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Inadequate Security
Claims of inadequate security are derived from
personal injury or property loss and where it is
alleged that the safeguards were not appropriate
or adequate to protect from injury or loss.
These types of claims often have their
beginnings in parking lots of malls, free
standing retailers, or apartment complexes but can
encompass virtually any place at any time.
We have a great deal of experience assisting
plaintiff and defense attorneys who are involved in
litigation alleging this tort. Business
and property owners can mitigate much of the
liability by taking a proactive stance against
possible crime. The very issues a plaintiff
cites as a basis for their law suit would have been
a perfect outline of things to do for the defendant.
"...knew
or should have known..."
These five
words refer to what is called foreseeability.
The right combination of events can place a
defendant squarely in the cross hairs and those
events do not even have to have occurred directly on
their property. Foreseeability can stretch
beyond lot lines or even streets within a several
mile radius. The courts have had a difficult
time clearly defining what level of knowledge a
property owner must have about similar or the same
criminal activity away from their location.
Clearly they have a duty to know what does occur on
the property they own or occupy.
In our own
cases, we use a crime analysis company, CAP Index (www.capindex.com),
to assist us and the court in understanding crime in
a particular area. From CAP we can compare
violent crime within a six mile radius of the actual
crime to that of the total U.S., the State, and the
County. That information is plotted to a map
for the date references we need. The purpose
of this analysis is to see what, if any, potential
high crime threats are in the area. Criminals
have cars and are less likely to commit crimes in
their own area. Parking lots and apartment
complexes provide a wealth of possible targets and
thus these areas need to be regarded as high risk
regardless of the area. We also plot crime in
Houston via
ApartmentCrimeLocator.com for any address
within Houston.
Simply stated, inadequate security centers
around these questions:
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What is the history of same/similar incidents on
the property?
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What is the crime environment like in the
surrounding area?
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What did the business fail to do to
prevent reoccurrence?
- What
security features, such as gates and
lighting, played a role in the incident?
How can we help you?
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We have extensive
experience in the area of premises liability.
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Court designated expert witness.
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We
investigate as well as provide subject
matter expertise.
To review criminal
activity for college and university campuses
nation-wide visit
The Campus Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool
Website
If you would like to email us for more
information, click
and we will contact you within 24 hours. |
