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Atlanta Negligent Security Lawyer
Atlanta Negligent Security Attorney Overview
- When Property Owners Fail to Keep You Safe
- What Is a Negligent Security Case?
- The Hardest Cases Need the Strongest Advocates
- What Types of Properties May Be Liable for Negligent Security?
- How Can a Negligent Security Lawyer Help After an Injury?
- Evidence Needed to Prove a Negligent Security Claim
- Why Work with a Negligent Security Lawyer in Atlanta?
- Speak with Our Experienced Atlanta Negligent Security Lawyer
- Latest Firm News & Updates
When Property Owners Fail to Keep You Safe
There is no shortage of terrific places in Atlanta to go out to enjoy live music, hit the dance floor, or just have a fun night on the town. When you do go out, you expect the place that you’re patronizing to be safe.
While there is no guarantee you won’t run into a troublemaker, what you shouldn’t be subjected to is a dangerous environment created by a lack of active security.
Property owners in Atlanta are legally responsible for taking certain measures to ensure that premises are safe for visitors. This duty includes instituting and following adequate and reasonable security measures to protect visitors from crime. This responsibility isn’t limited to nightclub and music venue owners. It also applies to landlords, business owners, and hotel proprietors.
If you sustained personal injury because of a property owner’s security negligence, an Atlanta negligent security lawyer may be able to help you recover compensation for your losses.
It is understandable if you think that the only person you can hold responsible is your assailant.
However, you may be able to take action against the property owner or manager. At Bey & Associates, we have the legal expertise, knowledge, and experience to navigate the complex laws governing these cases.
As experienced personal injury attorneys, we use our expertise to benefit our clients who have been hurt through negligence and wrongdoing.
What Is a Negligent Security Case?
Negligent security cases, like slip and fall accidents and dog bite incidents, fall under premises liability law. Premises liability laws exist to ensure that owners of buildings and grounds exercise reasonable care to keep a safe environment for visitors. Property owners should know and fix issues that can lead to injury, like unsafe animals, poisonous gas leaks, or broken stairs.
Property owners also have a duty to provide reasonable security measures to protect visitors from foreseeable crimes. In a negligent security case, the crime could have been prevented or at least would have been far less likely to occur if the appropriate security measures had been taken.
A wide variety of actions and behaviors could be considered negligent security, depending on the circumstances.
Examples of negligent security may include:
- Broken locks or entry access points left unattended.
- Security teams that don’t respond to emergency calls.
- Inadequately trained or untrained security guards.
- Short-staffed security teams.
- Faulty or non-existent alarm systems.
- Broken, poorly-maintained, or a lack of security cameras.
- Failure to check visitors’ IDs or an inadequate sign-in policy.
- A lack of emergency call boxes.
- Duplicate keys handed out to third parties.
- Poor lighting in potentially dangerous areas (such as a parking garage in an area known to have past incidents of theft).
- Gates, fences, windows, walls, or other broken access points that go unrepaired.
- A failure to monitor and guard against crime that has happened before.
- A lack of measures taken to safeguard against known activity that can lead to injury (such as a sports crowd or concert audience that can become violent).
Atlanta Personal Injury Practice Areas
Medical Malpractice
Every time we enter the doors to a hospital, doctor's office, or other medical facility, we expect safe, competent care. When that doesn't happen, you deserve answers.
Car Accidents
A car wreck can change your life in the blink of an eye. If you’ve been seriously injured because of another driver’s negligence, you need help now.
Truck Accidents
Large truck and commercial truck accidents are some of the most devastating accidents we see across the United States and in Georgia.
Wrongful Death
The unexpected loss of a loved one is one of the most traumatic experiences a family can go through. When the death should have been prevented, the loss devastating.
Work Injuries
If you’ve been seriously injured while on the job, you’re likely already aware that your employer doesn’t make providing for your family a simple task.
Nursing Home Abuse
Even if you’re confident you’ve found a safe environment for them, it’s important to remember that there are negligent care facilities that abuse their residents.
What Types of Properties May Be Liable for Negligent Security?
As seen in the examples above, depending on the type of property, different types of security measures are necessary to protect visitors from foreseeable harm. What can be considered adequate security for a particular property may not be reasonable for another type of property.
A negligent security case can occur on many types of properties. These may include:
- Schools and universities.
- Malls, retail stores, and shopping centers.
- Convenience stores.
- Hotels and conference centers.
- Office buildings.
- Hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities.
- Apartment buildings and complexes.
- Parking garages.
- Event venues and sports stadiums.
- Public government-owned buildings, like courthouses and government offices.
- Museums, concert halls, and other performance centers.
How Can a Negligent Security Lawyer Help After an Injury?
To prove that negligent security led to your injury, you and your attorney must show that the property owner failed to exercise reasonable care to protect lawful visitors from foreseeable harm. For example, if a hotel with a history of violent crime on the premises does not hire security guards or install security cameras, and a guest is assaulted on hotel grounds, the hotel owner or property manager may be liable.
Your negligent security lawyer will need to establish the four core principles of negligence:
- The owner owed you, as an invitee, a duty of care.
- The owner’s lack of action or warnings resulted in a breach of that duty of care.
- The breach contributed to the assault, robbery, or injury you sustained.
- The damages that were incurred.
Evidence Needed to Prove a Negligent Security Claim
It will be obvious that something happened to you in the form of an assault or robbery.
Proving that the owner of the property where that event took place requires compelling evidence. That begins with establishing the foreseeability of crime. This can be proven with police reports and records of past crimes that either occurred directly on the premises or in the surrounding neighborhood.
There might also be internal complaints that also prove foreseeability.
Additional evidence can include the following:
- Photographs and videos of broken locks, faulty gates, burned-out exterior lights, or overgrown landscaping used as hiding spots.
- Maintenance and work orders that document tenant complaints.
- Security logs
- Staffing records
- Eyewitness testimony
- Security footage
You will also need to present any relevant medical documentation, your employment records, and personal journals that detail the level of pain and suffering you’ve endured as a result of the incident.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of evidence you need to gather. An experienced attorney can help you collect the evidence and use it to build an effective claim.
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