Business Community Supports HB 4582, Urges Additional Changes to Premises Liability
On behalf of a broad coalition of Michigan job providers, we write to express our deep concern with the current state of Michigan’s premises liability law and urge legislative action to restore fairness and predictability for residential, commercial and industrial property owners. In 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court overturned Michigan’s longstanding open and obvious doctrine, marking a major shift in Michigan’s premises liability law. For more than two decades, Michigan’s open and obvious standard protected property owners from liability when a hazard was “open and obvious.” This standard deterred frivolous lawsuits and provided stability for property owners. With the Court’s elimination of this doctrine, property owners can now be held liable—and sued—no matter how obvious a hazard might be to a reasonable person. Judges must instead conduct a full fault analysis in every case, creating new and costly legal hazards for Michigan property owners. Other impacts: More lawsuits – The Court’s 2023 ruling paves the way for nearly every “slip-and-fall” claim to proceed, fueling more filings and driving up litigation.
Higher costs – More claims and lawsuits are driving up expenses for property owners, pushing premiums higher at a time when families and business are already stretched thin by workforce issues and economic pressures. More uncertainty – This new standard creates uncertainty for property owners and exposes them to risk even when a hazard is obvious to a reasonable person. This risk is heightened for high traic businesses like hospitals and restaurants, and for small businesses who do not have access to sophisticated compliance and legal teams.
For Michigan’s property owners, this is not just an abstract legal debate. Left unaddressed, Michigan will quickly become a national outlier for costly premise liability litigation. Other states who have abandoned consistent liability standards have seen sharp increases in insurance costs firsthand, leading many of them to backtrack. We hope Michigan’s lawmakers address this issue now before it spirals out of control, as it has elsewhere. We thank Representative Neyer for introducing House Bill 4582 and Chair Lightner for holding discussion on this vital issue. We look forward to engaging further in this conversation to ensure that Michigan law properly addresses the shortcomings of current law.
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