These two legal concepts join together when people are hurt at public places. When accidents and crime take place on someone else's property that someone needs to take responsibility. Too often, property owners and managers deny their responsibility and simply blame the criminal. In the most general way, a negligent security case is a failure to provide reasonable safety and security measures to protect from preventable harms to persons whom a third party owes a legal duty to provide a safe premises. The concept of legal liability arising from criminal acts of third persons evolved from the law of premises liability. Landowners, possessors, landlords, business operators, and property managers have traditionally owed a legal duty to persons lawfully upon their premises and to make property reasonably safe such as to warn of hidden or latent dangers. All types of real property, both public and private are places where persons may be injured, killed, or sustain a serious, catastrophic injury due to negligent or inadequate security. At shopping centers, parking lots, malls, hotels, nightclubs, apartments, condominiums, and all public events people have a legal right to be safe from foreseeable risks of harm and criminal victimization. Adequate security can also be required on non-owned property where the legal duty to an injury victim can exist by virtue of a contractual undertaking or other special circumstance where a defendant has control or the right to control.
At Gerson & Schwartz, PA our Miami negligent security lawyers have the experience and resources to make business and property owners pay for the harm done to our clients by criminals. We have achieved justice for innocent victims due to the failure to provide adequate safety and security measures on property. Our experience unequaled by other injury law firms has made us well known in the legal profession as leaders in negligent security cases and for achieving justice for victims of crime. Because of a lifetime commitment to crime victims, our cases often succeed where others have not.
The common feature in premises liability and claim for negligent security is based on a legal duty owed to the plaintiff to provide a safe environment. Differences are found in the relationship between the parties. Defendants can be landowners, manager, landlords, business operators, security companies, vendors or personnel, acting in some other capacity which vests control over the property or at least control over security functions. Plaintiffs can be tenants, guests, customers, vendors, or virtually any visitor on a premises who is not a trespasser. Cruise ships, airplanes, trains, buses, limousines, taxis and private passenger vehicles are also places where increased security services may be required and where security negligence is a basis of civil liability.
In most instances, negligent or inadequate security cases are brought by the victims of violent crime. Inadequate security measures may include failing to provide security guards, security cameras, fencing, or adequate lighting. In addition, failing to conduct a security assessment or risk analysis may help establish negligence. A negligent security case in Miami can also arise from the negligent selection or retention of security personnel. Landowners, property managers, and other third parties may also have legal responsibility if their employees are not adequately trained or they do not follow recognized security polices or procedures. Our negligent security attorneys in Miami, Florida have experience handling virtually every type of security negligence case including those involving:
The legal requirements for what is a negligent failure to foresee the victimization of the plaintiff varies somewhat in different jurisdictions. In the last half of the twentieth century courts recognized that reasonable protection from "foreseeable crime" was simply one more type of harm from which a duty should exist to protect against and to and warn about. The rationale for the concept is based on control or the right to control property. The third party generally has little or no control so a duty is owed by those who do have control or the right to control. Most jurisdictions impose such a duty though there are widely different definitions of its breadth and scope. Substantive rules of law also vary considerably from state to state.
For example, some states require specific foreseeability of the particular harm which befell plaintiff while others require only a general showing that non‑specific harm was reasonably likely to occur. Therefore as a starting point counsel must research and fully understand the elements of the cause of action. The substantive requirements of proof for this element of the tort is an essential ingredient of any recipe for successful representation.
The concept of foreseeable harm to the plaintiff is nuclear to tort liability. It is in this concept that the negligence of the defendant is to be found. In other words, it is the careless failure to have foreseen the risk of harm to the plaintiff that is the essence of a negligent security case. By proving that the defendant could have and should have but did not foresee the victimization the plaintiff is part of how negligence or carelessness of the defendant is established.
Providing Legal Representation for Victims due to Inadequate Security in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and South Florida for Over 50 YearsThe Miami inadequate security lawyers at Gerson & Schwartz, PA have been representing clients in all types of negligent security cases for over four decades. If you or a loved one have been the victim of a crime, or have been seriously injured due inadequate security then contact a negligent security lawyer in our office today. Call us at (305) 371-6000 to set up a free case evaluation, or you can email a lawyer in our office directly by sending us an online message at info@gslawusa.com.
For additional information of situations where we have assisted crime victims against property owners for serious injuries, wrongful death, and claims for negligent security in Miami, Florida read some of our recent verdicts and settlements and newsletter pages.