The owner of any property is legally responsible for the safety of any person lawfully on the property as well as any predictable accidents and incidents that occur on the property.

What do we mean by the word “predictable”? Generally, in the realm of premises liability law, the word “predictable” refers to any criminal activity that could have been foreseen, anticipated and prevented on the property.

“How can property owners prevent predictable criminal activity on their property?” you may wonder. Our premises liability attorney at Dan Doyle Law Group explains that visitors on a property can be protected from preventable criminal activity by means of adequate security.

Locations where inadequate security can cause harm to visitors

If negligent or inadequate security caused or contributed to the preventable criminal activity such as assault, rape, robbery, injury, or homicide, you may be entitled to sue the property owner to recover damages for his or her failure to protect your safety.

“Under premises liability law, property owners have a duty to provide adequate security to their visitors,” says our experienced inadequate security attorney in Philadelphia. When a property owner fails to do so, he or she is exposing visitors to a risk of suffering injury in a preventable criminal activity.

Criminal activity can cause harm to visitors due to inadequate security on any of the following types of property in Philadelphia and elsewhere in Pennsylvania:

  • Hotels
  • Schools and colleges
  • Shopping malls
  • Public transportation
  • Nursing homes, hospitals, and other medical institutions
  • Parking lots and parking garages
  • At an ATM machine
  • Bank
  • Apartment complex
  • Bars, nightclubs, and restaurants
  • Department stores
  • Movie theaters
  • Gyms and sport facilities
  • Grocery stores
  • Retail stores
  • Office buildings
  • Gas stations and
  • Any other location where adequate security should be provided to protect visitors from foreseeable crimes and injuries

How to prove that security was ‘inadequate’?

Okay, we get it. Essentially, any predictable criminal activity can be prevented by means of adequate security measures on the property. But how can you prove that security was “inadequate” to seek compensation?

Our Philadelphia inadequate security lawyer from Dan Doyle Law Group explains what any experienced premises liability attorney will look into to prove “inadequate security” on the property:

  • Security measures- Were there any security guards on the property? Were there any cameras on the property and were they working properly? Did the property owner take any additional security measures to prevent criminal activity on the property, e.g. by posting warning signs?
  • History- Were there any similar incidents on that property in the past? What is the history of crimes on this particular property? Were there any complaints about inadequate security on the property in the past? Has the property owner done anything to boost security measures since the complaints were made?
  • Maintenance- Was the criminal activity caused by improper maintenance of cameras, lighting, fences, doors, or windows? Were any of these elements broken, defective, or malfunctioning at the time of the incident? Was the property owner aware of these problems and failed to address them in a timely manner?

Your experienced inadequate security lawyer Philadelphia will review all of the above-mentioned elements to establish whether or not you can sue the owner of the property where you were injured.

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