Landowner Rights/Protection versus Trespasser

I have a few acres of land and every once in a while I will get a trespasser on 1 of my trail cameras. My concern is what protection do I have from being sued if a trespasser gets injured on my land?

This is property 2hrs from where I live, it is well marked with No Trespassing signs (even a custom sign that says smile for the camera a-hole)

Between a Google search on property owner liability, rights and protection and talking to a Paralegal at an insurance company, it doesnt seem to be cut and dry. If the land was opened up to recreational use by the public, then there is liability protection. Beyond that, it seems like everything I can find says that as long as I have signage up and there are no inherently dangerous spots or traps on my land that I “should” be found as not liable if a trespasser were to trip, fall and break a hip for example.

I know everyone will have their own opinion on this but there doesnt seem to be any cut and dry laws that I can find. How do others that own property deal with this? We have an umbrella policy with our Insurance company that will cover this issue to an extent (part of our homeowners insurance for our home as well). I’m thinking that this is about all we can do

No clue what state your in, and each state can be different. WI has protection for you if you allow someone to hunt. But as dumb as it is, if they trip on a piece of wire, fall and get hurt….good chance your liability. Best to have good liability insurance and breathe easy

Ya, in Wisconsin here. We plan on keeping the umbrella policy for these issues, just hope it never comes to that.

Agree with Randy, have a liability policy on the land. Have it in addition to your umbrella policy. Unfortunately being stupid doesn’t make liability roost on the fool.

put up a sign in five languages that says: there are 43560 sq ft per acre, half of those contain a claymore mine, guess which ones.

of course I am kidding but you simply cant fix stupid and if people are going to trespass they will regardless of what you put up, so here is what we did, formed an LLC for the property and put each family member in their own LLC and insured the property with a cap on liability.

that way if some DUMBARSE chooses to disobey the signage and trespasses anyway and gets hurt they can only get the limit of the policy without going after each family member.
I am not an attorney nor does what I say work for everyone but so far has for us.
I do think the dont feed the alligators in the pond sign has helped though.
I also think that the torn clothes from the barbwire, piranha bite marks from the ankles up, and wildcat teeth marks about the body do help convince the judges that the dipshit should be responsible for their own actions.

Can anything be done if you can capture anything identifiable on trail cam from the trespassers?

Blank shotshell tripwires…

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These guys got everything you need

https://fithops.com/

Coletrain27 wrote:

These guys got everything you need

https://fithops.com/

thanks for sharing, that stuff is awesome. i kinda want to to buy the trip wire setup to scare the crap out of a buddy walking in to tree stand in the morning….

Luckily you are not in mn. We can get sued for some one getting injured breaking in our houses

Part of my response above is incomplete. Should have been “if they are trespassing and trip…. “

Bearcat89 wrote:

Luckily you are not in mn. We can get sued for some one getting injured breaking in our houses

These old wives tales are like quick sand…we’ve all heard about it but no one ever really sees it.

Just remember, anyone can sue anyone for any reason.

Unless you showed intent or neglect, their lawsuit won’t hold up.

https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2015/06/can-a-burglar-sue-the-homeowner-for-injuries.html

Generic link above but even so, talk with some attorneys (just small talk) you’ll be hard pressed to find any that have that a trespasser get injured and sued, let alone won.

Ya I think a lot of it is common sense. Its just the fear or thought that we may be sued for something like this, not to say that a trespasser would win their case very often (if ever). That said, having some level of insurance is a good idea

Bearcat89 wrote:

Luckily you are not in mn. We can get sued for some one getting injured breaking in our houses

It’s much more difficult for them to sue when they’re dead though.

I’ll always put my family first and worry about what happens after, after.

My trail cams to watch trespassers were stolen. I have land in Stark, MN and trespassing is a major issue. So much that I am thinking of selling my 22 acres.

ClownColor wrote:

These old wives tales are like quick sand…we’ve all heard about it but no one ever really sees it.

Neglect is a very vague term and easily argued. My neighbor had a trespasser fall out of one of his tree stands. Because it had no safety harness or straps, he was found to be negligent. He knew there was no safety equipment left behind and should have anticipated someone going up it unaware of the risks. Total bs in my view, but courts have unique opinions.
A uninvited person was coming to my house of which I was unaware. He tripped over his own feet and fell into the culvert in my driveway. Required stitches. Ended up with a settlement with my insurance company. Again, feel it’s total bs, but it’s how the game is played

Its funny this just came up. I just watched Married with Children last night where Al was getting sued by a robber who broke into his house and tried to steel some stuff. Al beat him up and was getting sued for it. Good thing Al counter sued for hurting his hand when he was beating the snot out of him. That episode made my son wonder about the same thing the OP is asking about. I didn’t know what to tell him other than have some kind of insurance because you can’t fix stupid or stop the entitled.

I do have pictures of the person that I have seen a couple times and the sheriff filed a report about it just so its on record. He said if they find out who it is, they can issue a warning and if the person comes back, again, then we can have that person ticketed. At least this would should that we are attempting to keep people away (legally)

bigstorm wrote:

I do have pictures of the person that I have seen a couple times and the sheriff filed a report about it just so its on record. He said if they find out who it is, they can issue a warning and if the person comes back, again, then we can have that person ticketed. At least this would should that we are attempting to keep people away (legally)

Actually, it’s up to you and not the cop. If you want to press charges on their first offense, you can ask to press charges to the full extent of the law. The worse thing you can do now is attempt to “fix” the issue yourself.

Example: You know this person is making entry through a certain part of the property so you place an object or device that inflicts harm, you are screwed. If this person was using a certain deer stand on your property that you know about, and you tampered with said stand…you are screwed.

Hope it all goes well for you and hope they catch this monkeybutt!

The guy that was trespassing on my land stole all of the cameras (they were locked to the tree with a cable). However he left a ground blind on my property. The sheriff asked if it was a good one as it was now my property. I know who is, just never had solid proof. He never came back after I took his ground blind. I think he got the message.

ClownColor wrote:

Actually, it’s up to you and not the cop. If you want to press charges on their first offense, you can ask to press charges to the full extent of the law. The worse thing you can do now is attempt to “fix” the issue yourself.

Example: You know this person is making entry through a certain part of the property so you place an object or device that inflicts harm, you are screwed. If this person was using a certain deer stand on your property that you know about, and you tampered with said stand…you are screwed.

Hope it all goes well for you and hope they catch this monkeybutt!

I should have been more clear, we told the Sheriff if they know who this person is to issue that person a warning initially and let them know if they are seen again, then it would be a fine. We would not put something up to purposely hurt someone as then we are liable in the event the trespasser doesnt know how to read the private property signs. This person is walking right up our driveway into the woods, past 2 signs and I am getting pictures on 3 cameras, 1 of which is not hidden at all, so this person either doesnt care of has no idea what a trail camera is.

2 years ago I did have 1 camera stolen (got the picture on the other camera) but the Sheriff could not identify that person, and that person has not been back since (only saw that person the 1 time)

I never really thought about it but just checked my insurance and I have 500k “CPL” liability. Don’t know what the different options listed are but CPL is checked. Is that sufficient?

So far I haven’t seen anybody on cams except for the DNR who deleted pictures of themselves but missed a video. Somebody left their gloves in my outhouse too but I think that was probably just the propane delivery guy.