New Orleans Negligent Security Lawyer

Trusted Negligent Security Attorney in New Orleans, LA

When you hire a security company, you do so with the assumption that its officers should be capable and committed to the job of keeping you safe. If a security company fails in its duty to you as their client, you may be able to file a claim against them to recover any damages that occurred with the help of a New Orleans negligent security lawyer.

Trust Ron Austin Law

Founded in 1995 by our lead attorney, Ron Austin, our firm is known for taking on complex cases, including those involving security negligence. Our team has over 88 years of combined experience, and we have a proven record of getting real results for our clients. Let us use our experience to help advocate for justice.

Why Hire a Negligent Security Lawyer?

There are 129 Better Business Bureau-listed security guard companies in the Crescent City, but they are not all equal. If you’ve found yourself in a position where you entrusted an important job to a firm that did not live up to its duties, you can hire a negligent security lawyer to help you hold the company accountable. 

If the incident arose due to a lack of security guards, cameras, or lighting, we can help you hold the property owner liable. Your negligent security lawyer can take on all of the details of your case while you focus on healing from your injuries and putting your life back together. They can:

• File paperwork and keep track of deadlines.
• Collect evidence to support your claim.
• Negotiate a fair settlement with the security firm’s insurance company.
• Litigate your case in court at the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans.
• Protect your rights and interests throughout the legal proceedings.

Hiring a negligent security lawyer is the most effective way to get you results in your personal injury case.

Who Can File a Negligent Security Claim?

You don’t have to be the person who contracted the services of a security firm to file a claim against it for negligence, although these claims do occur. If you were attacked in a publicly accessible space that should have been adequately secured, you may have an actionable claim on your hands.

It’s not just security companies that can be held liable for negligent security. If the property owner did not provide adequate lighting in a parking lot, this could have led to you being mugged. 

They should have taken steps to further secure the premises, and their failure to do so led to direct harm to you. In this case, may be able to file a claim for premises liability against the property owner.

What’s the Property Owner’s Responsibility?

Property owners must keep their premises reasonably safe, which includes protecting visitors from foreseeable crime. Determining what this should involve requires taking into account the type of property, the area’s history of crime, and the other circumstances surrounding the attack. 

Ignoring repeated break-ins without improving security measures would be unreasonable; for example, failing to station a security guard in a reasonably safe area prior to the first one would be unreasonable.

Foreseeability is a central element in negligent security claims. The property owner or the security company tasked with keeping the building safe must have had reason to assume that a similar crime was likely to happen. 

To determine what a reasonable level of precautions would be, courts often look at whether there have been similar crimes on the property or nearby. Your attorney may be able to access police reports and internal security logs to establish this element of your negligent security case.

Examples of Negligent Security

Some negligent security claims are brought against security companies themselves, often by the property owners who contracted them to protect their land or buildings. These claims often focus on things like:

• Guards falling asleep at their posts.
• Companies failing to provide adequate personnel.
• Alarms that don’t alert the security company as intended when there is a break-in.
• Inadequate or defective security camera installations.
• Guards or technicians who have not received adequate training.

In most cases, these failures can be traced back to the security company itself, not just the guard who was posted to the property.

In addition to issues with security companies, property owners can create negligent conditions by:

• Failing to install adequate lighting in parking lots or stairwells
• Not fixing defective or missing locks on doors, windows, or gates
• Failing to install security cameras or surveillance systems where they are warranted
• Not hiring a security company to provide guards in a crime-ridden area
• Failing to control access to the property via fences or other measures
• Not training staff on how to respond to security threats

These are just a few examples of how security company negligence can lead to attacks that should not have happened.

Who Can File a Claim?

Many different parties can file claims for negligent security, depending on the circumstances surrounding their attacks or other crimes. They can include:

• Property owners. If a property owner contracts a security firm to keep their buildings safe and the company fails to dedicate sufficient resources to doing so, the company could be liable for any damages that occurred as a result.
• Visitors. Visitors who are legally accessing a property and are attacked while they are there may have negligent security claims if the property owner failed to take reasonable precautions to protect the area.
• Residents. If an apartment complex in a neighborhood that has seen a recent rise in violent crime does not maintain proper outdoor lighting despite tenants’ concerns, an assault that occurred on a dimly lit walkway could lead to a claim because the crime was foreseeable. The landlord failed to take sufficient measures to deter it.
• Business owners. Business owners can file negligence claims against security companies, or potentially the landlords who leased them their buildings, if they suffer break-ins or other compensable harm as a result of failures to keep the property safe.

Whether you plan to file a claim against a security company that failed to provide adequate guards and cameras or a property owner who did not take the required initiative to install security measures, to begin with, you should work with a skilled negligent security attorney on your case.

