When Property Owners Don't Provide Security, We Hold Them Accountable
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Businesses and landlords are legally required to ensure the safety of their property to the best of their abilities. However, when these property owners cut corners, users of that property may be put at immediate risk of harm. At Gary Martin Hays & Associates, we understand how to fight insurance companies who try to take advantage of victims of negligent security. Founding attorney Gary Martin Hays literally wrote the book on these cases: The Authority on Inadequate/Negligent Security Claims in Georgia, a #1 bestseller.
If you have questions, we're ready to answer them and take aggressive action on your behalf. Call 1-800-898-HAYS today.
While any business owner can be liable for an accident on his or property, negligent security cases tend to involve incidents at apartments, hotels and motels and malls and shopping centers. Click on the following to find out more negligent security:
- Unsafe Apartment Complexes
- How Landlords Can Prevent Attacks
- When Attacker is a Trespasser
- Hotel and Motel Accidents
- Malls and Shopping Centers
- Parking Lot Injury
- Negligent Security and Intentional Acts of Harm
Georgia law requires owners of property and businesses to protect their customers and tenants from unreasonable dangers. These individuals and companies are required to take minimum steps to learn of dangerous conditions and to correct these dangers so their customers and tenants who lease these apartments are not hurt. But when these businesses do not take reasonable steps to correct the unsafe condition or if someone is seriously injured or killed, there is a potential claim for inadequate security.
The two most common types of attacks that we see that involve apartment complexes involve assaults and shootings. Reports of rape or shootings at apartments and in parking lots are, unfortunately, common and disturbing.
If the apartment complex exercised reasonable care, many of these crimes could have been prevented. In so many of these cases, the attacker was a resident of the apartment or a guest of a resident, or the attack came onto the apartment complex grounds as a trespasser.
If the attacker lived at the apartment complex, it can be a challenge for us to show that increased security measures could have prevented the attack from happening. This requires a great deal of investigation.
How Landlords Can Prevent Attacks
The following are factors that could have prevented the crimes from occurring:
- Adequate criminal background checks on existing tenants.
- Ensuring that lights in a parking lot or breezeway are not burned out or broken.
- Installing a fence around the parking lot and making sure it's not broken, which could allow a criminal to gain access.
- Locks and doors should be secure. If the locks on the doors and the windows are inadequate or broken, an attacker can get easy access into the apartment.
In any case involving an assault at an apartment complex, we investigate to determine if there were prior crimes or prior victims. Questions we typically ask involve:
- Have other attacks occurred on the property, such as shootings, sexual assaults and other violent crimes?
- Did the apartment complex implement reasonable, necessary measures to protect its tenants from previous crimes?
Georgia courts indicate that prior property crimes may give a landlord notice of possible future crimes against a person.
We often hire security experts to show the apartment complex breached the standard of care by not having security when needed or by having an inadequate amount of security.
You may stay overnight at a hotel or motel for leisure or business. Regardless of your reason for staying at a Georgia hotel or motel, you expect to be safe. The hotel or motel owner has a duty to exercise ordinary care to prevent foreseeable third-party criminal attacks upon visitors.
Unfortunately, attacks by criminals occur at hotels from Atlanta to Savannah and all of Georgia because of negligent security. Assaults are reported in parking lots, hallways, stairwells and other areas where lights are either broken or dim and security guards are not properly trained. Sometimes, hotel staff fails to keep an eye on security monitors. Doors may be unsecure. Windows may be easily opened.
If you or a loved one was a victim of a rape, sexual assault, shooting or other violent crime at a hotel, don't hesitate to contact the Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates. We conduct thorough investigations to determine whether prior, similar crimes took place at the hotel or motel. We may interview victims of prior, similar crimes. We leave no stone unturned.
Malls and shopping centers are a big part of most Georgians' lives. These businesses range in size from mega malls with dozens of big name department stores, movie theaters, seemingly countless branded shops and multi-level parking decks to small strip malls and mom and pop stores. The owners of any of these businesses owe their customers or any other visitors a duty of care.
Disturbingly, serious violent crimes, including sexual assault, rape, shootings and even murder, happen at malls and shopping centers through no fault of the visitor. These are tragic acts that often can be prevented if the owner of the mall took proper security measures.
Our attorneys conduct comprehensive investigations into mall or shopping center premises liability cases in Atlanta and statewide. Violent attacks may be reported in dimly lighted parking lots. You may sustain a serious injury inside the mall because there were not enough security guards. Whatever the reason for your injuries, you need an aggressive negligent security lawyer on your side. In a typical case, we secure crime reports through the local police department to determine if there were prior crimes. We examine the business owner's internal reports, which also may reveal evidence of a history of similar attacks in the same location. We look at what security practices are in place to protect the people who are invited onto the property.
Many premises liability injury cases involve ineffective signage, lighting, or boundary demarcation that leads to a pedestrian accident. Property owners have a responsibility to ensure safe access into and out of a parking lot, including clear lines of sight, indication of right of way and other measures.
Parking areas may have a risk of robbery or assault. Property owners may need to hire security or install cameras to prevent negligent security cases. Crimes related to negligent security can be devastating to victims. While law enforcement will pursue the perpetrators, we believe that the party responsible for the property who failed to provide adequate security should also be held accountable.
We help parking lot accident victims get justice and hold the responsible parties accountable for their negligence. Don't delay. Call 1-800-898-HAYS.
Negligent Security and Intentional Acts of Harm
Property security is controlled by Georgia premises liability law that states that property owners and managers may be held liable for any injuries resulting from the dangerous nature of a property. There are industry-accepted standards for adequate lighting, supervision of grounds, functional room locks, and other safety measures. Georgians have a right to expect to be kept safe when on the grounds of a business or organization.
Negligent security cases may arise from a failure to:
- Install video cameras
- Ensure adequate lighting in common areas and parking lots
- Install door locks or restrict access to a building
- Erect a fence (such as around a swimming pool)
- Run criminal background checks on tenants or employees
- Establish appropriate security policies and procedures
Injuries received as a result of negligent security can be more traumatic even than ordinary premises liability injuries. Negligent security cases generally involve intentional acts of harm that could realistically have been expected to be prevented.
Negligent security can mean pain, frustration, and expense. Let us help. Call today.
Negligent security of a building, apartment complex, parking lot, storage facility, or other property can lead to violent crimes or other destructive acts. When property owners or businesses using the space fail to keep the premises secure, they create an unacceptable risk of attacks and other types of criminal behavior. A negligent security case may involve a hotel guest or store patron who becomes a victim of a rape or assault while using a bathroom. These shocking events should have been prevented. We fight for justice on behalf of our clients. You can rely on Gary Martin Hays & Associates.
Every negligent security victim has the right to see that the law is applied fairly to all, not just to big corporations and insurance companies. At Gary Martin Hays & Associates, we provide aggressive legal representation for personal injury victims. Contact us today. Call 1-800-898-HAYS. Your initial consultation is free and always confidential.
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