Negligent Security Law in Las Vegas

When you stay at a hotel or spend and evening playing roulette at a casino, you never expect to be the victim of negligent security. Unfortunately, security problems in hotels, casinos and strip clubs are fairly common in Las Vegas. When these problems result in someone's injury, the owners of the property should be held liable.

As a requirement, property owners must equipped their buildings with proper lighting, safe locks, and other necessary and reasonable safety features. When a property owner fails to provide a safe environment they could be held liable for any accidents and injuries that occur on that property as a result of their lack of security. Property owners who do not provide adequate security, are putting many people at risk, including employees, customers, and any other visitors on the property.

Some examples of the repercussions of inadequate security are:

• Assault
• Mugging
• Kidnapping
• Rape
• Abduction
• Stabbing
• Sexual assault
• Death
• Any other preventable accident or injury

Negligent Security Law

Negligent security law controls legal claims made by individuals who are attacked or victimized on someone else's property. This is where premises liability laws come into play. They control negligent security claims because the claims arise from the ownership or control of property or "premises." Under these laws, the property own or person responsible for maintenance of the property can be held liable for the injuries of another if they were the result of dangerous conditions.

In most states, premises liability law places a duty on individuals or organizations in control of property to maintain that property in a safe condition and a duty to warn people of any hazards on said property. In order to recover damages in a premises liability case, the injured party must prove a dangerous condition existed on the property and that the owner or party responsible for maintenance hand knowledge of that condition.

A dangerous condition exists when something on the property presents an unreasonable and not obvious risk to people on said property. The property owner or possessor can be held liable if it can be proven that the owner's negligence created a foreseeable risk of danger.

Recovery for injuries caused by a third-party criminal attack usually hinges on showing that the owner of that property owed a duty to the injured party and that the criminal attack was foreseeable.

Foreseeability of Criminal Attacks

The law states that something is foreseeable if its occurrence can or should be reasonably anticipated or if a person of ordinary cautiousness would expect it to occur under the circumstances. Generally, most states use the following approaches to determine foreseeability:

• Actual Knowledge. If the property owner had knowledge of a threat by a specific assailant at a specific time.
• Prior Violent Crimes. If there is evidence of prior violent crimes on the premises.
• Prior Crimes. Consideration of evidence of prior crimes on or around the premises.
• Totality of the Circumstances. Consideration of the location and layout of the premises, nature of the business it conducts, and other relevant factors including the history of any prior criminal activity on the premises.
• Balancing Test. The owner's duty to adopt security measures determined by balancing the foreseeable likelihood and severity of crime on the premises against the cost and availability of the given security measure.

When an attack is judged as being foreseeable, courts will find that that property owner had a duty to protect people on the premises against third-party assaults. In such cases, the property owner's failure to provide reasonable security measures exposes them to liability for injuries caused by the breach of their legal duty. Reasonable security measures may include efforts such as:

• Hiring a qualified and reliable security service,
• Installing security systems and actively monitoring security cameras,
• Creating a security plan,
• Developing building access control measures,
• Having one-use hotel room key cards and installing ATM panic buttons.

Find Out If You Have A Negligent Security Case

Parker Scheer Lagomarsino attorneys are experienced in handling inadequate and negligent security cases. Parker Scheer Lagomarsino lawyers have successfully represented victims of violent crimes as a result of negligent security. To learn more about inadequate and negligent security and to find out if you have a case, contact us for a free confidential case review and receive a response within hours, or call toll free 866-414-0400. If you need a lawyer outside of Nevada, contact us for a referral.

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