Property owners in Mississippi have legal duties to keep their premises reasonably safe. When they fail and someone is hurt, premises liability law provides a path to recovery.
The Duty Owners Owe Visitors
Mississippi law sets the duty based on why you were on the property. Invitees (like customers) are owed the highest duty — reasonable care to keep the premises safe and warn of hidden dangers.
Licensees and trespassers are owed lesser duties, so your status at the time matters.
Common Premises Hazards
Wet or uneven floors, poor lighting, broken stairs, inadequate security, and unmarked hazards cause many injuries. The owner's knowledge of the hazard is often central to the case.
Proving the owner knew or should have known about the danger is key.
Proving Your Claim
Documentation matters: photos of the hazard, incident reports, witnesses, and any history of similar problems. Surveillance video can be decisive but is often overwritten quickly.
Acting fast to preserve evidence protects your claim.
Fault and Deadlines
Mississippi's pure comparative negligence, meaning your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault but you can still recover even if you were mostly to blame applies, so owners argue you weren't watching where you were going. The general three years from the date of the injury under Mississippi Code § 15-1-49 usually governs, with shorter deadlines for government property.
Counter inflated fault claims with clear evidence of the hazard and the owner's notice of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
When you were lawfully on the property, the owner failed to use reasonable care to address or warn of a hazard they knew or should have known about, and that hazard caused your injury.
Mississippi's pure comparative negligence rule may assign you some fault, reducing but not barring recovery. Evidence that the hazard was dangerous and known to the owner counters this.
Quickly. Surveillance video and physical conditions change fast. Preserving photos, reports, and witnesses early is critical, and government-property claims have very short deadlines.