Adequate Security Issues

A Guttlaw Report ^TM

It's an all too common urban tragedy. You go out for a pleasant day of shopping and a meal at your favorite restaurant, or maybe a drink at your favorite bar, when you are accosted and assaulted by a criminal. While the mugger is clearly the party most responsible for your injuries, there are occasions when you can also sue the restaurant, bar, or mall for failing to provide adequate security.

Under Ohio law, every business has a duty to provide reasonable security to its patrons and to warn or protect them against reasonably foreseeable criminal conduct which might injure the patron. As with most areas of the law, the duty is determined by nature of the risk and whether the hazard is a foreseeable one. For example, a mall operator who knows that there have been many assaults and car thefts in its parking lot will be liable for its failure to provide reasonable security.

A bar or restaurant owner may be held responsible for its failure to provide reasonable security against foreseeable crime in those areas over which it has control, or for which it has assumed responsibility, such as immediately adjacent sidewalks and alleys. But the business may not be responsible for an attack on the public street immediately outside the main entrance, because the business has not assumed responsibility for the public streets.

If you frequent a bar where fights are known to break out, DON'T! The owner may be responsible if you're hurt as an innocent bystander, but if you get involved in the fight, you may well have assumed the risk of your own injury. The owner may use only reasonable and necessary force to break up a fight. And if you get thrown out of the bar for fighting and then get hurt outside the bar, the risks you take may be your own!

Always be aware of your environment and pay attention to cars and people around you. But if misfortune strikes a loved one or you in an apartment, shopping center, or other privately operated area or parking lot, please talk to us ! The property owner may have failed to provide adequate security , adequate lighting, or proper fencing, and may be legally responsible for your injuries. NEVER TRUST THE OWNER'S INSURANCE REPRESENTATIVE TO TELL YOU YOUR RIGHTS! Call us and protect your family properly.

Rubin Guttman & Associates, L.P.A. has been representing injured people involved in serious accidents for 32 years and would be glad to meet with you. For a free consultation and review of your case, please feel free to call us at (216) 696-4006.