Monmouth County NJ Inadequate Security Attorneys
Crime can strike anyone, anywhere, at any time. However, there are locations in which crime is more likely to occur and thus, safety measures must be implemented to secure these premises for visitors, patrons, employees, and others who operate there. New Jersey imposes this obligation upon individuals and businesses, requiring them to take steps to protect those on their properties from foreseeable harm. But what harm is truly foreseeable? Certain neighborhoods with higher crime rates, transactional businesses, stadiums and event venues, shopping malls, banks, apartment complexes–these locations can attract and foster criminal activity if security measures are not in place. If the owners and operators of these premises fail to take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of those operating in and around their properties, and an individual is subsequently injured as a result of a crime, the negligent party can be held accountable through a premises liability lawsuit.
At Chamlin, Uliano & Walsh, our highly experienced New Jersey personal injury attorneys have been aggressively advocating for injured victims for over 50 years. Achieving millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements, as well as continued recognition from independent organizations such as Martindale-Hubbell and Super Lawyers, we have established a track record of success through diligence and an unwavering commitment to our clients’ best interests. If you or someone you love has been injured as a result of negligent security in Monmouth or Ocean counties, or elsewhere in New Jersey, contact us today at 732-440-3950 to learn more about your legal options. Consultations are always provided free of charge and our knowledgeable lawyers are pleased to answer all of your questions.
Failure to Provide Adequate Security in New Jersey
Accidents happen, whether the accident is your fault or the property owner’s, but you probably do not expect to be a crime victim visiting someone’s business or other property. Inadequate security in many places can result in serious injuries. In order to effectively establish your claim for damages if you have suffered an injury as a result of inadequate security, you must demonstrate the negligence of the responsible party. These cases are highly variable, and the circumstances will vary based on your specific case. However, there are certain forms of inadequate security that commonly result in the injuries of innocent victims. These include:
Insufficient Lighting: A Critical Safety Concern in High-Risk Areas
The areas where you feel most vulnerable, like stairwells, parking garages, and parking lots, should be well-lit to avoid obvious injuries such as trips and falls. Moreover, these places that access residential and commercial buildings must be well-lit to avoid dangers that are more likely to occur in dark, isolated spaces.
Building Access Vulnerabilities: The Dangers of Faulty Locks and Unsecured Entry Points
Failure to install and maintain locks on windows, doors, garages, and other entrances and exits is another source of inadequate security that can lead to claims. Apartment buildings are familiar sources of security issues and pose a special danger when common areas and individual apartments are security risks due to faulty locks on windows, doors, or garages. An intruder looking for criminal opportunities to steal or sexually assault can access someone’s home at night through an unlockable door, garage, or window.
Failure to Install and Maintain Alarm Systems: Security Vulnerabilities
Apartments, condominiums, and office building complexes are vulnerable to crimes when alarm systems fail or when a landlord fails to install them. An alarm system warns occupants and the police of intruders. A late-night office worker may find an unwanted surprise when a burglar or other individual with bad intentions picks the locked office door and enters with no alarm sounding or altering authorities.
Surveillance System Failures: Impact on Crime Prevention and Resolution
Surveillance cameras may also prevent crimes and help solve them. When those cameras are inoperable due to negligent maintenance or operation, individuals entering and exiting various venues, such as concerts, theaters, offices, parking garages, hospitals, hotels, and universities, may find themselves at greater risk for robbery, assault, and murder without the deterrence of conspicuous cameras. When those cameras are broken or unmonitored, a crime may occur or go unsolved, especially in larger venues, to the dismay of victims and their families.
Failure to Employ, Train, or Supervise Security Personnel
In some cases, no one is monitoring surveillance cameras. When security personnel are not trained or supervised, they may not follow protocols in place to protect people coming and going. For example, trained security guards at expensive hotels, apartment complexes, or business complexes control who enters the property and where they go, according to the building management’s direction. Safety requires controlled traffic flow in sensitive places, like hospitals, nightclubs, and school administrative offices.
Water Safety Oversight: The Extended Role of Lifeguards in Property Security
Another sensitive place rife with danger is the hotel pool or beach. Lifeguards are not only responsible for saving drowning swimmers but also for overall safety around the water. For example, they may be the ones keeping an eye on the changing closets or bathrooms to ensure an unwanted stranger does not enter those areas for mischief or crime.
