Can a Burglar Sue You if He Gets Injured While Breaking Into Your House?
by
Lee Steinberg on Mar. 14, 2014
Accident & Injury Accident & Injury Personal Injury Accident & Injury Property Damage
Summary: When burglary, personal injury, and negligence all come together, who prevails in a lawsuit?
You may have heard of someone breaking into a home, injuring themselves, and then suing the homeowner. Sounds ridiculous right? Is our legal system really that messed up? Is there really any chance that a homeowner will have to suffer consequences of someone else’s mistake? Thankfully, it is not this bad.
The general grounds for someone suing a homeowner for being injured on their property is negligence. What this means is that in the eyes of the legal system, the homeowner has certain obligations to people on their property. For the most part, these obligations are making sure the property is reasonably safe. This can include making sure that there are no vicious dogs are on the loose, slippery ice, or other potential hazards.
These are laws that make sure homeowners keep their property safe for mailmen, water meter readers, guests, and anyone else who may enter your property. Without them, people could not be held accountable when they have hazards present in their front yards, front walks, and driveways.
But how does this come into play for burglars, or those who are illegally on your property? It might seem as if they are owed the same rights under the concept of negligence. After all, they are people on your property, and negligence means that you can be held liable if someone is injured due to particularly unsafe conditions on your property.
Thankfully, there is something that sets burglars apart from other individuals in the eyes of the law. Burglars are considered trespassers, which basically means that they have lost their rights regarding negligence. This means that they can’t be injured if they slip and fall on ice or in other manners that are generally considered homeowner negligence.
However, this doesn’t mean that burglars never have any grounds to sue. If a burglar is injured intentionally, or uses deadly force unnecessarily, then there may be grounds for a lawsuit. This more or less that you would either need to set up ‘boobie traps’ to catch, maim or kill a burglar to be sued for injuring them intentionally. You do have the right to defend themselves, but if they use deadly force when they do not need to, then a burglar can also sue.
If a burglar is injured on your property, contact an experienced lawyer immediately to make sure your rights are being protected.