Can I sue a business owner for not putting in stop signs?
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Can I sue a business owner for not putting in stop signs?
The story is I got into a car accident in a parking lot, the security guard told me that not even a week earlier another accident occurred in the same way because there was no stop sign, this parking lot is weirdly put together, there are many 4 lane intersections in the parking lot without stop signs. Because of parking laws in my state, we were found 30% at fault, and they are not paying anything for a car that is going to cost $5,000 to fix. The fact that there were other accidents on this very same parking lot the same way, are we able to prove that this parking lot is not safe.
Asked on October 1, 2012 under Accident Law, Utah
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
If you can show that the property owner was negligent, or unreasonably careless, in not putting in the stop sign or in the design of the lot, you may be able to recover money. However, to do that, you would need expert testimony on your side, such as from some sort of a road planner or engineer, or traffic expert, to establish what a good design should be or that a stop sign is necessary. Given the cost of litigation, especially when there is an expert witness, it may not be worthwhile for you to do this--you would have to bear your own witness, lawyer, and court costs, which would substantially eat into, if not potentially exceed, what you might recover.
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