Causes of Injury Resulting from Inadequate Security in New Jersey
When business owners, property owners, landlords, property managers, security companies, government agencies, or others fail to provide adequate security, a vast array of crimes or accidents and devastating consequences can result. Some of the incidents that often result from negligent security practices include:
- Robbery or mugging
- Aggravated Assault
- Sexual Assault
- Kidnapping
- Criminal Restraint
- False Imprisonment
- Drowning
- Wrongful Death
Where do Injuries Resulting from Inadequate Security Occur in NJ?
Although criminal behavior can occur anywhere, there are certain locations in which these events occur more frequently. Often, failure to ensure the security of the following premises can result in crimes committed against unsuspecting victims:
Parking Facilities: Dark Corners and Vulnerability in Isolated Spaces
Those seeking to rob, assault, or otherwise harm you feel safer in dimly lit or unlit areas where passersby are less likely to witness a crime. Thus, you are more susceptible to mugging, sexual assault, or carjacking in dark, less populated areas at night. As such, parking lots and garages must have ample lighting and attendants to avoid foreseeable danger to residents or patrons.
Shopping Centers: Security Challenges in High-Traffic Consumer Spaces
Shopping malls and centers are typically light enough but magnets for crowds, including those with intentions to steal from shoppers or stores. Bathrooms in these malls and centers may be off the busy corridors in a less populated and darker section. For shoppers’ safety, surveillance cameras and security guards are necessary to deter criminal conduct.
Convenience and Retail Locations: Late-Night Security Risks
Convenience stores and retail establishments are notoriously subject to theft, and robberies pose extreme dangers to a lone store clerk at night. However, a well-lit store loaded with cameras may deter violent thefts. Store owners must have protocols in place and sufficient staff to prevent harm to workers and customers.
Supermarkets and Grocery Stores: Product Safety and Professional Theft Concerns
Supermarkets and grocery stores, like other retail businesses, are susceptible to shoplifting not only by individuals but by professional shoplifting rings. People looking to harm others may also choose a supermarket or grocery store to sabotage products with dangerous chemicals that can severely harm those who ingest food or apply skin products to their bodies. Security guards, cameras, and well-trained employees can reduce the security risks for shoppers.
Residential Complexes: Security Vulnerabilities in Multi-Unit Housing
Even at residential apartment and condominium complexes, poor lighting, broken locks on windows and doors, broken security gates, and missing entryway attendants can pose extreme dangers to residents when intruders intent on burglarizing, assaulting, or battering others can easily access the grounds or individual homes.
Hospitality Venues: Guest Safety in Temporary Accommodations
At hotels, motels, resorts, and casinos,physical assaults are more likely as guests on vacation may be recreating with alcohol or drugs, letting loose. However, employees with bad intentions may cause guests harm by changing key codes, leaving guests and their belongings vulnerable to bad actors or crime rings.
Large Event Venues: Managing Security in Crowded Environments
Crowded, chaotic venues like stadiums, sports arenas, and event venues come with security risks. Rowdy fans drinking too much alcohol can injure others in the audience. Such large gatherings are also places for children to be abducted. Without sufficient security and trained staff, crowded entertainment places can be sources of serious injuries.
Amusement Parks and Safety Concerns
Amusement parks are also dangerous for the crowds, chaotic activity, and inattentive people. Poorly maintained rides and inadequate employee training can lead to falls from high altitude or high speed collisions leading to whiplash, injuries that can be deadly without appropriate emergency first aid services and trained employees on hand.
Transportation Hubs: Security Challenges in High-Transit Areas
Airports, train stations, and bus stations require high security because they are transient places susceptible to terrorist acts and theft. Travelers from all over the world increase the odds of people behaving erratically or maliciously to hurt others or being emboldened by the quick transitions from station to station.
Aquatic Facilities: Oversight and Environmental Safety Concerns
Lack of supervision or oversight at swimming pools also poses security risks, as children may disappear under the water or run on slippery surfaces outside the pool. Poorly maintained or monitored pools may also pose chemically induced illness or contamination from foreign substances entering the water.
Educational Institutions: Campus Safety and Student Protection
Another location with inherent risks is colleges and universities, where young students from all over the globe live on or near campus, some living outside their family home for the first time. Adequate supervision in dorms or at school events, such as football games or even student protests, is necessary to protect students from off-campus intruders or drunk and dangerous fellow students.
