Hotels in Nevada have a legal duty to make their properties reasonably safe for visitors, and to warn of lurking dangers that may not be open and obvious. If you were injured due to an unsafe condition at a hotel or resort, you may have grounds for a lawsuit to compensate you for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
It is common for Las Vegas hotel patrons to get hurt from
- slip-and-falls,
- food poisoning,
- swimming pool accidents, and even
- burns from hot shower water.
In many cases, the hotel’s dereliction of duty is to blame.
1. How do I prove a hotel negligence claim in Las Vegas?
First, seek medical attention right after your accident, and never miss a follow-up doctor’s appointment. Even if you feel okay, you may have sustained a serious injury that does not manifest until later. And medical records can be vital evidence in your case.
If possible, take photos and videos of the accident scene and your injuries. Get the contact information of any eyewitnesses. And preserve all the other evidence you can. For example if you had a fall accident, save a sample of the substance you slipped on.
Then, write down everything that happened. Memories fade quickly, and even small details could make a big difference in determining fault.
Finally, contact a Nevada personal injury accident attorney to take the case from there and negotiate a generous settlement.
2. What if I was partly to blame?
Even if you were partly at fault for your hotel/casino injury by not paying attention to your surroundings, you can still win a personal injury claim if the hotel was at least 50% to blame. Nevada’s comparative negligence laws do not demand that accident victims be perfect in order to recover money damages; rather, they just cannot be more than half at fault.1
The hotel’s legal team may try to argue that you “assumed the risk” and knew what you were getting into. But even if you signed a release waiver, a trial court can still hold the hotel liable if you did not know or fully appreciate the risks involved.2
Crowded walkways in hotels are common accident scenes on the Las Vegas Strip.
3. Who can I sue?
The primary defendant in your hotel injury case will likely be the hotel itself.3 But depending on the type of accident, you may be able to sue additional at-fault parties with deep pockets and large insurance company policies:
|
Hotel Accidents |
Potential Defendants |
| Slip-and-fall |
|
| Food poisoning |
|
| Trampling from poor crowd control |
|
| Defective elevators |
|
4. How soon do I have to sue?
In general, Nevada’s statute of limitations to bring a negligence lawsuit in a hotel injury case is two (2) years after you discover your injury.4
You are strongly advised to consult with an attorney as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the less of a chance that your legal team will be able to find surveillance video and eyewitnesses with sharp memories. Evidence tends to fade with time.
Nevada hotels are required to maintain their floors to keep them safe.
5. How much money can I get?
Your personal injury attorney’s goal is to reach a settlement covering all your past and future compensatory expenses. These include:
- medical bills: hospital stays, home health care, doctor’s appointments, rehab, mental health counseling, medication, and other medical treatment.
- lost wages: any salary, tips, bonuses, and promotions you lost out on because of the injury.
- loss of future earnings: any salary, tips, bonuses, and promotions you will lose out on because of the injury.
- pain and suffering from the impact of the injury.
Predictably, some of the higher payouts occur in cases where victims sustain traumatic brain injuries, spine injuries, or other conditions that deplete their quality of life and prevent them from working. And of course the biggest settlements are paid in wrongful death cases brought by the victim’s estate and family members.
If your personal injury case proceeds to a trial (which is rare), your attorney can also ask for punitive damages to punish the defendants for their reckless or malicious behavior. Punitive damages can be as much as three (3) times your compensatory damages. (If your compensatory damages amount to less than $100,000, then the cap would be $300,000.)5
6. What are common hotel accidents?
Slip and falls are probably the most common accident to occur in Nevada hotels. And the causes typically include either:
- Wet surfaces
- Torn carpeting or loose carpets
- Broken or defective stairs or handrails
- Cracked tiles and uneven floors
- Uneven pavement, especially in parking lots and walkways
- Broken, unstable furniture, such as collapsing chairs at restaurants, arenas, gaming tables, bars, or in hotel rooms
- Broken escalators
Other common hotel accidents are their causes are:
| Hotel Accidents |
Hotel Breach of Duty |
| Food poisoning |
|
| Pool or drowning accidents |
|
| Elevator accidents |
|
| Rape, theft, or assault |
|
| Burn Accidents |
|
| Hotel shuttle bus accidents |
|
Bed bugs are also an increasing problem in hotels and motels due to unhygienic hotel rooms and bedsheets.
Nevada hotels can still be liable for injuries that occur on its premises if the hotel was only 50% at fault.
Legal References
- NRS 41.141. Humphries v. New York, New York, (2017) 133 Nev. Advance Opinion 77. Associated Press, Jury awards $524K in lawsuit after Mandalay Bay offered $2.5M, Las Vegas Review-Journal (November 20, 2018). Nevada Jury Instructions 4.03.
- Turner v. Mandalay Sports Entertainment, (2008) 124 Nev. 213, 180 P.3d 1172.
- Hammerstein v. Jean Dev. West, (1995) 111 Nev. 1471, 907 P.2d 975 (In premises liability claims, hotels owe a higher duty of care to their guests (called “invitees”) than it does to trespassers. Trespassers who get injured at a hotel will have a more difficult time proving that the hotel is liable than injured guests would); NRS 41.515; Nev. Rev. Stat. 41.1305.
- NRS 11.190.
- Nev. Rev. Stat. 42.005.