Practice Areas Personal Injury Premises Liability Negligent Security

Premises Liability Attorneys Serving Boca Raton and Surrounding Areas

Buildings that have a high volume of people going in and out are often at a higher risk for crime. Thus, many buildings employ security measures to keep their customers and visitors safe. Unfortunately, however, not all entities take sufficient steps to prevent harm caused by criminal activity, and many people in South Florida suffer injuries each year due to crimes on improperly secured property. If you were harmed on someone else’s property because of inadequate security measures, it is critical to retain an attorney who will fight to help you protect your rights. The Boca Raton negligent security lawyers at The Grife Law Firm possess the resources and skills to gather the evidence needed to help you prove that another party should be held liable for your injuries, and we will work diligently to help you strive for the best result available under the circumstances surrounding your harm.

Damages Caused by Negligent Security

There are numerous actions that businesses can take to protect their customers from crime. For example, apartment buildings often require a key, a code, or permission from a person who lives in the building to enter the building. Similarly, anyone who wishes to enter a hotel must typically provide information at a front desk prior to gaining access to other floors. Additionally, apartments, hotels, and malls often hire security guards to monitor the premises to prevent and report illegal activity. They also usually make sure that any common areas are well lit to reduce the likelihood of crime. Many bars also hire security guards to man their doors, monitor activity on the premises, and eject anyone acting in an unsafe, inappropriate, or criminal manner. When a property lacks adequate security, this can lead to assault, robbery, and sex crimes. The negligent security attorneys at our Boca Raton firm can assist victims of these crimes.

Elements of a Negligent Security Lawsuit

In Florida, whether a property owner will be held liable for harm caused by negligent security depends in part on whether the victim was permitted to enter the property. For example, Florida Statutes Section 768.075 provides that when an undiscovered trespasser suffers an injury on someone else’s property, the property owner will not be held liable for the trespasser’s harm unless it was caused by the property owner’s intentional misconduct. If the property owner was aware of the trespasser’s entry into the property, however, the property owner may be held liable for gross negligence as well and must warn the trespasser of dangerous latent conditions. Property owners owe a greater duty to people invited to a property for social or business purposes, such as customers at a bar, guests at a hotel, or people visiting a friend in an apartment building. Specifically, Florida law provides that a property owner has a duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition and to warn of any hidden dangers.

A property owner may be held liable with the assistance of a Boca Raton negligent security attorney if the plaintiff can show that the property owner knew or should have known of a dangerous condition that posed a risk of harm to people entering the property. In other words, the harm must have been foreseeable. In cases arising out of negligent security, evidence that demonstrates a high rate of crime in the area may be helpful to establish that the harm suffered by an injured person was foreseeable, so the property owner should be held liable. At The Grife Law Firm, we have the resources to perform crime grid searches, which allow us to build a case against a property owner by demonstrating patterns of crime in the areas surrounding a property where harm occurred due to negligent security.