Sources of Liability in Insufficient Security Cases
Depending on the location, those liable for inadequate security may be one or many individuals or entities. Property owners and landlords of apartments, condominiums, or residential homes may be responsible for poor maintenance that endangers renters. The property owner and landlord may be different, as property management companies often service properties owned by others. Both may be liable. Retail stores, supermarkets, stadiums, arenas, motels, hotels, and casino owners may also be defendants in inadequate security lawsuits. They are ultimately responsible for hiring employees, security companies, and equipment to maintain safety at their properties.
Security companies may be independently liable for an injured individual at a business or private event when employees do not do their jobs, which results in patrons or guests getting robbed, assaulted, or wounded by reckless acts of the security employees. Additionally, security guards performing their jobs may be in a scuffle with someone posing security issues. However, security guards who do not follow rules in performing their jobs and use excessive force may be liable for assault. The security company and the business that hired the company may be liable. You may file a report with the business owner and report the incident to the police.
Critical Questions and Evidence to Substantiate Negligent Security Claims
When pursuing a negligent security claim, you need to answer some key questions at the investigative stage of your case. You must establish the property knew or should have known that their property posed a danger to those entering it. For example, was a store owner informed about a dangerous employee or negligent security company by previous injury incidents or complaints? Not taking steps to remove a danger on the property may prove the owner’s negligence. Another question is whether the responsible party provided enough security for the event or business conducted on the premises. In other words, were there enough security guards, attendants, surveillance cameras, or employees for the number of people entering? If not, the likelihood of negligence is greater.
Proving premises liability requires proof that the inadequate security was a direct or reasonably foreseeable cause of your injuries. So, when a landlord neglects to fix broken door locks and a stranger enters your apartment at night, they may be liable for your injuries, defending yourself against an attack. The unlocked door allowed an intruder to enter your place, causing you harm. Proving a defendant is negligent, meaning they breached a duty to maintain safety on their premises, requires evidence, such as police reports, maintenance logs, photos, witnesses, and medical records. Once you prove someone is liable for your injuries, you must prove your damages, such as medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering.
Recoverable Damages in Inadequate Security Lawsuits
When crimes occur due to lack of property security on someone else’s premises, the injuries to the victims can be traumatic both physically and emotionally. As such, you are entitled to pursue damages for medical expenses, rehabilitative treatment, loss of income due to inability to work, pain and suffering, and in the most severe cases, wrongful death. Essentially, if your injuries result from another’s negligent security, you may recover your economic damages, including all expenses incurred to treat your injuries, like medical care, physical therapy, and medication. You may also recoup your earnings losses for the time you were and will be unable to work due to injury. Any pain, suffering, and mental damages warranting psychological care are also deemed recoverable damages.
Time Limits to Sue for Lack of Security when Accidents Occur in New Jersey
All states have statutes of limitations for filing lawsuits, and New Jersey is no different. You must file your lawsuit against the property owner responsible for your injuries within two years of the injury date. Governmental or public entities have shorter time limitations, so check with a premises liability attorney on our team to be sure who may be held liable in your case and how long you have to file a claim for insufficient security.
Contact our Monmouth County NJ Negligent Security Lawyers to Discuss Your Case
To find the answers to your questions and begin your journey toward recovery, contact our New Jersey personal injury attorneys at Chamlin, Uliano & Walsh for a cost-free consultation. Having an extensive background handling negligent security cases, we can lay out the stages of building a case, from investigation to trial. With the help of our experienced New Jersey legal team, you can first find out who is liable for your damages. Several people or companies may be liable to you for their negligence. Additionally, we can help to find evidence sufficient to prove to a jury that those who should have taken reasonable measures to protect you did not. A case may take some time to investigate initially. Once we begin to trace the evidence and see the picture of what happened, we start looking toward persuading a jury or the defendant’s attorneys or insurance company for a positive result, using the evidence we gather from the responsible parties through discovery and through outside sources, such as witnesses and legal research.
Place your negligent security case in the hands of a trusted, proven personal injury attorney at our West Long Branch, NJ, firm, who can work tirelessly to secure maximum compensation for your injuries. We will serve as your legal champions while you go about rebuilding your life. We assist clients and their families with lawsuits based on security failures leading to injuries in Colts Neck, Holmdel, Manasquan, Red Bank, Long Branch, Middletown, Wall, and elsewhere in Monmouth County, Ocean County, and New Jersey. Contact us at 732-440-3950 for a free consultation today.