Yes. Virginia law applies different standards of care to owners of public and private property, by designating people on these types of premises differently.
Public places - People who enter establishments open for business or services are legally known as invitees. That means that a publicly open establishment explicitly or implicitly invites the public in.
To fulfill their duty of care, public places must maintain the premises and periodically inspect it to ensure safety. If issues that could affect safety arise, they must be quickly addressed. Management must also promptly and transparently inform the public about these issues. They should restrict the public’s access to any unsafe areas, by (for example) putting up safety cones, yellow tape, or signs.
Let’s say you are in a restaurant and a busy waitress trips as she’s delivering a tray of drinks to a table. The liquid and glass fall to the floor. A safety issue emerges: Patrons could slip and fall in the liquid or suffer cuts from the glass. The restaurant manager and staff should immediately take steps to make it clear to patrons where the potentially dangerous area is and to clean it up.
Private property - If a private property owner gives you permission to enter their premises, you are a licensee. Licensees are people either invited socially onto the property, such as attending a birthday party, or people performing work or services, such as plumbers or electricians.
Private property owners have no duty of care to regularly inspect, maintain, and repair their property to ensure visitor safety. However, the property owner needs to keep the premises reasonably safe for invitees, and must warn them of any potential dangers the owner knows about. If a step to the front porch is not visibly in disrepair but wobbles when stepped upon, for instance, the property owner should let invitees know. While the property owner should probably fix such a problem, the law does not require them to fix it as long as they warn invitees.
To prove negligence in a private property premises liability case, you must show that you didn’t know or have any reason to know about the dangerous condition that caused your injuries. In other words, if a wobbly stair caused you to fall, you must demonstrate that it wasn’t clearly and visibly defective and that the owner didn’t warn you about it.