Miami Negligent Security Attorneys

Qualified Miami negligent security attorneys will represent you after injury or death. Read on to learn how the right legal team will win you compensation and deliver the justice you deserve.

Business owners everywhere must keep customers, employees, and visitors safe. But, unfortunately, every year, thousands of people are hurt or killed in accidents or crimes that better security may have prevented. Does that sound familiar?

Were you or someone you love hurt or killed in an accident or crime on someone’s property? Do you know whether there was adequate security in place to lower the risk of harm?

Click here to speak with an attorney. We’re here to offer you the support you and your family need.

Leighton Panoff Law specializes in representing victims of security incidents in Florida. We hold negligent parties responsible when they fail to meet their duty of care. Discover how we can help you and your family seek damages for injuries or death.

Here we explain what negligent security is, how it applies, and whether what happened to you is worth pursuing a negligent security personal injury case.

What Is Negligent Security?

Businesses and property owners are often guilty of negligent security when they fail to provide security appropriate for their location and clients. Negligent security is a type of premises liability that stipulates the owner of a property or operator of a business must guarantee the safety of people on their property.

For example, if a robbery in the parking lot of a mall, you should examine whether there was proper lighting, on-site security, cameras, limited access, and other security measures designed to deter and detect criminal activity.

Security protocols must be commensurate with reasonable risk expectations. You can’t expect a restaurant in a quiet part of Ft. Lauderdale, for example, to station armed guards at entrances to protect diners.

You can, though, expect higher security at public events, jewelry stores, banks, and other places where there is a higher security risk.

A business owner, property owner, manager, or any other responsible party can face negligent security lawsuits when they fail to deliver safe conditions for visitors, employees, and customers.

How do you know, though, whether what happened to you, your friend or a family member occurred because there wasn’t good security in place? What constitutes negligent security?

Let’s take a look.

Negligent Security Attorneys – Proving Your Case

If a person is mugged, assaulted, or suffers any other type of injury, how do you know whether you can pursue a personal lawsuit?

To prove a negligent security case, negligent security attorneys have to do the following:

• The owner or operator had a duty of care. They were obligated to ensure security was in place and strong enough to deter and detect criminal activity like robberies, assaults, sexual assaults, murder, etc.
• The lack of proper security directly contributed to your or someone else’s injuries or death. There is also a consideration of if better security would have lessened or avoided injuries or death.
• The victim suffered physical, emotional, property, or financial damages due to a lack of security.

To win your case, you must meet all three requirements. In addition, your lawyer will have to prove that risks were foreseeable and likely preventable with better security.

How can you prove that crime or any sort of security incident was foreseeable?

Conditions of Negligent Security

How do businesses or property owners know when a camera in front of a door is enough or whether they need a security guard standing post? Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to determine.

However, these organizations and property owners have a duty of care, so they owe it to their customers, partners, and the public to do their legwork.

Here are some things that help inform adequate security measures:

Local Security Risks

Things like local crime rates, recent security issues in the area, whether the business was the recent target of crime are all factors

Assets & Nature of Business

A nightclub needs tighter security than a convenience store, and the airport needs more cameras than a salvage lot. Likewise, what sort of business activity is happening on property impacts security levels.

Police Advice

Local police and other responders are typically happy to advise property owners on what they should do. Did the business regularly correspond with police about criminal activity on their premises? What did they do in response?

What Causes Security Incidences? – Negligent Security Attorneys Can Help

Certain scenarios are easy to point to and prove negligent security contributed to a negative security outcome. Here are a few examples that we see often:

Bad Lighting

Lighting is a critical part of security and a very effective crime deterrent. Lights in parking lots, on streets, and indoors stop crime and keep people safe. However, when someone is hurt, you have to look at whether there was proper lighting in place. Proper, here, means reasonable light levels that most clientele expects in a similar setting.

Bad Security Systems

Do the locks, cameras, gates, and other security measures work? Sometimes companies put closed circuit television (CCTV) up for decoration only, and they don’t keep footage to identify criminals or stop crime with police. Often they are not monitored.

Poor Training

Unfortunately, many security guards are seriously underpaid and lack any meaningful training. They essential stand there in a uniform, hoping that being there is enough to stop crime and keep people safe. All you have to do is look online and examples of poor security training to see guards unable to stop crime in the act.

No Emergency Plans

Recent security incidents like the stampede at the Astroworld concert illustrate how vital it is to have emergency security protocols in place. The venue clearly didn’t have enough security in place to manage unruly crowds. As a result, owners, businesses, and other stakeholders should consult with security planning professionals to cover the bases.

Security Mistakes

Mistakes happen, but they don’t mean you can’t hold people responsible. Take, for instance, the example of a hotel that gives your room keys to a criminal who robs you or assaults you. Or, for example, a guard who grants some uncredentialed individual access to a venue? When that happens, you likely have a personal injury case. Again, talking to experienced negligent security attorneys can help.

Pursuing Third Party Claims

Sometimes it’s not the property owner’s or business’s fault entirely.

In many cases, companies and other organizations outsource security functions as a way to lower liability exposure.

They think that by hiring a security company to manage security at their hotel or mall, they’ll skirt legal exposure when or if something terrible happens. This is true in some sense.

When an organization hires a security company for on-site security or outsources camera and lock installation and management, for instance, they can point to a third party after a criminal incident.

They can say that the fault lies with the “experts” and that they hired them to prevent precisely what’s happened.

Expert negligent security attorneys know where to look and how to assign liability. Also, they will gather the evidence needed to prove your case and win you damages.

Seeking Damages in a Negligent Security Case

How much should a company pay after a robbery or sexual assault on their property? It’s an interesting question and one you should consult a legal expert on.

Often, liable parties in a negligent security case want to resolve the issue fast. Certainly, they want to deal without attorneys present because they want to save money.

They’ll reach out to victims with offers of money and make people feel like they have their best interests in mind.

So, even if these companies or organizations are good actors, you need a lawyer there to help you make the best possible decisions.

Depending on the circumstances, you may deal with the repercussions of a negligent security case for the rest of your life.

What if your loved one died in a robbery gone wrong on someone’s property? How do you quantify that? Also, what if you need physical therapy for years or decades to regain full function in an arm or leg?

You need a lawyer with experience negotiating settlements in negligent security cases and representing victims in court.

Leighton Panoff Law – Florida’s Expert Negligent Security Attorneys

The team at Leighton Panoff Law has years of experience leading on negligent security issues and representing Florida victims of negligent security. We have decades of experience in handling, litigating and winning negligent security cases.  Partner John Leighton is the immediate past President of the National Crime Victim Bar Association, the only association of trial lawyers dedicated to representing victims of crime.  He is also the sole author of the two-volume text, Litigating Premises Security Cases, the leading book on handling these matters.  He is a frequent lecturer and author in the field and often called upon by major media outlets to comment on cases.

We hold the people and organizations responsible and win you compensation to cover:

• Medical bills
• Lost income
• Pain & suffering
• Property damage

Talk to us about your situation, and we’ll let you know if you have a personal injury case worth pursuing. Additionally, we offer no-obligation consultations to discuss the best next steps and put you on a path toward financial recovery.