Wettermark Keith has a downtown Chattanooga office and has recovered compensation in more than 50,000 personal injury cases.
If you or a loved one was hurt on someone else's property anywhere in the Chattanooga metro – from Hixson to East Ridge, Red Bank to Ooltewah, Brainerd to Collegedale – our attorneys are ready to hear your story. Call us today or complete the form to start your free case review.
Chattanooga's stores, garages, and apartment complexes see thousands of slip, trip, and fall injuries each year – and property owners' insurers move fast to shift blame to the victim.
A spilled drink left unmopped on the tile at a Hamilton Place food court. A cracked curb in a Northshore parking lot that catches a heel after dark. A missing handrail on the back stairs of a Southside apartment. An unlit stairwell in a downtown office tower off Market Street. Any of these can put you in Erlanger or CHI Memorial with a broken hip, a concussion, or worse — and within hours, the property's risk adjuster is already building a file to say you weren't watching where you were going.
Premises liability claims are not straightforward negligence cases.
Tennessee law treats visitors differently depending on whether you were an invitee (a customer or tenant's guest), a licensee (a social guest), or a trespasser — and each status carries a different duty of care for the property owner. Winning your case means proving the owner knew, or should have known, about the hazard and failed to fix it or warn you. That requires fast action: surveillance video from the store, maintenance logs, prior incident reports at that same Hamilton County location, and witness statements before memories fade.
Tennessee law puts a one-year clock on your claim.
The state enforces one of the shortest personal-injury filing windows in the country – the statute of limitations for most premises liability claims is just one year from the date of injury under T.C.A. § 28-3-104. Tennessee's modified comparative fault rule also bars any recovery if a Hamilton County jury finds you 50% or more at fault for not seeing the hazard. Adjusters know both rules, and they routinely call injured visitors within days hoping for a recorded statement that shifts blame before the clock runs out.
How our Chattanooga attorneys build your premises liability case.
Our team acts quickly to lock down evidence before the property is cleaned up or video is overwritten. We will:
- Send spoliation letters the same day to preserve surveillance footage, incident reports, and maintenance logs at the Chattanooga property.
- Pull prior complaints and code violations filed with the City of Chattanooga or Hamilton County to show a pattern of neglect.
- Identify every liable party — property owner, property manager, cleaning contractor, or security company — that may carry coverage for your injuries.
- Retain engineers or safety experts to document cracked pavement, code-violating stairs, inadequate lighting, or negligent security conditions.
- Build the case from day one to withstand Tennessee's 50% comparative-fault bar, anticipating every argument the property's insurer will make.
We pursue the full range of damages Tennessee law allows — medical bills, future care, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering — so you can focus on healing while we focus on the case.
