Negligent security cases involve individuals who were victims of criminal acts on a business’ or private property due to inadequate security or complete failure to provide any security. Property owners have a legal obligation to provide a safe environment for their patrons and protect them from dangerous conditions, including criminal assault and battery. Failure to hire adequate security or to warn visitors of any potential dangers can result in a negligence security lawsuit.
Negligent security cases often allege that the owner or manager failed to take one or more of the following steps to protect patrons from being victims of crimes:
- Failure to provide a security patrol or adequate security patrols
- Inadequate security lighting or failure to maintain adequate lighting
- Failure to install, properly place, or monitor security cameras
- Faulty or inadequate gates, doors, locks, or fencing
- Failure to respond to a security alert
- Failure to properly warn of the potential for danger
In order to seek damages from a criminal attack stemming from negligent security, it is critical to prove that the attack was “reasonably foreseeable.” To demonstrate how a crime can be foreseeable, it is important to establish that the business knew or should have known that there was a possibility that the crime would occur.
For example, if a property is in a high crime neighborhood, but the property owner fails to have adequate security measures in place to protect patrons, this could be reasonable grounds for a negligent security case if the property owner knew crimes are likely to occur.
So if you were assault or otherwise injured as a direct result of negligent security, in addition to filing charges against the perpetrator of the crime, you can also sue the property owner who failed to have proper security measures in place.
Contact our Fort Worth personal injury lawyer at the Law Office of James M. Stanley for more information today.