Statute of Limitations for Negligent Security Claims

In Louisiana, the statute of limitations is known as the prescriptive period. The prescriptive period for negligent security claims occurring after July 1, 2024, is two years under Louisiana Civil Code Article 3493.1. 

You shouldn’t wait until the end of this period is approaching to take action, though. Hire an attorney to help you with your case as soon as possible after your attack or other injury occurred to make it easier to collect evidence.

Evidence Required in a Negligent Security Claim

The type of evidence required to prove a negligent security claim can vary, but examples often include:

• Surveillance video and retention logs portraying the incident
• Maintenance and repair records that show broken lights, gates, or locks
• Prior incident reports and police reports
• Lease agreements or vendor contracts for guarding or monitoring
• Witness statements
• Photographs of the scene
• Your medical and counseling records
• Wage loss documentation

Some of this evidence can be difficult to obtain after a long period of time has passed, as is the case with surveillance videos, which can be overwritten. This fact underlines the importance of hiring an attorney as soon as you can following your incident.

Damages Recoverable in a Negligent Security Case

Negligent security damages typically include medical bills accrued in the treatment of injuries that occurred during attacks, but that’s not the extent of the compensation allowed under Louisiana law. In addition to medical expenses, the liable party may also be required to pay for:

• Lost income. If you had to spend time away from work to heal from your injuries or they had a long-term vocational impact, you could be compensated for lost income and potential lost future earnings.
• Pain and suffering. The physical pain caused by your injuries and any limitations they have placed on your life can be compensated in a negligent security case.
• Emotional distress and trauma. If you’ve suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, sleep disruptions, or other forms of emotional distress due to the attack, these can be claimed as damages. You may be asked to provide bills for any counseling you received following the violent crime.
• Property damage and incidental costs. Things like broken phones, torn clothing, stolen vehicles, and other damaged property fall under this category.
• Scarring or disfigurement. If you suffered permanent scarring or disfigurement in a violent incident, it can increase your final settlement amount.

How We Build a Negligent Security Case

We start by getting an idea of what happened during your initial consultation, then move immediately to preserve evidence and build leverage. To do so, we can:

• Preserve evidence. We may need to send preservation letters, request surveillance, or document the scene before it is altered.
• Study prior crimes. It can help to prove foreseeability if we can prove that there was a pattern of similar incidents in the vicinity prior to your attack.
• Examine the security. We may hire professionals to help us examine lighting, locks, camera coverage, and access control to the area.
• Interview witnesses. Our firm can take immediate steps to interview bystanders and other witnesses before their memories of the event fade.
• Work up damages. We can connect you with appropriate doctors and capture the full extent of your medical losses following an attack.
• Negotiate with insurance carriers. We may be able to resolve your claim in negotiations with the liable party’s insurance company.
• Litigate the case. If the insurance company is unprepared to make a fair settlement offer, we can take your case to court.

You can trust us to handle all the details of your claim so that you can focus on what’s important: healing and moving on.

FAQs

Can You File a Claim Against a Security Company for Negligence?

You can file a claim against a security company for negligence if their employees’ careless actions led to harm, injury, or property loss. Common examples of security company negligence include: 

• Failing to run background checks on guards who commit crimes
• Inadequate training about how to respond to emergencies or operate equipment
• Poor supervision
• Slow response time

Can I File a Claim for Emotional Distress in Louisiana?

You can file a claim for emotional distress in Louisiana, but the success of your case may depend on how the distress occurred and whether you suffered a physical injury during its commission. If you were physically hurt, your emotional distress can be treated as general damages. While stand-alone emotional distress claims are possible, courts require proof that the disturbance was serious and arose from the specific circumstances.

Can Security Officers Be Charged With Negligence?

Security officers can be held legally liable for negligence if their carelessness resulted in harm. The companies they work for can also be held liable under vicarious liability laws, which can increase the amount of your settlement award. If the company was negligent as well, it can be held directly liable for your damages.

How Hard Is It to File a Claim Against a Security Officer for Negligence?

It can be hard to file a claim against a security officer for negligence because you must show that all four elements of a negligence claim were present. The officer must have owed you a duty of care, breached that duty, and that breach must have led directly to your injury, which must have caused you actual compensable harm. Working with a New Orleans negligent security attorney can make the process of filing your claim easier.

Your New Orleans Negligent Security Lawyer

If you need to file a claim against a security company in New Orleans or nearby Jefferson Parish, you can trust a New Orleans negligent security lawyer from Ron Austin Law to help. We have been serving as a voice for the injured for over 20 years, and in that time, we’ve developed a thorough understanding of negligent security laws and how to use them to help our clients get results. 

We can help you, too. Contact us to schedule an initial consultation about your case today.