records, consider lighting and visibility, compare the condition with applicable standards, and reconstruct the person’s path and movement. Aperture’s experts can combine premises analysis with accident reconstruction, biomechanics, and human factors when the matter requires both a site evaluation and an explanation of how the incident occurred.
Not every case requires all three. A premises expert evaluates the property condition and safety issues. A biomechanical expert addresses whether the fall or impact is consistent with the claimed injury, while a human factors expert examines visibility, hazard recognition, and pedestrian response. Aperture can coordinate these disciplines when the questions overlap. The expert team should be limited to the issues that are genuinely disputed and supported by the evidence.