You visit your favorite local restaurant after work. A table of customers starts getting rowdy, but the new bartender continues to serve the group. When a scuffle breaks out, you get knocked to the floor and cut your arm on broken glass. Now you’re in the ER waiting for stitches.
Once you’re feeling better, you should consider reaching out to a personal injury attorney. You may be the victim of negligent security.
What Is Negligent Security?
Negligent security happens when a business owner lacks the appropriate protections to keep customers, visitors, and guests safe. Proprietors need to use reasonable methods to safeguard against potential assault, property damage, theft, or robbery.
Businesses and sites that serve the public fall under premises liability laws covering negligent security in the state of Florida . These spots include bars, restaurants, stores, hotels, motels, schools, and rental residences like homes or apartment buildings.
Other potential locations include:
- Airlines and airports
- ATMs and banks
- Bowling alleys
- Colleges and universities
- Daycare centers
- Gas stations
- Hospitals and medical offices
- Live entertainment venues
- Manufacturing facilities
- Movie theatres
- Offices
- Sports venues
Suppose you suffer an injury, property damage, or property loss at any of these locations because the business does not protect your safety. In that case, you might be able to seek compensation for negligent security.
Negligent Security Examples
If a business employs security personnel, but a patron gets assaulted or robbed due to inadequate pre-hiring screening and training processes, a personal injury lawyer may make a negligent security case.
Negligent security applies to more than lack of employee training. A business may also be responsible for injuries stemming from unsafe conditions at the property. If a store or restaurant parking lot has insufficient lighting, a criminal may lurk in the dark. The property owner may be legally responsible for any resulting robbery or assault committed under the cover of the dimly lit parking lot.
A hotel or motel may also be the scene of a negligent security incident if the location features poor lighting or broken locks that lead to criminal activity and injury. Imagine the stress of knowing that another hotel guest had access to your room and personal belongings due to overbooking. The business may be liable for any theft or assault this error caused.
These issues of insufficient lighting, inadequate surveillance, damaged door locks, or faulty maintenance also apply to rental properties like houses or apartments.
Negligent security may apply to a variety of locations and situations. If you have experienced any similar scenarios and have questions, you should consult with a law firm.
Do You Have a Negligent Security Case?
Under Florida’s laws, for negligent security, you need to establish that the property owner did not do enough to protect customers or visitors from potential harm that another person might cause. The security regulations vary based on the type of business, but your lawyer must illustrate that the business owner did not comply with the minimum safety standards.
If you can show that the property owner had similar issues in the past, it will help make your case stronger. For instance, if you were the third person robbed in a poorly lit restaurant parking lot and the owner has not improved the lighting, that demonstrates continued negligence. Your situation was both predictable and preventable.
Further, you need to prove that you experienced injury or loss due to the business’s negligence. Say your wrist gets broken as a robber hiding in the shadows yanks your purse from your arm. Your lawyer may make a reasonable case that your property loss and a physical injury resulted from the owner’s failure to improve the lighting.
You and your lawyer may build your case using video or pictures from the property highlighting the security issues. You should present your police report, plus police reports of prior incidents. Your lawyer may also gather witness statements about earlier complaints of security problems at the location.
If you think you have a case, you want a law firm with a negligent security attorney who can help you navigate the questions and complexities of this particular type of personal injury suit.
Can You Pursue Compensation?
If you file a personal injury suit, your attorney will seek compensation for the negative financial impact of the negligent security event.
As the victim, you can pursue compensation for:
-
- Medical bills, including those covering transportation, ER costs, treatment charges, physicians’ fees, physical therapy, medication, and future treatment
- Damage to personal property, including charges to replace or repair items like cell phones, laptops, or vehicles
- Pain and suffering for anxiety, as well as other emotional and mental distress
Though your health and safety should be the priority, you need to keep a file of medical bills, pay stubs, and receipts for repairing/replace personal property. These detailed records will help your attorney document your financial losses.
Contact Menendez Trial Attorneys with Your Negligent Security Questions
Our dedicated team of professionals at Menendez Trial Attorneys in Coral Gables, FL, will focus on results in your negligent security case. We’ll wage our fight for your rights using evidence and knowledge, not nonsense. If you’re in South Florida, give us a call at 305-930-7247 or complete our online contact form
At Menendez Trial Attorneys, we operate on contingency fees, which means that you will never need to pay us until and unless we have won your case and you’ve received your compensation award.
Copyright© 2021. Menendez Trial Attorneys. All Rights Reserved.
The information in this blog post (“post”) is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction. No information in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author or the law firm, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting based on any information included in or accessible through this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
Menendez Trial Attorneys
113 Almeria Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134
305-930-7247
https://menendeztrialattorneys.com/
Recent Comments