Las Vegas has a well-earned reputation for its dynamic nightlife, first-rate entertainment, and throngs of people. Countless hotels, casinos, shopping centers, and apartment complexes make it the locals’ and tourists’ choice. However, property owners have a legal obligation to maintain safe environments. One area of particular concern is negligent security – situations where inadequate safety measures lead to foreseeable crimes or injuries on the premises.
A negligent security lawyer Las Vegas is often required to assist with these matters. Under the broad umbrella of premises liability, negligent security is a property owner’s tort. If someone is harmed on a property in Las Vegas because the security is inadequate and/or ineffective, they can be sued for that harm.
Determining liability requires a detailed look at the property owner’s duties, the foreseeability of the crime, and whether appropriate preventative steps were taken. A negligent security lawyer Las Vegas is crucial in this process.
Duty of Care for Property Owners
Property owners in Nevada are responsible for taking steps to ensure that their premises are safe, particularly from crimes that could be foreseen or anticipated. This is especially true for commercial property owners, like those who run hotels, nightclubs, or apartments. They have a duty to light their spaces adequately, to install surveillance systems, to hire security personnel, and to control access to the premises.
Foreseeability of Criminal Acts
In negligent security cases, an important factor is foreseeability. Property owners are not, of course, liable for every crime that occurs on their premises. But if a type of crime that is similar to one that has occurred on or near the property before, the law may hold the owner to a standard of taking steps to prevent that kind of crime from happening again.
A competent Las Vegas negligent security lawyer can help determine whether your case meets these criteria.
Common Examples of Negligent Security
There are many ways that negligent security can apply to any given case. The most common are:
- Insufficient lighting in parking lots
- Doors or gates that either have no locks or have broken locks
- Security personnel who are not adequately trained or who are simply not present when they should be
- Large venues that completely lack security personnel
- No security cameras when there should be obvious ones
Legal Process and Proving Liability
To make a property owner pay for negligent security, the injured party must show that the property owner was supposed to take care, didn’t take care, and that not taking care directly led to the injured party getting hurt. Claims may include the property owner paying back the following:
- Medical bills for the injured party
- Wages the injured party lost because of the incident
- Money for the emotional distress the incident caused
- Compensation for other damages
A Las Vegas Negligent Security Lawyer Will Help You Get Justice for Your Case
Property owners in Las Vegas must provide proper safety and security, especially in places where they’re more likely to be sued for not securing them (such as known crime hotspots). If they fail to do this, and someone gets hurt because of their failure, then they can and should be held liable for what the law calls “negligent security.”