Negligent Security Attorney
Anyone can be the victim of criminal activity. When a person is injured as the result of criminal activity that happened at a place of business – such as a restaurant, bar or nightclub or an apartment complex or hotel – the owner of the business or premises may be liable for failing to maintain a safe and secure property. The person’s injury could be the result of an assault, rape, robbery or shooting. A negligent security lawsuit is based on the duty that a landowner or business owner has to reasonably protect people from foreseeable criminal acts of a third party. This means that the crime could have been prevented, or made less likely, by using appropriate security measures.
A plaintiff suing for negligent security will need to show that the landowner or business owner failed to exercise reasonable care to discover similar prior criminal activities or failed to give adequate warnings so visitors to the property could avoid injury. The plaintiff will need to show that he or she was lawfully present on the property, the defendant breached its duty to offer reasonable security, the plaintiff was hurt because of a third party’s acts that were reasonably foreseeable to the defendant, the plaintiff would not have been injured but for the defendant’s breached duty, and the plaintiff incurred actual damages. Foreseeability is a critical issue in negligent security cases. It needs to be determined whether there were prior similar crimes at or near the property that the owner knew or should have known about and failed to take steps to adequately secure the property. Critical factors could be how often law enforcement was called to the property, whether the crimes were violent in nature or property crimes, such as theft or vandalism, and how close in time the prior crimes were to when the plaintiff was injured.
A landowner or business owner could be held liable for a number of reasons such as failing to provide appropriate security, for failing to adequately train security personnel, or for having faulty security measures in place. A gate that is malfunctioned and stuck in an open position, security cameras that were not turned on, or a bouncer that was watching a football game on TV rather than watching the crowd at a nightclub are all instances that can lead to injury from criminal activity.
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The attorneys at LUONGO BELLWOAR LLP have extensive experience in handling negligent security cases. If you are the victim of a crime and have been injured as the result of a landowner’s failure to make his property safe from the foreseeable criminal acts of another please call our firm to discuss a negligent security lawsuit.
